Baffled by the dreaded "fatal error" I tried to play the game yesterday and I got the message "A fatal error has occurred. The application will now terminate." while the game was initially loading. So I removed all of my custom content in sections until all of it was gone, and it still failed to load. I have University and recently purchased Nightlife (yes, I'm a bit behind), but I've been playing NL for a few weeks now so I'm not sure the new expansion pack is the problem. I also checked all of my specs and my computer is up to date with the game in all fields except the video card, but I've had that video card for ages and other than the game being slow at times there is no major issue so I don't think that is the problem either. Any suggestions/insight? I'd like to get back into it soon because I am smack in the middle of making an extremely lavish dormitory.
*sigh* Here goes... Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.80 GHz System Memory: 256MB RAM Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Free Space: 12.0 GB Used Space: 25.2 GB DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c Display Name and Model: NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX 400 Display Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll Driver Number: 6.14.0010.9371 Driver Date: 10/22/06 12:22:00 Approx. Total Memory: 64.0 MB Games I have: The Sims 2 DVD version, with University and Nightlife Problem: see above.
Hi Fatal errors mostly acure due to lack of system memory. You have 256MB ram. The game requires 256MB ram. However windows itself uses about half of that 256MB ram. With Some expansions. They require more ram. Personally I think that when they advertise a game spec. They should say 256MB free ram. Your problem is I don't think that you have enough ram. Depending on how your system is setup, can change with each user on the amount of free ram that they have. I have 1 GB ram. 600MG is used just to run my machine. Try using the classic version of xp, and unload spyware, any antivirus programs and anything you see in your Task bar that you didn't need while playing. Even Graphic software like ATI catalyst can use a lot of ram.. HTH regards Moon.
i agree with odin, you don't have enough ram... the sims needs more than that to run well if you have expansions, try to play in small lots with few sims and small houses...big lots make the game very slow or crash it, i use to have problems so i upgrade my ram and everything is fine, you should have 1 gb at least... my cousin has a computer with 384 ram and he ask me to install the sims 2 and pets on it... i advise him not to play in big lots and with big familys, but he didn't care and the game crash and is computer is now broken :(
Yes. 256 RAM is a tiny fraction of what is needed in reality (as opposed to the fairytale land of game min-specs writers who put those magic words on game boxes). Really and strictly speaking you should read Min System Requirements as meaning approx 50% of computers with this minimum amount of specs will just manage to run the game without crashes ... it'll be slowly, clunky and glitchy but if you don't mind that it'll work for half of you ... the other half won;t get it to work at all! If you have double the minimum specs that actually means that almost 100% will be able to play but that half will have some problems of slow/clunky/glitchyness. No computer has ever been made that is 100% guaranteed to play a game without problems requiring troubleshooting ... the problems just get less serious and less frequent if the puter is very powerful.
*sighs* I was afraid it would be the RAM, just like all of my games. Oh well, thank you for your help!
