Extremely slow game play!

[xLaurenda]

It all stared when I wanted to play Seasons. So I started up the game, and it ran normally, until I wanted to combine households. I added the sim into the house but when I went into the house to play, she wasn't there. Then it took about 15-20 minutes to load the house. I started to get frustrated and exited that house into the neighborhood. It literally took, 2 full episodes of Spongebob and one full episode of The Fairly Odd Parents. Which equals an hour and a half. Then to fully exit the game that took a total of 20 minutes.

How can I fix this problem?

[Tenshii~Akari]

A few questions:

How much physical RAM does your computer have?  (also, how much shared video RAM does your video card have?)  A suggested amount for running Sims 2 and expansion packs is 1GB minimum, 2GB to be on the safe side... and a graphics card with at least 256MB of RAM for decent performance.  You can get by on some settings, but chances are gameplay may be a little sluggish or choppy in some cases.

Do you have any background tasks running while playing the game?  If so, they're hindering game performance.  You want to make sure to disable those background tasks and other programs (i.e. anti-virus software, updaters, etc.) while playing the game, especially if your computer isn't one that has a lot of memory.  You might want to check out the tutorial on Sim Wardrobe for the method of doing this and more info on how to optimize your computer for better gaming performance... the inexpensive way.  

How much custom content do you have in your Downloads/Saved Sims folders?  The more custom content you have in your game, the longer it will take to load when starting up, especially upon entering your first lot after the game loads.  Sometimes, to cut down on the lot load time, you can either go into CAS and wait for that to load (which takes just as long, really), then go into your lots, or cut down on any unneeded or unwanted downloads.  :angel:

[xLaurenda]

My computer (well laptop but it's really all the same thing), but uh the RAM on my computer is 504MB. I don't really know about the graphics card.

I do have one program running when I play the sims but it's like one of those picture taking things for the game, but that hasn't caused any issues before the installation of Seasons.

Oh geez, I've got LOTS of custom content in my downloads folder but I organized it and deleted at least 200-350 things. I have custom content disabled in my game now.

(Thank you Tenshii! )

[Tenshii~Akari]

You can find out some info on the graphics card by bringing up your DirectX Diagnostics Tool* window, under the "Display" tab in the upper left-hand corner.  

* Start => Run, type dxdiag in the "Open" box, then click OK.

And you're welcome.  :smile bi:  Seeing the amount of RAM you're currently running on, it's probably going to be a little on the choppy side performance wise, especially with any sort of background task running at the same time with the game.  (sometimes even with programs like Fraps or Gadwin, too.  You've checked the link to the tutorial, right?)  But if your laptop can handle it (and of course, funds allow for add-ons), adding another stick of memory might help.  The best way to know if your laptop can handle upgrades is to look up any sort of info on the make/model of it on the web... you'll probably find a good amount on the company's site, but also around some computer tech. related forums.  :angel:

[jamesabrown1]

I posted this on another part of this site (freetime problems) in response to a similar problem.
 

It should. When I went up to 512 MB on a video card and 2 GB ram with a 2.4 GB dual processor, it runs almost normal. That's the laptop. The PC also has 2 GB ram with a 1.6 GB processor and 256 MB on the video card, and with large houses and families of 12 or so, actually once the occupancy goes over 6, it gets pretty jerky, really bad with the large families. So, computer power is a must because you are exactly correct, The Sims 2 is a definite pig on resources. Shall we dub it Mega-Pig?