Game crashes

[proudbrunette]

Hey everyone. I just installed the Sims 2 H and M stuff pack. When i started up the game it started to load but then crashed. I checked my mods and stuff and I think they are all up to date.  I'm not sure if this information will help any but:When I installed it it checked for updates and ones where found for seasons and pets; and now it says i have to use the pets disc. Any help will be greatly appriciated. As for now, i'll play around a little with it and see what I can do. Thanks a bunch!
                                                                                                                                                                                                         -Marisa

[Sleepycat]

What EPs do you have? if you have Seasons then something is screwed up with your install cause it should be making you use the Seasons disc to load the game

[proudbrunette]

I have every expansion pack, including seasons.

[Sleepycat]

well I think you need to backup your "my docs/ea games/the sims 2" folder (or move it to the desktop) and uninstall & reinstall Seasons because your game decided to uninstall (or partly uninstall) Seasons on you   


it appears to be a common problem when installing a new EP or SP 

[proudbrunette]

I am reinstalling seasons right now. do i have to move the folder to my desktop though? I have everything backed up already

[Sleepycat]

nah, as long as you backed up your fine, wouldn't want you to lose your stuff 

[proudbrunette]

lol i know. i have so many downloads. i'm backing up the files before reinstalling i've decided, because i just installed H and M so this may take a while. i'm going to reinstall when it's done

[ZiggyDoodle]

Out of curiosity, did you move your DL folder out of your game before popping in the latest stuff pak?

[proudbrunette]

Uhm... nope. Why?

[ZiggyDoodle]

Always wise to do that to avoid installation issues like the ones you're having.  Once your game is up and running, then stick it back in.  And make sure your CC is enabled.

[proudbrunette]

OK. So this is what i've done: i backed up all of my sims files, i unistalled Seasons, and now i'm reinstalling it. I have no idea what I should do when it's finsihed installing. So, help?

[ZiggyDoodle]

Presuming your moved your DL folder out to your desktop, just start up Seasons to make sure the game plays.  Once you've confirmed that and checked out your hoods, then exit the game and move your DL folder back into your game folder.

If you begin to have problems, then it is something in your DL folder and you get to play hide and seek in identifying the culprit.

[proudbrunette]

OK I'll try that. And I just love hide and seek

[cassandra]

Hey everyone. I just installed the Sims 2 H and M stuff pack. When i started up the game it started to load but then crashed. I checked my mods and stuff and I think they are all up to date.  I'm not sure if this information will help any but:When I installed it it checked for updates and ones where found for seasons and pets; and now it says i have to use the pets disc. Any help will be greatly appreciated. As for now, i'll play around a little with it and see what I can do. Thanks a bunch!
                                                                                                                                                                                                         -Marisa

I am having simular problems. I have all EP's, I had not heard about any bugs so I thought it was okay to install this SP. Apparently not, now my game or Body shop won't load, I put in the Season's disc and I get a pop-up box telling me to use the H & M disc, and try again. I try again with the H & M disc and it tells me to use the Season's disc.

To answer the basic questions -I restarted my computer, defraged before the install, even complemented the PC on how nice it has been acting today, nothing.  The game loads about One square of green over saying something about "Gleefully stocking inventory" at the bottom of the load screen and then nothing, for 45 min. My whole PC crashed, it wasn't even nice enough to give me a blue screen, it just stops loading stalls, dies and stops responding as if it is in full arrest, can a computer have a seizure?

I have kept the Windows Task Manager up during the last two times I tried alternating between trying to start BodyShop & TSCrap, the application just drops of the "Process" list, no error message or anything.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have no idea why you would want an emotion chip on a machine. Hasn't it already been estabilshed that giving robots, computers, and household appliances emotions is a BAD thing?

[cassandra]

I put both discs in hoping what one did not have, the other would. No dice. After about 5 min of loading time I got an error message:

Unable to authe

I am now convinced that the EA Quality Control Dept. Spends their budget on Crack. I got Body Shop to load though, by starting up the Seasons version of it, it booted, although the one on my desktop no longer works (it did before I installed H&M), now it's busted along with everything else. I tried just loading "Seasons" and it is still working, will the clothes from H&M show if I have Saved sims who are dressed in them?

[J. M. Pescado]

This sounds like a bug in the new more annoying copy protection EAxis is using now. You may need to get yourself a noCD.

[notveryawesome]

I presume y'all are disabling your firewall, antivirus, etc before installing new EPs/SPs and before loading the game? They're known to cause problems if left running.

[J. M. Pescado]

Do NOT disable your firewall. If you disable your firewall, the SPYWARE will PHONE HOME.

[notveryawesome]

You're assuming that most people stay connected to the internet when they play. I certainly don't.

[proudbrunette]

I still can not fix the problem   . So i have decided to just uninstall everything then reinstall it.  If i move my downloads folder to my desktop before uninstalling i will still have everything in it, right?

[ZiggyDoodle]

You sure will. 

Don't forget to install the patches as well.  Open the game before moving the DL folder back in.  And remember to turn custom content back on in the game menu.

[proudbrunette]

Ok thank you for the advice. Before unistalling the game i backed up all of my files. Is there anyway that i can get all of the saved data in the file back in the game?

[ZiggyDoodle]

Sure.  Just move your backup copy into your game folder after you have confirmed that game loads and has no issues.

Edited to add:  I tried to find a post by JadeElliot before she left the list, which gave detailed instructions on saving yourself time when reinstalling.  For whatever reason, could not locate it.  I did find a hard copy here at home.  If you haven't already done the reinstall and started to play, it may save you some time in the future:

"1.  Backup your C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder to some safe place.

"2.  Uninstall your Sims 2 games and expansions.  The reinstall them.

"3.  Before you put your  C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder back, open the game just once and let it make new hoods, yadda, yadda.  Close game.  Delete the new folders it just made in your  C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder.

"4.  Make any changes that you need to your  C:\My Documents\EA Games folder, such as turning off the annoying statrup movies...  If you do not know what I am talking about here, skip this step.

"5.  Now, copy all the files in your  C:\My Documents\EA Games to another area of  your hard drive or to your backup hard drive.  Just as they are.

"6.  Put your old  C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder back.

"7.  Play."

If the game furbars in the future, just copy that backup of C:\My Documents\EA Games to your hard drive and avoid the dance of the disks.  JadeElliot pointed out that installing the game is nothing more than copying files from the CDs to the HD and setting a registry entry.  Using her method, the registry entry has already been set; all you are doing is copying the files from a HD.

I have not had to try it, but she remarked she had been using the method for over a year with great success.

[cassandra]

I have found that I can start seasons and all of the things from H&M show up, Objects and BodyShop contents. I have not tried to use a house that requires seasons as I have not found one that I like enough to test. It appears that Seasons finds all of the content from the stuff pack and includes it, and I guess any lots requiring those items will work also.