Crash while saving after playing a while
jdanddpt:
I've searched many forums and tried many different things but nothing has worked. I'm out of ideas on this one, and I surrender to greater minds. Please help.
For months now, (since shortly before BV) my game has been crashing sometimes while saving. It got slightly worse after BV, and now is pretty bad with FT. Here are the symptoms:
1) Does not crash during gameplay. Only crashes while saving.
2) Crash occurs on all lots in my Neighborhood. Lots range from big and complex to small and simple. All crash eventually.
3) Neighborhood was fine before. Been playing it since release, using only hacks from this website and keeping all hacks up to date.
4) Neighborhood is huge: 1437 Sims (including the game-generated NPCs), 432 lots, all expansions installed (none of the Stuff Packs) with their various expansion-hoods.
5) The crash usually only happens after I've been playing for a while (20 mins - 2 hours), with the probability of crashing increasing with the amount of time played. For example, if I play for 10 mins and save, it will almost never crash. Play for 10 mins after that and save, it probably won't crash. Play for 15 more mins and save, it may crash. Play for 15 more mins and save, it will likely crash, etc.
6) If I "keep it simple" (i.e., do not invite any Sims over and do not visit any community lots) then I can usually play longer. Once I Throw a Party, go out on a Date, take a Vacation, etc... all bets are off. This seems to raise the probably of a crash to over 50%. It only crashes while saving, though. (after the party, date, etc.) Changing seasons also seems to hurt, but I can't tell for sure.
7) Oddly enough, it does not seem to crash during the auto-save that occurs when you visit a community lot. It never crashes at the "Visiting Downtown" loading screen, for example. Try to save after the Sims get home -- that's when it crashes.
8 ) The Saving Game box pops up and the Sims2 hourglass spins, like normal. If it's going to crash, it crashes about a minute into saving. Sometimes, Windows makes the default illegal operation "gong" sound to let me know the game crashed -- sometimes, it's just silent, and I don't realize it crashed.
9) Either way, Sims2 stays on the screen and sits there, with the Saving Game box still up and the hourglass still spinning (forever). Sometimes (~20% of the time) the Windows dialog box pops up: "Sims 2 Freetime -- This application has crashed and will now terminate. -- OK" (or maybe it's "This application has terminated and will now close"... something like that) The rest of the time, I have to hit alt-tab or ctrl-alt-delete to get to the desktop. Once at the desktop, that same dialog box will be visible. Either way, I click OK, and the game closes. It's frustrating because sometimes it makes no sound and the dialog box doesn't pop up, so I sit there waiting for it to save, not realizing that it crashed 5 minutes ago. Very frustrating.
10) The crash appears to cause no permanent damage to the lot or neighborhood, but all progress since the last save is lost.
In my opinion, the problem seems to be related to the cumulative amount of graphics or info the game loaded before the save. So if 15 different Sims visit a lot, the game seems to get overloaded. It does not crash while playing, but it crashes while saving. Even if I wait for the visitors to leave before saving, it still crashes. As if... once the visitors are loaded, the damage is done. This, to me, suggests very poor programming that contains a memory leak or somehow fails to clean up memory once it's used... combined with very poor programming that causes a crash while saving, if there's insufficient memory. Of course, I could be way off.
This computer has 2Gig of RAM and an nVidia GeForce 6600GT. 150GB of free disk space. Out of caution, I always shut down and restart the computer after each crash, before restarting the game.
In all my searching for a solution, I couldn't find anyone else with a problem quite like this one. I'm actually curious to know if anyone else even has this problem. If you have a solution, of course that'd be awesome... but this game is so buggy that I don't have high hopes. Realistically, I'd just like to know how to reduce the probability of a crash to something bearable... like less than 10%. I don't mind saving every 10 minutes, but I do mind restarting the whole computer every 30 mins and losing 10 mins of progress each time.
Thanks for any help!
Nec:
Could be a too many memories thing. You might try using the lot debugger (batman box) from here, and when you load your first lot, put it on there if you don't already have one on it. Then select memory...clear gossip from all. That might take a minute if there are a ton of gossip memories, and the game will freeze for a second. Then, on each playable lot memory...nuke attraction markers, then on each sim select memory...clear trash. I have about 900 sims in my hood and I have to clear gossip every few days that I play, and I clear the other memory trash as well about every other lot load. Check also under Fix and Nuke. Chances are if there is an option for something, it needs to be fixed.
ZephyrZodiac:
You might also try shutting down any services that you don't need and never use - just be careful which ones. Also, you could try clearing all the trash from your PC as well as from the game. I use Desktop Maestro which, when I've been on the net or moving files around etc., will find and remove as many as 300 useless shortcuts and other stuff, after which there is a noticeable improvement in my PC's performance. However, as Nec has already said, the overloaded memories in every sim in your hood can definitely be a problem. I also check out all the NPCs and townies in SimPE, since not all their trash can be removed with the debugger unless you make them selectable, and remove all their Mystery Sim memories as well as all the met so and so memories that accumulate in their files. The debugger will remove their gossip memories when you select the Clear Gossip from All option. Since probably well over 50% of sims in a game can be NPCs and townies, they hoard an awful lot of useless trash once they have been initialised. You would need to check periodically for memories of met sims creeping back, and also for newly initialised sims getting the mystery sim memories. While you are cleaning them up, it's worth removing all their furious tokens and attraction markers - the furious tokens of an NPC such as the maid can really slow down your lot.
jdanddpt:
Quote from: Nec on 2008 March 31, 05:34:07
Could be a too many memories thing. You might try using the lot debugger (batman box) from here, and when you load your first lot, put it on there if you don't already have one on it. Then select memory...clear gossip from all. That might take a minute if there are a ton of gossip memories, and the game will freeze for a second. Then, on each playable lot memory...nuke attraction markers, then on each sim select memory...clear trash. I have about 900 sims in my hood and I have to clear gossip every few days that I play, and I clear the other memory trash as well about every other lot load. Check also under Fix and Nuke. Chances are if there is an option for something, it needs to be fixed.
This sounds very promising, and I'll definitely give it a try. Gossip has been one of my favorite interactions, literally since the game came out. I love it for the quick '++' (and it's funny sometimes, to see what they'll Gossip about). I didn't realize it gunked the game up. My entire Sim neighborhood has been Gossiping for years... there's probably an ungodly number of these gossip memories. This could make a huge difference! Thanks!
One question: What does nuke attraction markers do?
jdanddpt:
Clear Gossip from All killed 15,725 memories. We'll see if that helps.
What does Clear Trash do?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page