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Over the weekend I finally got around to installing all my essential software on my rebuilt Windows box, and so I at last got a chance to play with Sims 2.

For about fifteen minutes. Then my computer crashed. And again ten minutes after that. And again twenty minutes after that, and five minutes after that, and... so on. The screen freezes, or goes black, or drops me back to Windows, or when I'm really lucky the machine just reboots.

I thought maybe the power supply wasn't quite coping, what with the three new hard disks I added. I pulled out a couple of cards I wasn't using (video capture and second network card) and it seemed to be going longer between killing my sims, so yesterday I ordered a shiny new 480W power supply and this morning I installed it.

As you can probably guess, it wasn't the power supply.

So, now I have a problem. This is the second video card I've had trouble with in that machine. The first one locked up all the time, even when I was just scrolling a web page. The replacement has been reliable enough until now; I can use it all day for applications and web stuff and watching videos without even the hint of a hiccup. But it sure doesn't like Sims 2.

I could buy a fancy new video card, which would make things faster - except that AGP, which is what I have, is fast being replaced by PCI Express, so if I buy an expensive video card now it's not going to have a very long life. And this is the second time I've had problems with video cards in this machine, so what if it's not the card? If I spend hundreds of dollars on a new card and it doesn't work either, I won't be a happy bunny. Now, a few times I have got actual errors back from the video drivers, so I'm sort of confident that it's the card, but what if the chipset on my motherboard is slightly wonky? But then, it runs fine for days when I'm not using 3D graphics.

Mrble.

Fortunately, I'm currently building a couple of systems for work right now. So I've ordered myself a cheap Radeon 9250, and if that works at home I can then put it in the new work machine and expense it, haha! And then go on the waiting list for an Nvidia 6600GT, which is currently a yes, we have no bananas sort of thing.


Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:57 AM

Comments

1 Ouch! There IS a site that can scan your innards (not YOURS, you know what I mean) and tell you if your system will work with Sims2, but. . .I understand that may not be high-tech enough nor very reliable.

I will light a candle and dance by the light of the moon that it gets working for you, hon.

You know, so you can get the new expansion pack due out in March of 2005? Sims University! Rawk! Awn!

Posted by: Margi at December 01, 2004 02:39 PM (rKX9f)

2 Sweetie -- while I was looking for the Sims2 section wherein you check system stats, I found this:

Sims2 Patch. (http://thesims2.ea.com/update/)

Specifically, this jumped out at me:

System/Config issues:

Users with limited user accounts can now run the game.

Improved performance with Radeon X800 cards.

Users continuing to experiencing problems should update to the 4.10 driver.

The game no longer affects a user's modem settings when connecting to the internet via the modem.

Fixes a problem with default collections not being available when user data is regenerated.

I hope this helps!

Posted by: Margi at December 01, 2004 05:49 PM (rKX9f)






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