Crashes, tried most things!

[amym]

Running sims 2 with all expansions up to/including seasons but no stuff packs. So i get maybe an hour at the very most of gameplay and then the game will freeze, a tiny flash of blue screen then my computer will beep as if i restarted it. The game screen however is still showing, and if there is a sound playing as the game crashes the sound will continually skip and loop.
Today the game froze, made a sound as though iclicked an object, froze again and repeated, each time making my computer beep.
I've tried deleting cache files, corrupt files, removing any downloads i don't need, playing different neighbourhoods etc, and its not my computer overheating.
Anybody have any similar experiences or know any other ideas to try??
Thanks
xxx

[rwills]

Sounds mot like your video card or graphics chipset is being overstressed, or that the EPs you do have are beyond the capabilities of the graphics hardware.

Try installing the latest drivers for whatever hardware you may have on your computer as a video card or chipset.

You might also go into Graphics Option in the game itself and set some of those options to a lower setting (if they happen to be on High or Medium setting).

Also might be a case of bumping up against memory/resources being limited by having other things running silently in the background.

Try doing a fresh start-up of your computer, then turning off any unnecessary-while-Simming programs running on your machine (this includes your internet connection and then any anti-virus program you may have running) before launching the game.

Once you are done playing and have Quit, you can turn those back on.

Also Save the game frequently while playing.

The more stuff (and also the more Sims) there is on a lot, the harder your computer and your graphics hardware must work. If you have a particularly large or complex or extensively landscaped lot, try removing some stuff from that lot.

Last, if your computer settings for hibernate or for sleep are enabled or set to some specific time before activation, either disable those features or set them to Never.

[amym]

Thanks for this i'll try them all out. Does updating the drivers have any adverse effects on the graphics card?

[rwills]

Thanks for this i'll try them all out. Does updating the drivers have any adverse effects on the graphics card?

No, so long as you go to the manufacturer of your graphics hardware and use their latest driver.

Worst case scenario (remote chance, though) is that you find the display is not up to your standards. In that rare instance, just roll the driver back to your previously installed version.

It is usually preferable when updating video drivers to totally uninstall the old one and then to install the new one rather than just updating over an existing installation.

[amym]

I'm yet to try it but really hopeful, thanks so much for the help.