Insimenator.org

i have a great system more than enough ram and maybe i need some more video memory i get that pop up alot but the game just wont load the disk is in the drive and the square "the sims 2 pets" sign comes up and it sits on my desktop for about 10 minutes then i get a popup saying microsoft has encountered a problem and the sims 2 ep4 must close. i dont know what to do i dont know whats wrong someone please help me please!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, It can be lots of things, Did you download Hacks or Mods ?
And like you said: "Maybe I need some more video memory" ?

I just had this exact problem last night. I had downloaded a bunch of stuff since I last ran the game, so I was pretty sure it was something in my Downloads folder causing the problem. I don't have Pets, and I suspect one of those downloads was made with Pets installed. So I removed all of the recent downloads, and guess what? The game runs perfectly.

Now I have to figure out which one of those recent downloads is causing the problem, but because I removed them gradually, I have it narrowed down to a small group. It's really kind of painstaking sometimes to find the exact item, because it could be something as simple as a custom hair or it could be a household object like a table. It doesn't necessarily have to be a mod causing the trouble.

Good luck!

DISCLAIMER: I am no expert, I just recently had similar problems and did some research online.

First off, remove your downloads if you have any. You can pull the whole folder out to the desktop so you don't have to delete your downloads.
Go to "My Documents" -> EA Games -> The Sims 2 you should see a downloads folder. Move it to the desktop. Try to start the game, if it loads it's a bad download. If you want your downloads you'll have to carefully add them back one at a time to find the problem one - then delete that one.
There are some hack conflict detection utilities available online, however I think they miss some conflicting hacks and you have to do some manual detecting.


If that doesn't work, go to The Sims 2 folder as above and delete the file "Groups.cache". The game will recreate this file and if there's a corruption in that file it may be what's keeping things from loading correctly. Deleting a game file sounds scary but I did it and my game works fine now. I found this recommendation online but I was searching so many places I can't remember where I found it, possibly here or MTS2.


Mine was loading through most of the intro and then closing back to the desktop. This was after a had reinstalled after a bad download corrupted the game. Apparently, it was still corrupted and deleting the Groups.cache fixed the problem. I was all set to start pricing new video cards, too.

Good luck!


ETA: Here's a link to another thread here that talks about deleting the groups.cache file. That must have been where I saw the info.
http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=38128

well its not my downloads (and i deleted the games.cache) becuase i took the folder out like you said and it still did the same thing..

There could be any number of things going wrong here.  To help narrow it down, you need to give us more info.
System specs
What EP's do you have?
Is this the first time running Pets or have you run it before with no problems?
Have you downloaded any custom content lately?
And have you run the hack conflict detection utility?  Here's the link:  
http://www.simwardrobe.com
And finally, what exactly does the popup about the video memory say?  I think the video memory issue is the most likely suspect.  Your vidcard might have compatability issues with the game, might not be big enough, might just be you need to update your drivers and make sure you have the latest version of DirectX.

how do i get the latest versions and thatnks for all your help...