I'm feeling really nice today apparently, so... here you go.

Here is how to get awesome advice here:

1. Give up on this thread for now, it's probably a lost cause.
2. Read every FAQ and sticky in this forum. Every single one either has good game-related information, or tips on how to function here without getting your face eaten. Both are good.
3. We are a forum full of adults, or at least people who pass for adults; as a group we find childish behavior irritating. You agreed when you signed up that either you were not a child, or you could manage to pretend you were not a child. You're failing at this. Examine your behavior, and figure out for yourself how to be less annoying.
4. Having read the FAQ and stickies, go as far as you're able by yourself to fix your problem with the new information. Once you've done that, you can make a new thread, making sure to provide as much information as possible. (For example, in this thread it might have helped to mention that you'd already deleted groups.cache, to prevent someone from suggesting it again.)

Ooo, I like that idea... and with macrotastics, I don't have to worry about not being able to see there's mail, because "pay bills" will appear! Hmm, does "pay rent" also appear when it's due? Must go check...

Oh goodness. I'd had the taxi arrive in bizarre locations, but I didn't realize it could get stuck! Duly noted. Baa!

Well I'd certainly noticed that the mailbox was the beacon point; I was just hoping the beacon point was something I could separate from the box itself via a portal revealer or some similar object.

Ah well! Now I know I either need to keep the box near the sidewalk or put up with this behavior.

Is it actually game breaking in some way, Pes? Or just irritating?

So, I'm trying my hand at more intricate building design, and with my current neighborhood, buildings look very silly with the mailbox out by the street the way they are by default. Home mailboxes are most often moved to the porch, and apartment mailboxes are often tucked against the front or side of the building.

The problem with this is that walkbys, service personnel (other than the obvious mailman) and things like the taxi are all obsessed with the location of the mailbox! A mailbox on a tiny front porch means that the walkbys walk up onto the porch to do that annoying flapping-lips noise or do their stretching. The paperboy obsesses with the mailbox too, and if the one free space on the porch is already occupied with a paper, he spazzes up there for a while before finding a place to put it.

Is there any way of moving this "mark" all the visiting sims seek out? Or is it permanently tied to the mailbox?

I tried messing with Inge's Portal Revealer, thinking it was possibly tied to the portal system, and while that gave me the means to move where the sims appear and disappear, they still head obsessively towards the mailbox.

Is there a way for me to fix this? Or do my sims have to put up with annoying visitors on their porch?

Thanks!http://

You said you removed your hacks, and then you removed a lot of your CC. Did you try removing the downloads folder entirely to see if it works then?

I can say that, at the very least, that the flowers and plants around the house look nice... it'll be nice to be able to construct decent yards with basegame plants.

The patterns, though... bleh!

And OUR point is that if you won't do it for yourself, we don't want to do it for you. If you have exhausted all reasonable options, that's another matter. If you're going to come here and go "boo hoo, I'm dumb and lazy! Here, fix it!" ....um no.

Oh sure. Just copy over all the program files, then go into the registry and hand-enter all the entries for the sims, both the obvious ones and the hidden ones, in hex. Don't forget to make any changes that might be necessary to account for the differences between your current edition of windows and windows 7!

I'm grasping at straws here, but it sounds kinda like you got a download that had a keygen and an .exe file in it, labeled as the "crack." You tried doubleclicking the exe from within the folder you found it in, and it did nothing. Is this right?

If so, then no, it's not going to work that way. You need to find the original game .exe file in your game installation folders and replace it with the version in the crack folder. Only then will it work. Running the cracked exe will not "fix" your original file as some other game cracks do, it's purely meant to replace the original.

 

Here.

Oh, the popup asking if you want to turn it on. Yes, it's killable, and it was considered a good plan because those with very limited access may not be able to get into the options to turn it on without assistance - pressing and holding a key is comparatively easy. (Though I do think the popup in question should have given you a "Do not ask this again" option.)

Strange, I have no idea what popups you speak of. Ultimately I had to switch from attempting one-handed keyboard-only usage to using the mouse and the on-screen keyboard, so maybe I didn't have it on long enough to provoke these popups?

Sticky keys is helpful when, for whatever reason, you find you cannot hold one key and press another reliably. I've used it in the past. One does what one must when the alternative is staying off the computer entirely. 

In the meantime, you could just tell them to pick up the can before telling them to pick up the garbage. 

 

Merry Christmas.

Install from the admin account and immediately replace the game exe with the no-CD exe. Then run the game from this no-CD exe. You will not get SecuROM.

You... didn't actually ask a question in there anywhere. Are you asking if your account is an admin account? If it's called admin, then... My magic 8 ball says "Sources say yes." Other than that there isn't really any way to tell from here.

You always use the No-CD .exe for the latest EP you have, as that's what will try to run when you start the game.

The only difference is M&G because, despite it being marketed as a stuff pack, it runs from its own CD, has its own .exe, and thus needs its own No-CD file. If you do not have M&G, but you have AL, then yes, AL is the latest one.

Workaround:

Uninstall SecuROM, if it's on your system, using the directions here.

Download a copy from one of the many filesharing sites. It isn't even illegal, since you already have a paid-for copy.

Use the downloaded copy to install.

Get a No-CD crack so you don't need to use the CD when you run (to avoid SecuROM).

Should work!

If you want to keep the hack in (because immortality is lame) but have some slightly (SLIGHTLY) more intelligent behavior, make sure that you have:

- a properly set-up bathroom with Bathroom Uses You (put one roll of toilet paper per toilet stall + communal shower combo in the room. do not separate the showers from the toilets in their own room. If you're going to use standard toilets and showers, put only one pair per bathroom.)
- a cooktop with cafeteria worker, and enough counter-island units so there's enough food to go around. I don't know if dormies are capable of autonomously cooking their own food, but I've never had one starve with a working cafeteria lady.
- enough beds to go around. This one stumped me for a while, because I always had beds in the dorm rooms. Turns out that dormies are not capable of "seeing" what's in their room, so if the only beds visible are those in your playables' rooms, they will constantly steal those beds until you lock the door, then start passing out on the floor and in their mac n cheese. If you're designing your own dorm, you can make the dormies' rooms little 1x3 rectangles with nothing in them, and put a sleeping room elsewhere.

I only had one dead dormie, and that was because they were passing out all over the place from lack of beds and one of them managed to sleep on the floor til he starved.

Hm. Likely not heat.

Try testing your memory with Memtest.

Check your internal temps as well. It'll shut down at random if it gets too hot in there. Does it truly shut down at random, or only when doing heavy functions like gaming or video processing or things like that?

Oh, the tassels are missing! How lame.

I wonder, is there supposed to be a line down the middle of it, too?

One of my sims won the cooking contest with Santa cookies. Don't knock em!