That's exactly why before I download a hack I read the thread and see if anyone has posted things about it causing an issue.  I never entirely trust the person who created the hack, people tend to leave important things out because they're lazy, then they're like, they could have done the research themselves.  This is just an excuse to be lazy.  If you're go to provide help provide the advantages as well as the disadvantages, don't assume that downloader is going to go and investigate, because chances are they're lazy to.  And as always, when offering any pc help always assume each and every person reading the walkthrough are novices, because most online are.  It beats getting a ton of posts later from people who need more help because the walkthrough wasn't as simplistic as it could have been.

I think the walkthrough snagged from Toms was pretty damn good, it just left out a few minor things which I covered..

And yes, I will post about what exactly a nocd key does and how it works. 

But I'm a good person and I'm going to the happy place when I die .. *sarcasm*

I understand where you're coming from, really, I do.

But I feel it is important to inform even the lurker of known problems they'll have if they use the available workaround.  It isn't my job nor am I required to do so, but I feel it's the nice thing to do.  I mean I know I personally have better things to do then hop on a dozen sims sites in order to find out if one hack will conflict with another hack.  I'd rather have had the person who posted the hack inform me of the possible issues their hack will cause.  So that's all I'm doing here, I'm advising those lurkers or those possible newbies that if they use this workaround they may run into future issues with hacks such as the inteeniator. Which is an excellent hack btw.. I love the abort the fetus part.. wickedly fun.  And they may have games that won't run anymore because they never put a nocd crack on those and those games were also relying on those securom files.

In order to inform people of certain issues, it may at times make those who are more experienced feel as if they're being talked down to, but I feel it's worth that sacrifice in order to inform those who are less experienced. 

I miss the days when a game was on four floppies and the protection usually was just a serial number..

The good ol days..

Interesting walkthrough though.. I had all of those files on my system except for.. "uaservice7.exe".  I checked for it a number of ways, it just didn't exist.  I wonder if its because I use yasu to hide my drives and virtual drives from Securom. 
 

First off, I don't mean to be pissing anyone off...

But there are things some of you are not letting lurkers know about bypassing securom, such as using a nocd crack may actually open the door to other bugs.  There's no guarantee a nocd crack is going to not create its own issue, such as the original Sims 2 nocd crack that locked out the building options.  You're also not letting the lurkers know that some hacks are patch specific such as inteeniator, which I bet will not work on the fairlight crack, at least properly.. hoping I'm wrong though.  I also hope there is a new nocd crack made with the patch in mind, I'm just not holding my breath because I know most of the demand right now is going to be on Bioshock since it's the big machismo game to play right now.

And it's hard to tell a newbie what a memory leak is and how it affects things.  You can sit there on the phone with a customer for hours trying to help them troubleshoot a situation and they'll do the total opposite.  "open the registry and delete the securom key".. 'Ok.. I deleted the soulseek key".

So again.. it's important for big gamers to know that bypassing securom isn't the answer..

Boycotting the publishers is the answer..

But people are lazy

To be fair, securom 7 isn't brand new and the issue with burners only seems to be affecting a small percentage of people.  So it really shouldn't even be mentioned because all it will do is make the paranoid more paranoid.  The known issues are that it does cause virtual drives to have an issue at times and it is known to have a memory leak.  Those are two big enough issues to where personally I think people should just boycott the publishers, but they won't.  Tomb Raider Anniversay shipped with securom 7 I believe, I'd have to re-check, but their bbs isn't filled with people claiming their burners don't work anymore.  So sometimes the issues are somewhat pebkac related.

It is an invasion of privacy..

But the point you two keep missing is that trends are changing and I see the torrent sites putting up more and more image based torrents rather than actual cracked torrents.  I also see far less updates being done on games in regards to new nocd cracks after a patch.  Sure, with the Sims it doesnt matter, they usually break more with a patch then fix anything.  But what I continue to say is that it is bad advice to those who want to play a lot of the newer games coming out and who want to patch them if patches are needed.  It is NOT bad advice to those like you who are happy playing with a non patched version of the game and who believe that every new game will be updated with a new nocd crack everytime the game is patched.

As for BV, I'm going to go the nocd route again eventually but only because their patches tend to screw up more than they fix.  But that's rare.. usually patches actually do fix the games that have issues.



 

Well in theory it is bad advice..

You're using instructions that were meant for people who uninstalled bioshock and have no intention of running bioshock again or any other securom release.  The kids here still want to play the Sims.. they want Bon Voyage to work.  Maxis may release another patch after this one that does address more issues, but this will force them right back to securom because as I said, the chances of a new nocd crack for newer Bon Voyage executables is very, very unlikely.  Then someone goes on about using the old nocd crack and using it to re-write the newer patched executable, not bright.  I don't mean to be offensive but that's like having a crappy pinto.. buying a new civic to replace that crappy pinto.. and then pulling the pintos transmission and putting it in the civic.

Any update done on that executabe is now gone because the nocd crack is the cracked old executable..

And yes, securom has issues.. and yes.. Maxis is naughty for using it. 

But if you plan on patching the Sims..  or buying any of the newer cool games like Crysis, Far Cry 2 or Hellgate: London.. don't use these instructions..

If you don't plan on updating the Sims.. or playing any of those new games..

Follow the instructions..

That's all I'm saying..

Maxis began using Securom on every sims release since April of 2007. 

