Nightmare on Sims 2 Street - Gremlins

woodenbear

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Oct 24, 2010
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Well hi there folks it is me yet again still trying to figure out why the sims 2 will not play on the computer without crashing. I have spent more money on this computer trying to get the game working it is crazy, or I am? I can play all kinds of older games like battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Bloodrayne 2. Sims City 4 Deluxe, Sims 3, Need for Speed Most Wanted, NFS Carbon, NFS undercover, Silent Hunter 4 v1.5, silient hunter 3, NHL09, and the list goes on. But if I try and play the sims 2 game which I really like CRASH, I thought it was sound problems which it still might be but I have tried three different sound cards and they all crash the game. I have tried another HDD, ran more hardware test on my GPU's, HDD's, Ram, and CPU. I can play any game but this one and there is absolutely no custom content in the game. I have reinstalled the game in proper order a million times with negative results. I have manually set up my Ram, changed screen resolution, turned off all the background stuff, disabled the antivirus, and set the CPU afinity to run on one core. I have tried to set the game compatability to XP sP 2&3, and run the game as adminstrator.

This has become a challenge that I want to solve just for the sake of solving it. What does the sims 2 have or need that the rest of the games don't? All the patches are installed, all the discs are new and I installed them as administrator. The game works better with the sound off then on but after three sound cards you think something would give. I have ran several different test on my video cards and they all look good but for some reason I still think it is a hardware issue and that the cards might be it.

So I challenge all you techs to help me challenge the puzzle of a life time (it feels that long) and see if you can help me solve it. Pleeeaaaaassssse and thank you...

Thank you so much
 
Solution
Just burn all your EA discs in a giant bonfire and be done with it. It isn't worth all the stress that this has been causing you.

When you change components in your computer, some versions of DRM think that you are then using a new computer. The DRM then takes action and runs programs that disable or handicap hardware. Some DRM only lets you install on up to three computers, so if you change 4 components your game will stop working.

Here is a disclaimer that Ubisoft has for some older DRM:

"Notice: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives."

Meaning that the disc drive might be purposefully disabled by the DRM software.

TV's and graphics cards have DRM circuits...

pleasenoname

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Feb 7, 2010
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I Banned EA from any future purchases after the DRM in spore started making the game unplayable and EA made it mandatory that Adobe Air be downloaded onto the computer(a data collection program for advertisers/3rd party companies, used to collect data from you).

I am no tech, however in my opinion, it may be EA's licensed DRM that is making your game unplayable.
 

woodenbear

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Oct 24, 2010
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Here Here, EA hasn't got very good tech support. They told me they were going to send it up to another level of tech support and they would get back to me then they denied me access to my questions?
 

woodenbear

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Oct 24, 2010
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Ok so I'm obsessed about getting this game going like it use to before upgrading my computer. The last time it worked was before March 28, 2009 as that was the day I upgraded my motherboard, CPU, and added more Ram. Before the upgrade I was running an Asus SLI deluxe Motherboard with an AMD athlon 64 x 2 5600, and 2 gig DDR2 Kingston Ram. I was running the same Asus 8800GTS video cards and the game worked. Then I purchased a Asus Crosshair Formula 2 Motherboard and a AMD Phenon 9650 CPU and that was it the sims 2 never worked again. I have installed 6 fans and my cards run about 40 - 60c, my cpu runs at 33 - 38c all four cores, the HDD's are all about 40c. I should also correct the statement about all the old games working as Battlefield 2 won't work at all, and Sim City 4 Deluxe is having graphics issues. I have run test after test on the graphics cards but that doesn't mean anything I heard. It could very well be the cards as they are 2.5 to 3 years old.

I still would appreciate any thoughts or advice as this is beyond what I know...Thanks in Advance...
 

pleasenoname

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Feb 7, 2010
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Just burn all your EA discs in a giant bonfire and be done with it. It isn't worth all the stress that this has been causing you.

When you change components in your computer, some versions of DRM think that you are then using a new computer. The DRM then takes action and runs programs that disable or handicap hardware. Some DRM only lets you install on up to three computers, so if you change 4 components your game will stop working.

Here is a disclaimer that Ubisoft has for some older DRM:

"Notice: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives."

Meaning that the disc drive might be purposefully disabled by the DRM software.

TV's and graphics cards have DRM circuits in them designed to communicate with each other also.

To test the DRM theory out:

1) Remove your hard drive discharge power completely from the RAM.

2) Install a new hard drive.

3) Install Sims 2

4) play test the game

5) If it still won't work remove the graphics card and put a new one in. Retest.

6) still problems? try a new CPU and or RAM

7) still problem? try new motherboard

8) still problem? some obscure background program or virus is causing a conflict.

8) If it still doesn't work you may have exceeded 3 installs
 
Solution

woodenbear

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Oct 24, 2010
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I now understand what you mean as I tried to reinstall NHL09 again and it would not let me due to license being used up. I have to phone tech support and they somehow from there end game me another load plus some software to install everytime I install the game. They game NHL09 5 installs and that was it, that would explain a lot as this game is been very troublesome and I am a sap for Formatiing and starting over meaning I have to reload sims again and again....

Thanks I will take the steps you suggested.