What am I doing wrong? I really borked it and I'm desperate! :^(
Avi:
I'm generally a lurker here . . . made a few posts but they've all been ignored. X^D Hopefully this one does not though because I am at a loss now . . .
Anyways, my game has been borked since the end of January. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 PC with a pretty new nVidia 7600 GS card which I got over the summer. I forgot all about the nVidia problems with the BSODs and whatnot and bought that after my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro died on me in July (right before we moved, which wasn't very nice of it). My PC is rather old, but it still runs well:
OS: XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600), running SP3
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A07<-This is as updated as I can get it
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz (DirectX Diagnostic says I have 2 CPUs, but I don't believe that's the case but maybe it is considering I bought this PC in 2003 . . . Device Manager says it's a ACPI Multiprocessor PC)
Memory: 4 gigs (only 3.25 gigs recognized by OS)
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Video: Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS with 256 MB RAM, AGP Driver: 6.14.0011.8122 from 1/15/2009
Sound: SB Audigy
I've had the nVidia BSOD issue since I installed FT back in September. Before that I got it once in a while, but not so often it was unbearable. I've updated the drivers on many occasions to no avail.
I installed AL and M&G in January and the BSOD really started to happen all the time. I tried some drivers a friend suggested NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.16218 and that seemed to be when my system really got borked. So I got rid of those drivers, and installed the original drivers that came with the card which didn't work any better, so I tried many different nVidia drivers but it hasn't been right since.
I thought maybe some bad CC was to blame so started moving out all 13 gigs worth of CC (over 60k of stuff . . . *sighs*). But it worked before I tried those weird drivers despite the fact it would still crash randomly due to the BSOD even with shaders off. I took out all my mods and hacks out of my CC to minimize any conflicts moving it back in so it's basically just CAS, Build & Buy stuff. Thing is I know none of the CC is responsible because it worked fine (exept for the nVidia BSOD) until I messed with the driver that initial time. But moving it back in chunks seems to be causing some weird disruption. :^\
These are all the things I've tried to fix it to no avail so far: I've tested the memory. I've tested the hard drive. I've increased the paging file. I've deleted my Sims folder for a fresh start of the game. I got rid of Securom and am playing with a No-CD hack currently. I even uninstalled SetPoint which is a Logitech program for the mouse and keyboard thinking that was in conflict with the game as the BSOD usually occurs when moving the view around a lot. I increased the refresh rate. I've made sure I play with Norton disabled and no screen savers on.
But as soon as I start putting my downloads back it starts being wonky. It'll crash when I click on the screen with the mouse and there's no rhyme or reason to it. I gave up on trying to reinstate my backup hoods because I'm sure they are borked anyways. Sometimes it'll crash loading the neighborhood which is a clean hood from here or when loading a lot. Sometimes it does it just crashes moving the view around or clicking on the screen. Usually now it's not the nVidia BSOD crash, but the message about the driver being borked comes up. Granted, I realize that there may be some bad content in there that now that it's been moved around a bit doesn't work anymore.
I'm about to do a complete reinstall of all the games because there are some scripting changes that have been made to it which I didn't change back to do with invisible walls and custom stairs and apparently I didn't install some stuff packs in the correct order (I installed IKEA and K&B before FT). I think I'm also about to throw the card out and go back to ATI considering the game plays better on my laptop with the ATI card then it does on my PC with the nVidia.
Maybe those third party drivers messed it up? I don't know. I'm running out of ideas. I suppose it could be a motherboard or power supply issue, neither of which I know how to test; also could be an overheating issue: used to have that in the summer with the Radeon card.
I also play at 1024 x 780 windowed when my normal screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 32-bit color though that's never been a problem in the past; I just tried playing on the same resolution windowed and it didn't seem to make a difference and I got the nVidia BSOD.
I have no clue which one is the best for this card and this game . . . I've tried Googling it, but this is an old card so the drivers suggested are long gone and aren't even in the archive now. I've used Driver Cleaner Pro to get rid of the ATI drivers even though I uninstalled it there seemed to be residual stuff that didn't get deleted. I always run it now when changing drivers, too. I know that can mess up your system supposedly. I don't know if that's what happened?
Did I mess it up with Driver Cleaner Pro? I didn't always run it in Safe Mode, so not sure if it would have messed something up because of that. It may also be because I didn't install the later Stuff Packs and EPs in order . . .
Any ideas what it could be other than what I suggested?
Any way I can test if the PC is overheating or the motherboard isn't functioning right? I can't test the power supply because I don't have one of those meters . . . Though I have a friend who knows how to do it so he's going to at some point (not the same who suggested the drivers).
And if anyone can point me to best drivers for the card, please let me know. The newest nVidia one doesn't seem to work well for me but neither do any of the other ones I've tried.
EDIT: I tried to make it more legible! Hope that helps a bit. . . :^\
The problem is the crashing.
What I want to know is what could be causing these driver crashes? With all that I've tried so far, what am I missing?
I also need to know the most stable driver for this game I can use for the nVidia GeForce 7600 GS card. I may just end up buying another ATI Radeon card if this problem persists, however.
MaryH:
I know being polite is not "done" here-but could you please go back over your post and edit it so we can read it?
It is one damned long un-punctuated mess of words. Nobody is going to answer this unless you make it readable and coherent, let alone even answer your question-which was what?
Hint: KISS works.
phyllis_p:
When you try loading the clean neighborhood, is this with and empty/nonexistent Downloads folder, or with all your CC in? If it's with no Downloads folder, then I can't help you. But if your Downloads folder with all the CC is in place, and if the game doesn't give you trouble until you try putting in chunks of CC, then my thought is that one or more of your downloaded files has become corrupt. It happens. Personally, I'd do a careful binary search to weed out the offending items, and then try downloading them again from wherever or doing without them.
ETA: MaryH is correct. Your post is hard to read, and I passed over it the first time because of that. You'd be surprised how much dividing into logical paragraphs can help.
Jorenne:
OK, I'm going to admit to only skimming your post because it was hard to read, but maybe this'll help, maybe not.
I have an Nvidia GeForce 8500 1gb card and had BSOD issues with Vista and Norton, even with norton disabled. I had to uninstall it completely to make them go away. (New machine less than 4 months old now)
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: Avi on 2009 April 14, 16:46:10
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz (DirectX Diagnostic says I have 2 CPUs, but I don't believe that's the case but maybe it is considering I bought this PC in 2003 . . . Device Manager says it's a ACPI Multiprocessor PC)
Newer Pentiums have hyperthreading and multicores, which make the system think it has two CPUs. This is normal.
However, I can't really find what your problem is, mostly because your post is an incomprehensible mass of gibberish. Define what exactly the PROBLEM is.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page