I don't do the stuff discs.. so I'm not sure whats on those.  But I read on the Maxis board that the H&M did have securom.

Going the the booty route doesn't necessarily mean you'll be avoiding securom.  A few of the scenes are pirating the games but using image files instead of nocd cracks to allow the player to just mount the image with daemon, use yasu to hide daemon from securom and then play the game.  But securom is still active at that point.  A few of the other scenes are still releasing games with nocd cracks, however they're not updating those nocd cracks everytime there's a patch.  I mean some games have 3-4 patches before everything is taken care of, can't expect the scenes to keep up with that.  But it depends on the popularity of the game, not how many are playing but who.  The sims seems to be loved by many but hated by those who are more into the pirating thing.  Every time a sims game is pirated a ton of guys bitch about how the game is for women, or they'll download it and swear to everyone they're downloading it for their girlfriend.  Which is fitting since in theory, their hand is their girlfriend and it also controls the mouse so it isn't an all out lie.

I'm avoiding Bioshock regardless of the fact there are two pirated versions.  One goes the image route the other is a nocd crack.  The problem of course is that bioshock will without a doubt be patched a few times to resolve some of the issues, that means if I use the nocd crack, I'll have to replace it with the original exe to patch it.. and then wait on a new nocd crack if it ever gets released.  It's just to much of a headache. 

If you're using Xp.. what you can do is create a new user account.. install the sims on that account.  Set it to where it isn't accessible to other users.  That way when you go into your other user account, securom shouldn't be present..

I think that would work..  I mean in theory it'll still be on the hard drive.. but if I remember right.. securom installs in c:\documents and settings\username\blah blah..  If it does that, that would mean the other user account wouldn't have to worry about it..

Bad advice..

If you use a patch that patches the exe file and then overwrite that exe file with a nocd crack that was made based on an earlier exe build, you're most likely going to limit some of the fixes the patch brought to the table.  On top of that, some hacks have to be re-done when a patch is released.  Those hacks may have an issue since the nocd crack will show that the game is an earlier build and not the newer build.  And there is a possiblity no new nocd crack will be made.  I'm pretty sure they never made a new one when Seasons was patched, they just made an image file you can use daemon and yasu with. 

Ubisoft, Eidos, EA Games, Konami, and Rockstar are just a few of the publishers who use securom and who will be using the newer version.  Ubi is going to be releasing some pretty fun games in the next few months.  So if you're a gamer, I'd just get used to securom because even you get a nocd crack, chances are they'll patch the game and you'll need the patch.  And since there's never a guarantee of a new nocd crack being made for a patched exe, you'd be stuck using the image file or the cd and need securom.

Securom is about as bright as the drm shit sony made for wma files.  But the publishers are so paranoid about piracy that they're just ignoring the fact that software like securom and starforce are crap.  Starforce was by far worse than securom but Ubi and a few others finally dropped it, thankfully. 

The memory leak varies from time to time.  I've been bypassing the launcher since day one, it doesn't help a whole hell of a lot.  Sometimes it can go hours without the dark blue screen and then the crash.. sometimes it happens after 30 minutes.  A few things that really include lowering the resolution.. using 1024x768 since bv came out.. used to use 1280x1024.. setting shadows to medium.. lowering audio quality (in game) to low and playing on lots with fewer sims/objects.  One sim has real estate on one of the vacation lots, if I only send one sim to that lot.. it's totally lag free for a loong time.  If I go to a lot where sims keep piling up.. trouble.  I'm using very few hacks.  I'm using seethem 2.. the anti spawn hack and I believe perfect plants.  That's it though as far as hacks.. the rest is just meshes.

I'm also using the beta drivers from nvidia.. it helped quite a bit in regards to the gpu cutting the signal off to the monitor.  Same damn issue Seasons had until either their patch fixed it or the July nvidia drivers did.. hard to say.

 
Seasons had the same video crash issue, it was resolved with last patch that came out in July though. 

Anywho...

I installed the beta drivers Nvidia has on their website.  I knew it wouldn't fix the audio clipping but I was hoping it would help with the crash.  So far the game is running a bit more stable, but I haven't had a chance to really run it through any heavy tests yet.  I haven't gone to a vacation lot yet.. that test will be today.. whee.. tests.  Nothing beats paying for something that puts me back into troubleshooting mode.  @#$ if I liked to troubleshoot I wouldn't have quit my last job.. @#$#.


The only reason I get the expansions is for the interactions and little supernatural extras such as the werewolves, vampires and plant people.  But Bon Voyage offers a little more than just visiting new lots, there's the secrets like finding Big Foot.. finding the ninja.. the witch doctor.. and learning new interactions during vacations.  Of course to be honest, the new Insimenator is out and I can just use that to get the sim to pick up everything without ever having to leave the lot heh.

Unless one gets a great pre-order deal on an expansion.  I'd advice holding off a bit until at least the first patch is released and a few hacks are updated.  This is the first time since University that I jumped on an expansion on the day of the release, won't be doing that again.

It isn't your card..

It is the game.. otherwise I wouldn't have the exact same issue as you.

I had the same issue with my nvidia 5900 when it came to seasons, I got the 7600.. same issue.  EA just seems to rush Maxis to release things without properly testing things as thoroughly as things need to be tested. 

I mean you can try a 7800 or one of the cards from the 8 series, but I bet the issue would be there.

And you can flash your bios and tweak the settings.. still gonna be there.  Maxis just has to patch this buggy lil ol expansion.