I think I may start taking my disc out before I shut my computer down for the night. And I might possibly invest in a nice CD holder since you make a good point about the discs cracking around the plastic holes.

I know the game can run without it. I was playing once and dropped my pen. When I reached down to grab it my hand brushed the CD drive and it opened. The game continued playing no problem but I still left it in anyways.

It will run without the disk in while running, it just won't start without the disk unless you use another method to get it to start or run it off Origin.

A little late here .... I fully, fully agree with Simonut. I've had a CD get stuck in the computer. Something happened with a piece of hardware in the unit, I couldn't get the disk out, and had to send the whole unit for repairs with the CD in it. I never got the CD back. It someone got "lost". Yeah. Right.

Now that I know that you can get the CD out without power, that's consoling, but still, like Simonut, I'm not fond of messing around with things I don't know about.

Ugh. Never again. Granted, it happened only once in last ten years, but it CAN happen. Just sayin'.

And yes, the game runs perfectly well without the CD once you start it with the CD. I've popped it out a few times after starting the game. (I was curious.)

I've always removed the disk after loading the game and it works perfectly

I used to just leave my disc in...and then I downloaded Apartment Life from Origin and I no longer have to use the disc

... But, you had to agree that EA can scan your hard drive and is allowed to sell whatever it finds to whomever it chooses. No thanks!

Really? I don't remember agreeing to that.

Yeah, most people just agree to the EULA without reading it, assuming that they aren't actually selling their first-born.

Reference:
http://pc.systemlink.me/2011/10/ori...ay-or-have.html
Synopsis: EA scans your hard drive for evidence of certain medical conditions and evidence of your sexual preference, among other things.

... or just google for "origin eula".

Last edited by Mootilda : 29th Apr 2012 at 3:05 AM.

My main Sims-playing computer is a laptop that isn't -- and never has been -- connected to the internet, so the SecuROM demons cannot leap out into the ether. I tend to leave the disk in all the time because, instead of a nice tray, Hewlitt-Packard saw fit to fit it with some hellish contraption that you have to push the CD/DVD onto and pull it off of. I could see repeated instances of that being far more harmful.

I do have a question about the Origin downloads: do they have to be installed on the computer they're downloaded from, or can they be transferred to another computer via a flashdrive? ...and just typing that I know I probably have my answer, given EA's stance on piracy... even if it's just to move it from one computer to another in the same house.

Well, since I accidentally spilt my bowl of cereal over my Mac while waiting for Sims to load, the disc has been permanently stuck in the drive...was the only bit I couldn't get into to clean the milk out of. So...no, I NEVER remove the disc!

And although it's a pain to no longer be able to watch DVDs on here and having to use someone else's comp to transfer music off CDs onto my mp3 to then put on my Mac, it was just a relief that my sims disc still actually loads! I love my Mac 'n' Cheese...

You're very welcome! I was wondering how many people would kneel down to see it - I had visions of simmers all over the world leaning down and going 'Oh! I never noticed that before'

Not all new laptops have a pinhole anymore, though.

I take my disc out because I play on a laptop that gets transported and tossed around a lot, and if there's a disc in it that puts extra wear & tear on the optical drive. (And the disc can get damaged, obviously.) Plus the disc spins up occasionally even when it's not in use, and that runs down the battery.

ALSO, if I constantly leave the disc in then I have no reason to stop playing and I never get anything done around the house!

A bit of a technical note. If you go into the Bios of the computer, you can tell it to ignore the CD on startup, and boot right from the hard drive. However, if you ever need to reinstall the operating system, from a CD (Or you want to upgrade it) you will need to go into the Bios, and turn in back on. How to inter the bios, is different for each computer maker, so you will need to look it up.

I read this question and decided it needs an answer:


yes you can turn the cd-rom off between loads but choose the wise option for that
there are 2 ways to do it

disable (as you mention) is not the one I would go for, that way will turn it off so that the game, or any other program, can't use it anymore if it needs it
this option also has a bit of a problem for you, re-enable could trigger a reboot (depending on driver/windows type)

you can however also choose to go into power management to make the drives
"power down" when they are not used, this way any drive not being read from will be ready to use on demand and not spin when it is not needed
it makes all the parts of the system go low power when not needed if you choose to go for the full "laptop" options
this option can also be found in the control-panel (the icon of the battery and power plug)
and it was made for this task
(that was my 2 cents worth)

I usually have two or three games active on my computer at any given time. When I'm ready to play one, I just click on it, and later alt-tab out. Once a game is started I usually put the CD back in its case. At the moment I have Sims 2, Sid Meier's Railroads, and GTA San Andreas up.