Grief, woe, despair and hideous black screens
Aldebaran:
And The Sims 2 is supposed to be a "nVidia game" :D
Though I'd just like to say that problems like these are 90% not the fault simply of the videocard, but a combination of things. Like the general state of the OS, video card drivers (the newest is not always the best), god forbid, virii in the system, overheating (those high-end videocards need a damn powerhouse to work correctly), the overall compatibility in computer parts, I could go on. I had overall performance problems before because dustbunnies were piling up in the CPU fan and I was too lazy to vacuum it :P It could have been anything, from CPU to faulty memory or just fragmented system disc.
But this aside, I'd advice finding someone who knows about computers and is willing to look over and diagnose things in the computer. Adding a new shiny hardware can and will problems, and it can freak those people out who don't even know where to begin the troubleshooting. It's always the best to test with other games first (overheating problems are most likely to come after half to one hour of playtime) or just watching a movie on it and seeing how it responds. It's also good to have a diagnostic software handy (Everest has a free version for home PCs). Also, check the power supply, for that kind of card at least 400W should be the minimum and it must be connected separately to the card.
It's hard to say much from the distance, but the solution most of the time is not the change of the hardware. PC configurations these days are so layered and complex that manufacturers simply can't do anything with reports that say "so and so don't work", because the issue is most probably not with the card itself. Also, making the advice to "get another card" won't help that person if s/he runs into the problem again, either with Sims 2 or another game. What, then s/he should get another one until the problem goes away? Personally, to me, the problem seems overheating / not sufficient power supply. And to go against the nVidia-hating a bit, I went through six years without touching my videocard, and it always gave me perfect performance. The only reason I had to change is because it was a "bit" behind on pixelshaders. Both cards are nVidia (GF4Ti4200 and GF6800), both run games flawlessly and glitch-free, including post-OFB Sims 2. Either I got the only non-faulty videocard from nVidia or the problem is not just that easy it might seem first.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: astraled on 2006 November 26, 22:39:28
I'm up to 4 1/2 gigs of CC, thanks to PMBD :-*. Guess I better buy more RAM, it's easier than deleting all the stuff I hate.
WinXP doesn't handle more than 4 GBs of RAM. You'd need 9 GBs of RAM to run that crap. You need to start cutting.
Quote from: Vejitto on 2006 November 28, 01:06:43
And The Sims 2 is supposed to be a "nVidia game" :D
Where'd you hear that from? TS2 is clearly an ATI game.
Quote from: Vejitto on 2006 November 28, 01:06:43
And to go against the nVidia-hating a bit, I went through six years without touching my videocard, and it always gave me perfect performance. The only reason I had to change is because it was a "bit" behind on pixelshaders. Both cards are nVidia (GF4Ti4200 and GF6800), both run games flawlessly and glitch-free, including post-OFB Sims 2. Either I got the only non-faulty videocard from nVidia or the problem is not just that easy it might seem first.
6 years ago was back during the dominion of NVidia, when Nvidia had the good drivers and cards, and ATI was unreliable and dodgy. Now the tables have turned, apparently.
MrsH:
Gosh - well this is very interesting. It's not actually resolved the problem, but I've got a few more ideas to play with at least - for which many thanks.
It's definitely Sims2 only that's causing my black screen crisis. At least based on the programmes I use. I can play DVDs, point and clicks, and run everything else for as long as needed without any trouble at all. Highly computer literate husband reckons it's a memory leak problem, which may be so. I'm most reluctant to cough up any more money for another graphics card, so at the moment I'm just nagging EA to sort it out for me. To be fair they are trying, but so far without success. I'm hoping that if I keep bleating at them long enough (along with I'm sure thousands of others), they may feel they have to take steps. It's not a great hope, but it's a hope.
ZiggyDoodle:
Quote
Though I'd just like to say that problems like these are 90% not the fault simply of the videocard, but a combination of things.
Yeah, one of them possibly being that people don't read the fine print before purchasing/installing a new video card. For example, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro card specs state: Minimum Power Supply Required: 450 W Most systems don't come with such a PSU.
Some systems may require adding another card fan to cool a high wattage fan, but you can't know until you read the computer documentation.
MrsH, if you think you have a memory leak, download and install Cacheman; it has an automatic memory recovery function. http://www.outertech.com/ There's a free version available.
MrsH:
Ah, thank you!
I'll try it.
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