The Sims 2 Blue Screen of Death

[layziegtp]

Hi everybody! I'm having a really, really bad problem with The Sims 2. I've emailed EA Technical Support about it, but I doubt they will be able to help. Maybe you guys can be my lifesaver. I don't want to retype the whole thing, so here's a copy of what I sent them.

My problem has to do with the sims hard locking my computer. After I pop in the CD, the game autoruns and tries to start, but immediately after the Sims 2 splash screen disappears, the screen goes black, followed by a blue screen. The stop code is always the same, and begins with 0x0000008e, but no other information is given, no drivers are named, nothing.

My system specs are as follows:
3.2Ghz P4
1024MB RAM
Asus P5GD1-VM Motherboard
GeForce 6600GT (PCI Express)
Windows XP (SP2 installed)

I've checked everything I can think of. System temperatures are not a problem, I've made sure the RAM is set to "By SPD", I've tried disabling hyperthreading, there are no other applications running in the background at all, I'm using the newest certified Nvidia drivers (77.84)... I've even tried running in compatibility mode, windowed, lowering the refresh rate of the monitor, nothing works.

I really want to play this game, and the only other thing that comes to mind is uninstalling service pack 2, but I don't want to do that for just this one game. No other games or applications have this problem. Is there anything else I can do, or is there another patch in the works that might help?

Am I stuck not being able to play because of some poorly written code, or is the problem something that I'm doing (or not doing?) right?

I'm almost positive now that the problem is due to SP2, but maybe there is something that I havn't thought of. Help!!!

[scaramonga]

Lookie

[layziegtp]

Close... close, but not it.

1. It doesn't happen when I change hardware acceleration. In fact, I've tried using both full and none setting and got the crash when opening the game.

2. I get the stop code 0x0000008e, but no error message with it (eg. KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, I don't see that message)

3. The solution in that article is to install SP2 .


Note - I've completely uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and used driver cleaner to finish em off, tried to run the game, and STILL get a lock up.

Thanks though, glad to see a reply so soon.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hi layziegtp,

If you ask me, installing SP2 on your Windows XP will f*ck your gaming experience even more, in general... (No, fortunately, haven't tried it yet, "got stuck" with Windows 98 and Windows XP SP1... )

Joe

[Grumpy]

@Joe

installing SP2 on your Windows XP will f*ck your gaming experience even more

Not entirely true! I have Sp2 installed and I dont notice any difference with the games and I have never had any problems getting games to work.
There are some sites around which do suggest some games dont run with as many frames with Sp2 installed but then the same sites list other games as running better with Sp2. I think the worst I have read is maybe a 3% difference in performance either way. 3% is hardly noticeable. So it evens out. If the system is fast enough you wont notice the differences anyway. I have a P4 3.2ghz therefore any differences are hardly noticeable.

[krondike]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Not entirely true! I have Sp2 installed and I dont notice any difference with the games and I have never had any problems getting games to work.

Says a man that's only playing MS Minesweeper and Solitaire all day long.

@joe
Depands on what proccesor you are using.
Intel P4 had a bug in SP1 with result in slower computer speed, like a 2ghz akt as it was a 400mhz, and wasn't fix until SP2. This is both official and unofficial stories. But point is it acted wierd.

SP2 got some greats things to offer, but with the hole Windows XP thing you need a lot of RAM memory, I got 1.5 GB of ram, and I had a computer with a 256 mb. Gues if I experence any diffrence?!

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hi guys,

Hmmm, interesting what you say... But, as I have no Net access at home and NOD32 is taking good care of my PC (poor thing, there are no viruses for it to find ), I don't have much use for SP2... I might install it some time, though...

Joe

P.S.: I've always been an AMD fan, I'm not using Intel CPU's: the only one I've had was a 486DX2/66...

[Grumpy]

@Krondike

Says a man that's only playing MS Minesweeper and Solitaire all day long.

Hehehehe,

[layziegtp]

To be honest, right now I wish all SP2 was doing was making the game run slower. This crash is really getting to me, and I can't find a single other person out there that's having the same problem!

[DarkLeftos]

First of all, install SP2, you never know where the solutions may come from... As for Windows XP memory needs, just make sure you download and use "Game XP", and then disable Windows Themes manually.

[JediKnight]

I have SP2 installed and I NEVER had problems with ANY game after installing the upgrade. In fact, I get the impression that WinXP is running a little faster with SP2 installed.

This is no bull****, I play games A LOT. When a game crashes, it means that a crack is poorly coded or the copy protection is too damn hard to break... or a bug in the game.

But I think that Win98SE is way better to play games than WinXP... if only Win98 had support for 1GB of RAM