Just about ready to burn 8 Sims 2 boxes.... Hey all I'm hoping someone can help. I finally just finished installing all of my daughter's Sims 2 games on her new laptop (which was a Christmas persent...it's taken THIS long!)...Sims 2, Pets, Open for Business, University, Nightlife, Seasons, Teen Style Stuff and Celebration. We had to do a manual install due to an error with the Sims 2 disk 3. We weren't even able to copy disk 3's files to the new laptop (Vista Home Premium) but were able to copy them to another computer (running XP Pro) and *then* to the new laptop. After that, the manual install went off without a hitch and everything I installed after seemed fine. But the game won't run. Upon trying, a launcher opens somtimes we're asked for the Season's or Teen Style disks but regardless it won't run. It either hangs after the splash screen or we get an error message that the game has crashed. It seems a LOT of people have this issue--I have tried the following based on what I've read on the boards: disabled everything running in the background, including AVG updated the directx to 10 and also installed 9.0c updated the nvdia driver updated Vista ran HP update rebooted over and over scanned for spyware Any ideas or things to try? I'm so incredibly frustrated--cannot even begin to describe. I'm very close to putting XP on this machine but that's a huge pain (and expense I don't want). THANKS!!! And P.S Where should I be running the game from? (i.e. which expansion?)
Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried that and got an error message: You are running the wrong version of The Sims 2. Please run The Sims 2 Celebration! Stuff insread. When I put in that CD, I get: Please insert the correct DVD-ROM and restart application. Really odd, as I just spent the last two hours uninstalling everything (and I also deleted all the directories that were created) and reinstalled only the main TS2 game. Everything else is gone--can't find any trace on the hard drive. Where are my matches????
Oh joy, OK, I looked that up and did that...duh! Re-installing now but not holding out a lot of hope here!!! ETA: Well, progress, sort of. I get sound and the beginning of the EA Games intro...then the animation freezes and I get a "The game has crashed. The application is terminating." message. Haven't gotten that far before. Video issue? Our card is on one list (but in the "OK" section, not the "good" section) and not on another I found.
Stuff Packs (Teen Style & Celebrations) create a lot of confusion for players with their nutty logic in deciding which launcher to use. In general the game will launch from the most recent expansion pack (recent in terms of date of release). It is probably best to install the game in order of release of expansion: Sims 2 - University - Nightlife - Open for Business - Pets - Seasons If you then install the Stuff packs: Celebration! and Teen Style (again in order of release) The game should then launched be launched from the Seasons launcher with the Seasons disc. It is worth noting that EA Games do not support the running of the game on laptop computers.The fact that a huge proportion of players do successfully run the game on laptops should not be taken to imply tacit support. I am consistently surprised by the quality of play enjoyed by some of our members when they occasionally post screenshots of gameplay on their mobile machines. If you haven't yet attempted it, Josh's instructions for a manual uninstallation are here, they were written for an XP machine but will work as well under Vista. (Please make sure to back up your registry before making any changes.) When reinstalling, I would avoid disc reading issues with the base game and install from disc images, (EA Support advice). Do not add any expansions until you have verified that game will launch after installation. (Also do not try to launch the base game with previously saved game files installed as this bound to cause problems.) Finally take a nice big warm hug from one parent to another. Your daughter is really lucky to have such a patient and devoted parent.
Thanks, Mirelly. Well, I've done all this--and it still won't work. I guess that means were just out of luck? It's so upsetting....one of the main reasons we bought this laptop was so she could play Sims!
I can install it but even in compatibility mode, it won't run. It freezes a few seconds into the EA Games intro video.
Installing the base game and patching it will make University uninstallable because the updater on older Uni discs is looking for a version number that is older than the latest patch updates to. This leads to the Uni updater failing and the Uni installation subsequently crashes. The Aero interface ought not to affect game performance as the desktop is completely disabled while the game is running (unless the game is run in Windowed mode) I am running Vista Home premium with Aero enabled. Two screenshots show some useful information from the CPU/RAM monitor seen in the Windows Sidebar. The first pic shows the state of the system with the game minimised at the neighbourhood selection screen. The second pic shows the same condition but with Paint Shop added to to the mix, and the in the game a neighbourhood is loaded and a family is playing. (Note that "Sim While Minimized" is not enabled ... so that Windows is able to reclaim RAM and CPU time while the game is minimized. However the timeline on the second image shows that both CPUs are in use and that even with three other applications (plus Norton Internet Security in the background) the RAM usage is not even close being topped out.) Butterfly's problem lays in that 7150 mobile graphics card. It should be good to go, but the game obviously hates it.
I have no idea what that is -- off to Google! Thanks! ETA: No, this one won't do Aero Glass. It's my understanding that would be because the graphic adaptor doesn't support it? (My HP desktop that had Vista did do Aero Glass but it has a better video card.)
Very interesting re. the screen shots. So, if the issue is the card, does that mean that putting XP on here won't help? (If that even is possible--HP says that the components are designed for Vista and the manufacturers do not have XP drivers available...I did it with my HP Vista desktop and came out OK but this laptop is newer.) I don't even know if we can upgrade the video card. I know with my HP desktop that also has an integrated video card, I added one and now use that one instead...but on the laptop is it possible?
