I've a problem with a section of my game, please help.
I’ve followed all the help pages to the letter, removed stuff, restarted the game checked it over and over. My puter has oddles of space and all is good because it was built simply for huge game play of the sims there are no graphic problems or loading problems it’s all fantastic. I’ve patched anything and everything that needs patching and had several months of unhindered game play and I’ve changed nothing sim-wise, nothing hardware-wise but have done a tiny download of some updates that are not sim related so I’m about to do a little system restore as a last resort, though I doubt that’ll help. Anyway having spent two days doing the basic tests etc I find myself here...

Ok, my game starts up great and looks fine the problem I have (both before and after removing CC and user files) is this... I can go into lots that are empty and have no families in them and do all the things you would expect to do. I cannot go into inhabited lots. I tested further, I can open up my bodyshop and place in a family name but as soon as I click to create the person this is when my problem arises again.
To clarify, the same error box pops up “sims crashed, it will now terminate” when I attempt to enter an inhabited house and after placing a last name in the bodyshop and trying to proceed.

It would appear I have a problem with my poor sim people.

I know I can spend the full day uninstalling the thing and reinstalling and checking after every install... but I am wondering if – fingers crossed – there is anything else I can try first??

I’m so not hopeful lol... but I’ll be grateful for any help offered.
Thank you very much

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Well I just located a nasty little virus and so had to fix my poorly puter and it may need a few updates and downloads now to bring it back up to date but... the sims problem is still there so here is the info you requested. I didn’t do a huge detailed spec because I’m not upgrading, was this correct? I believe that the problem is in my bodyshop somewhere but then again it could be that I need a driver update or something... I'm doing a big check now to see that everything is up to date. Hope I'm not just prolonging the inevitable re-install lol. I’m interested (on a learning curve) to see if I am able to fix the problem though so if you need any more info in order to help me please let me know.
Thank you very much.

System
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: AMD Athalon(tm) 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs),
Memory: 1536MB Ram
Page File: 257MB used, 3173MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Display
Name: ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x94C1)
Approx. Total Memory: 256.0 MB
Main Driver: ati2dvag.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.6860 (English)


Sound
Name: Realtek HD Audio output

Last edited by LiquidCrimson : 5th May 2009 at 03:51 PM.

Just to double check, did you test without your entire My Docs/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder? Or just without your custom content?

I checked with and without the entire My Docs/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder, without the CC/downloads folder, removed cache files. I also checked with various combinations and in all cases I still have a problem. I wanted to see if I could pinpoint the problem area and all I can deduct so far is that the problem seems to lie with my sim folk. I can enter my game and any neighbourhood and I can enter any lot I like and in that lot (so long as its uninhabited) I can build, buy and do whatever I like I just cannot do anything that involves sim folk. No body shop, no create a family and no inhabited lots, all produce the same error message.

It’s odd because I tend (with the help of this site) to fix all sim problems but I have been searching and searching and so far I’ve not come up with a solution. I don’t mind doing the big re-install but I just wanted to understand what has happened. I wonder if my virus may have corrupted something?? I admit I’m not a virus expert.

Thank you for your help

Ok I've done everything that I can find to do, followed all the instructions on this site but as its my actual game that's buggared I'm re-installing it as its by far the easiest thing to do.

Cheers anyway