No AV and Firewall, so that can't be the problem. The old computers I used to play on had Zone Alarm and when disabling it the game worked faster.

I always save at the same time as when I exit, not before and then exit... Does saving when exiting make your game crash as well?

Well.. as I can't go to the desktop its def not the mouse, everything is simply non responding.

I've checked the stuff in the registry just as you told and took away all Sims related I could find. Everything has the name Sims included in the file name right? I'll make a check for SecuROM leftovers.

Thanks Zephyr. I removed two things I found for BV and couldn't find anything else Sims-related. Didn't solve my problem though.

I'm currently only having the base game installed on D with the My Documenst folder moved to D. No other changes done to the game. Takes about 30 mins or so for the game to freeze, and no one seems to know the problem...

Apologies for kind of spamming this thread...

I found that I had old stuff from the sims left on the C hardrive (my game was on D). The C harddrive is from the old computer... just thought that was strange as it allowed me to install the game anyway, even if it already existed on the computer? Anyway, I got rid of that... I knew it was from the old one because Celebration was included but not Seasons and BV. That didn't make any change to the game.

Went on a search for the groups.cache file and found it on C when it was supposed to be on D. Realized that was the leftovers from the old installation and got rid of the entire folder. Just before that, I had opened the game and changed the settings. I started the game and noticed that everything had been re-set and my test house was gone. I suspect that the game was using the files on C, it was really weird. Still didn't solve any problems.

Decided to get rid of EVERY sim thingy on the computer, was unable to uninstall BV and the original game and simply deleted them because I fear I'm too stupid to uninstall manually with the registry key and all (bet just doing like that wasn't that clever either). Installed the original game only and now it required to install some additional MB on C even if my brother had moved the My documents folder to D. Its still there but Mina Dokument (My Documents in swedish) is on C and it that's where those additional MB are located.

Started with the original only and game froze after a few sim days as usal. Should have tested it completely the first time, at least now its confirmed that it can't run any sim 2 game.

The main folders are and have been in the previous installs on harddrive D with 90 GB of free space. The additional stuff are on C with 8.9 GB free space.

Any possiblities that it can be related to the little space on C? However, that should be enough for the main game only, right?

Got the correct patch (third one from gameburnworld) and assigned one proccessor to the game, closed the process ctfmon.exe and used boolprop usershaders off (still saw fish in the pond though, thought that would disable it?). My game survived for quite many sim days and froze on a community lot compared to usually froze just after a few game hours. Damn it, thought it was working normally.

I'm sorry but which drivers do you mean? (showed your reply to my brother and he didn't get it)
DirectX and the graphics are updated. 2nd edit: sound and video is also updated.

I tried assigning one proccessor to the game, closing the process ctfmon.exe, boolprop usershaders off and also autopatch off but not sure if I got it into function (read now somewhere where it says its autoPatch off - as much as I remember its case sensitive. Would autopatch make a difference?). I tried the Monty Family in Veronaville and the game worked fine so I thought that had fixed it. Went to make a sim but when building his house the game froze.. might have just been lucky fo a while I guess.

Edit: That SecuROM is really gonehas been confirmed. Came out that the wrong no CD crack had been installed. I have the patch for BV so I'm going to install the patch version to see if that does any difference. Don't think it will but meh, desperate.

Alright.. so, I posted on the BBS and someone told me to ask for help here instead but I placed the thread in the wrong area, here it is anyway:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11518.0.html

Been told to remove SecuROM which has been done but I'm still having the EXACT problems. This with all expanions up to Bon Voyage and the stuff packs family fun, glamour life, H&M and my original game is the Holiday Edition.

Computer:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon (tm) 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 6000+
2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
PAE (Physical Adress Estention)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Memory: 512 MB


Very disapointed at the moment. Those games are worth more than 2000 SEK, which is about 333.45 U.S. dollars....


My brother thinks he's got rid of it all the SecuROM stuff and I'll try and make him check it one more time but I kind of trust him in such things... What else might the reason be?

Note: Tried it a second time by setting the processor affinity manually which appearntly didn't work as the game froze anyway but I noticed that the game was lagging quite a bit. (in choose neighbourhood in the beginning and during loading

Really? Didn't know that as I just got Seasons and BV now and waiting for FT. Installed the stuff packs first as I hate to be running the game through one of those stuff pack CD's... looks prettier when you have a exp CD case lying around but that will be no problem now, I hope
Haven't noticed anything in the manuals about that.. will check.

Can't give an update on if SecuROM is the cause of my problems yet as my brother still hasn't got rid of it. He's lazy and I'd probably mess something up real bad it I'd try myself.

Nope, I've been running it from the stuff packs. Put in the CD for the last expansion I installed and it required a stuff pack CD.

I understood it but thanks for being so clear. I'll see if I can disable autorun to prevent it accidentally being run (you never know with younger siblings and better safe than sorry).

