Hey there.

I've been experiencing this problem for days on end now. I have all the EP's, plus Teen Style, Celebrations, and Ikea Home Stuff. I'm usually against over-excessive use of custom content, and I like to stick just straight Maxis, because I have no problems there. But I'm doing a movie project with my friends, and I needed to use a truckload of custom content as I'm the set builder/camera person. Bad idea.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium on a two-year-old Acer Aspire desktop, originally with 500 GB of RAM, and have never experienced this exact problem before. My computer is usually, on a good day, at 35 % full, on a bad day up to 78 %, when it hasn't been restarted in a week or so.

I listen to Lime Wire while I work, and when I go to desktop to change songs, load my movie clips into WMM or even just check my email, my game suddenly closes. It sometimes does this when I click on it after I'm done with my other stuff, but usually smack dab in the middle of switching songs, typing in Hotmail.com, or loading my movies. By the time I notice, it's too late.

My computer frequently lags, and Lime Wire, IE, Firefox, and Windows Movie Maker all have gone unresponsive when I tested my theory, and then my game tab just vanishes from the bar at the bottom. It only happens with one lot, a huge secondary school that I built with CC galore. I use the InSimenator's Summoner to summon the sims I need into the school, which amounts to over seventy CC-loaded sims.

Could it be a problem with Lime Wire?

Or maybe Insimenator letting me overload my game?

Please help!

~ MJ

It sounds like you're trying to do too much for your computer to handle. 2 year old Acer laptop is unlikely to even meet requirements to run the game. Throw a ton of cc and lots of other programs running at the same time and it's not surprising it's having troubles. My recommendation is not to do so much multitasking. Most computers couldn't keep up with all that running at once.

To keep your computer running at optimum there are some things you can do.

1) First of all go into add/remove programs and uninstall all the extra Acer software crap they have. You don't need it and it eats a ton of resources. The only thing I'd keep is epower manager.

2) If you have Norton, McAfee or Windows Lifeone Care, get rid of them. Then get something like Avast! or Avira. Again, cut down on resources used

3) Use CCleaner to get rid of temp files: http://www.ccleaner.com/ The first time you run the cleaner you'll want to go to options -> Advanced -> UNcheck the top box that says to only delete files older than 48 hours old.

4) Use a program like JkDefrag or Diskeeper to defrag your hard drive. Windows defrag sucks. Use one of the other two.

5) Disable unnecessary processes this way: http://modthesims.info/showpost.php...45&postcount=21

6) If you have Vista, there are other things you can do here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

It's a desktop, not a laptop. I meet perfect requirements, I checked and everything. And sometimes, I forgot to mention, the game just overloads without anything else running. Too many people on a lot?

I already did all that a few days ago, that's exactly what my friend told me to do, and it's still having problems.

Like I said, most computers couldn't keep up with all that running at once. If you're playing the game, don't have all that other crap running at once. Everything I can suggest I put above. I am curious as to your specs though: http:/modthesims.info/showpost.php?p=2191312&postcount=2

Ok here they are:

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
RAM: 3062MB RAM
GPU: Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset FAmily
MANUFACTURER/MODEL: ACER Aspire M5620

Your lack of RAM and VRAM are definitely going to limit the amount of programs you can run. You need to be more selective about what you're doing. If you're playing the game then you don't need internet browsers, music players and video editors going, and via versa. Your computer's just not up for running all that at the same time.

Thanks, I'm getting my own laptop for Christmas and am surely going to get one with a huge amount of RAM. Would you recommend getting a bit more RAM for the time being?

Your biggest limiting factor at this point is your integrated graphics. All the Acers I've seen take standard ATX power supplies but you will definitely need to upgrade that as well. If you put a strong graphics card, new power supply and RAM into that desktop it would be a very nice machine. It would be stronger than almost any laptop you could buy. It'd run you about $200-$250 to upgrade all three things.

As a side note, before you pick out a laptop you should read through our sticky on getting a new computer. Most laptops are weaker than even what you have now. You'd need to spend at least $1000 to get something decent. On the flip side, even a brand new desktop won't cost that much.

I need a laptop for high school seeing as our high school makes them mandatory as of January, and I've already got a genius friend who's custom building me one so I can run everything. A desktop is out of the question thanks to the 'green' initiative of less paper and more pixels. I don't know a thing about power supply, is that the plug at the back of the computer? And will a new graphics card (I have a custom one ready right now) conflict with the chipset? Do I have to take out the chipset to put in the graphics card?

The graphics you're using now are part of the motherboard. They're not removable. You'd install a card and then tell the BIOS to disable the onboard graphics. You'll need to verify there is an expansion slot. Most will have them but a few cheaper ones won't. Yes, the power supply is what you plug the power cord into. All of this and more is outlined in the stickies.

Okay, thank you. I have five expansion slots, thankfully, so I should be good.

You don't have 5 slots that will run a graphics card. Motherboards typically have one. It definitely wont' have more than one with those specs. If all 5 slots are exactly the same you don't have a slot for a graphics card.

ETA: I just looked it up. You have one slot and it takes a standard atx power supply. Fully upgradable in that regard.