Sims 2 Apartment Life Issue

[Amberyl]

I had to repair windows xp pro yesterday and now my sims2 apartment life is saying "Conflict with Emulation Software".  We did some research and we have no emulation software on the computer and we have the original DVD/CD for Apartment life.  I couldn't uninstall by the program or add/remove programs, so I read another post somewhere to delete the directory and then remove the program, which worked, reinstalled apartment life and it is having the same problem. 

Can anyone help me with this?

I would greatly appreciate it.

[Zooey]

Are you SURE you have no emulation program and/or an image mounted? I don't think the computer is that crazy to give an error message that isn't based on a real thing (unless you have a virus). You could try to insert a CD with another EP and see if it works.

[caffeinated.joy]

Inserting the CD for different EP won't work. The game will only run if you use the CD for the latest EP installed. Tossing in a CD for earlier EPs will just throw up another error.

[Amberyl]

Positive that there is none...it worked 4 or 5 days ago, before we had a boot loop happen and we used the win xp pro cd to repair the loop problem....

[Zooey]

(Yeah, right, joy, I'm dumb these days )
Uninstall all EPs (and SPs) then install them again.

[Amberyl]

Okay thanks...but what might have caused that, any ideas?  (looking forward to reinstalling all sims....NOT)   

[Zooey]

Maybe rebooting? It happened to me once (with half-completed Assassin's Creed DAMMIT) and I had to reinstall it. Well, not the same problem, only that it wouldn't work anymore. Sometimes, things can reset, not especially because of rebooting, but computers are dumb. That's why it's called *artificial* intelligence.

[caffeinated.joy]

When you run the repair utility, you always run the risk of having to reinstall certain programs, because the act of repairing your OS will sometimes break certain program files.

Now, after looking into this, I've read this is one of the problems that can come with Securom (though I've never had any problems with it personally) and it looks like you might be of the lucky few. What could be happening, is, Securom is detecting some form of emulation software. It can be something as simple as a legitimate CD/DVD burning program, such as Nero. Oddly enough, many people who have experienced this problem did not install their game in order of release, which is as follows. Either way, it looks like a reinstall might be in order.

Sims 2
University
Night Life
(Holiday Party Pack)
Open For Business
(Family Fun Stuff)
(Glamor Life Stuff)
Pets
(Happy Holiday Stuff)
Seasons
(Celebrations Stuff)
(H&M Stuff Pack)
Bon Voyage
(Teen Stuff)
Free Time
(Kitchen & Bath Stuff)
(Ikea Stuff)
Apartment Life
(Mansions & Gardens)

The stuff packs are in brackets because I'm not certain the install order matters, but I install them in order anyway, because the game recognizes at least two of them as EPs, meaning you have to use the disk to run the game if these SPs are the last thing you installed (FFS and M&G). When you install, make sure you patch after each install. (Sims 2, then patch, Uni, then patch, NL, then patch and so on).

[Zooey]

When you run the repair utility, you always run the risk of having to reinstall certain programs, because the act of repairing your OS will sometimes break certain program files.

Now, after looking into this, I've read this is one of the problems that can come with Securom (though I've never had any problems with it personally) and it looks like you might be of the lucky few. What could be happening, is, Securom is detecting some form of emulation software. It can be something as simple as a legitimate CD/DVD burning program, such as Nero. Oddly enough, many people who have experienced this problem did not install their game in order of release, which is as follows. Either way, it looks like a reinstall might be in order.

Among my oh-so-many games, I have a lot of them going with Securom, and neither did I have any problems with it.
I didn't install them in the order of release, but in the order I bought them. Thank GOD I don't have this problem, hell, my downloads folder is over 1 GB, and losing all that CC is a big NO!

[Amberyl]

I appreciate the help and I plan to reinstall all of them again.

The strange thing is this computer doesn't have a dvd/cd writer on it so it doesn't have any Nero or anything on it...

Let you know what happens....

[caffeinated.joy]

That's easy to avoid, Zooey. Just make a backup of the Sims 2 file in Documents\EA Games and it when you reinstall your games and are certain it's running properly, you can restore the file and have your game back, as is.

One of the reasons why EA always suggests you back up your game before installing new EPs, etc, is to avoid losing everything if the new EP breaks your game, or you don't like it and have to uninstall it. At the very least, to avoid losing your Downloads, you should have a back up of it somewhere. Or, before uninstalling and reinstalling, move the Downloads folder to your desktop.

[Paden]

Welcome to the wonderful world of SecuROM screw-ups. I suggest you head over to PRISM or Reclaim Your Game, where they know much more about this kind of problem and pretty much how to fix it. I installed all of my games in order back in the day when Bon Voyage was first released and had the issues you're talking about with the emulation software bs. For me, it required a reformat and NEVER going above Seasons in my game play. I'm hoping this won't happen to you, but if you have any way of copying data to another source (such as a memory stick), it's going to mess with you. I hate that stupid DRM... HATE IT.

[MaryH]

Yeah, it's a PITA to deal with any EP's above Seasons-but I've done it successfully without that monster doing a number on the computer.
I second the suggestion that Paden gave-we have very detailed but easy-to-follow instructions on how to remove the program and how to avoid having it crash your computer the next time you install the EP's.