What I thought of now that you say last install and cd-crack... Kitchen and Bathroom interior stuff will come out soon, what if I installed Free Time first and then installed the new stuff pack, I'd be running the game from the stuff pack. Is there a no CD crack for stuff packs too? (sorry for the newbie questions but as I've never had problems with any game before I know nothing of such things). I'll most likely wait till that stuff pack comes out and then install FT but there seems to be coming out some more stuff packs later?

That simple then.. great! My brother is getting rid of it now for me. Thanks for the help!

CD crack link included in "Remove SecuROM...NOW" thread. Awesome..... ^^;;

There's more expansions having SecuRom on them.. I'm sure its listed somewhere.. but er.. yeah.. help appreciated? =]

I have FreeTime coming soon, unless it was lost in the mail... and I want to have the Teen stuff pack and Celebration as well. What steps would I need to do in that case to prevent SecuROM from appearing again? (if that is the cause to my freezing problem, which it better be)

oh.. damn.. Was right above my thread, sorry. Not a forum person =S

Thanks a lot for your help, I hope it will work. Just tried again with setting the processor affinity manually, closing down the process ctfmon.exe and using autopatch off to no use at all.

Alright. How can I remove SecuROM, any good links?

Would also appreciate a good link to some CD crack site...

Right... well, I suppose I can't movbe threads on my own and it wouldn't be seen as good to make a double post...

Could you please link me to site where I can get a hold of a CD crack? Can't seem to be able to find anything at the moment. Would a CD crack solve the freezing problem?

Sorry about the wrong forums. Its kind of hard to find as there's no real forum descriptions...

Nopes, no CD - crack. Will look into that. Thanks.

 Hello everyone...

A few weeks ago my family bought a new computer:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon (tm) 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 6000+
2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
PAE (Physical Adress Estention)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Memory: 512 MB

I installed The Sims 2 with all the expansions up to Bon Voayge and the stuff packs Family Fun, H&M Fashion and Glamour Life. My original Sims 2 is the Holiday Edition. I don't have ANY Custom Content.

I ran the game and was very exited to see how Seasons and Bon Voayge would be like. I've had computer problems for some time and have not been able to play The Sims for months and it has basically been a nightmare and I was really looking forward to when I was able to play it again. With the new computer the graphivs were improved a lot compared to what I used to have before. I choose a neighborhood and added all those places the sims can visit and then proceeded to make a family. Spent some time there, perhaps an hour or so (had to look at all the new stuff) and moved the family (or rather, the sim) into a pre-made house. I changed floors and bought furniture (checking what new stuff had come, perhaps an hour here too) and was ready to play. I was able to play until the nehbours came to visit. The game suddenly froze with a DRDRDRDRDR sound which lasted for a few seconds and disappeared, leaving me with the frozen game and no sound. I was not able to get out from it and had to shut the computer off by holding in the button...

So, a very upset me tries the game two more times. The freezing now also occurs in buy/build mode and not only in play mode. I looked around a little on these forums and saw that many people had problems with Bon Voayge so I tried to launch the game without the internet thingy that connects to this site and deleted the task etfmon.exe. That didn't work, game still froze. Also tried boolprop usershaders off and nothing there too, game was still freezing. Realizing that it all could be Bon Voyage's fault (and hearing that many people have out it on the shelf due to the problems occurring), I un-installed everything and re-installed the original only. I ran the game and created a sim and moved him into a house and was able to play for some sim days - no problems. I thought it was okay and then proceeded with installing everything up to Seasons. I ran the game again but the game froze just as when Bon Voyage was installed. I'm not 100% certain that the game was running well with just the original as that would've taken a few hours to be sure of but as the freezing occurs in the beginning of the game (before the neighbours come) I took the chance and thought it was okay and that something was wrong with Bon Voayage.

Sooo... Now I have no clue what to do. I really want to play The Sims. I know my old computers could run all I installed on the new computer except for Seasons and Bon Voyage as I didn't have them at that time. The new computer being new.. there's not that many games on it but Disney's Cars and Age of Mythology + the exp The Titans (you are allowed to mention other games here, right?) had a similar problem but after we got patches to Age of Mythology and The Titans the game is no longer freezing (it froze and there was no sound - not even the DRDR-sound). First time Cars was tried out on the new computer it crashed and a blue screen came up. Second time it froze exactly the same way The Sims 2 did - DRDRDR and no sound and the only option was to shut down the computer.

Any help is highly appreciated.
Is it some of the expansions or stuff packs that are causing this problem? Or is it something with the computer?


NOTE: I made an exact thread on the BBS forums and someone adviced me to ask here instead.  Got a few tips there but...
-setting the processor affinity manually didn't work when I had Bon Voyage included but I will try with everything up to Seasons so I can rule that one out.
-there seems to already be a AMD Dual Core Fix on the computer
-I have all the patches for the expansions and stuff packs I have