Something Strange, I Need MAJOR Help...

[KikiyoDragon]

Ok, first, I'm a newbie with the Sims 2, I got it and the Open for Business expansion pack for Christmas this year. After installing it and playing it for a few days, I decided to download some new hair and eye colours. I installed them and the CEP thing, plus a few other things along the way (two kitchen things, a counter and two or three skin tone packs, along with one lipstick/gloss pack) and when I go to play the game just now... "APPLICATION CRASHED. NOW TERMINATING APPLICATION." I uninstalled EVERYTHING I downloaded and I still got the message, then I uninstalled and reinstalled the game and expansion pack and still got the message. Please, someone help a newbie...

[Smonaff]

Ok, the first thing you can try is to locate and delete the file named "Groups.cache" in your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder. It's possible that whatever you downloaded caused the "Groups.cache" file to become corrupted, and I'm pretty sure that reinstalling doesn't effect it. Don't worry it's safe to delete it, the game will create a new one when it starts up.

[KikiyoDragon]

Didn't work... :(

[JackieP]

Did you delete the custom downloads? It may be one of them. I think I had this problem once and it ended up being a corrupted download. Someone suggested (can't remember name sorry) to make folders in your downloads (e.g. Skins, objects, etc.) a very good way to keep track as to what went where. Hope this helps a little.

[KikiyoDragon]

I deleted everything that I downloaded and reinstalled the game. Didn't do a thing...

[KikiyoDragon]

Does it help when I say it crashes before or during the game loading? (with the little captions scrolling by at the bottem of the screen, never going past the lemon sqeeze one). It usually crashes before the lemon one, actually, before the captions appear...

[simsample]

Please try the suggestions in this thread- I know you've already tried some of them:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=139718
Also, make sure that directX is working correctly- make sure the graphics chip passes the directdraw and direct3d tests:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?p=1152989

[KikiyoDragon]

Thanks, but how do I check the direct x stuff?

[simsample]

See the third picture? Hit the 'Test Direct3d' button.