Clean Installer Error Messages, desperately seeking help!!!!!!

[ancienthighway]

I'm not surprised.  Bad meshes don't show up until they are finally used, either by displaying it in CAS, Buy or Build mode or some townie was assigned hair or clothing that required the mesh.  And the way they show up is with a game crash.  If the mesh is assigned to a townie, it will pretty much shut down your game until it's removed.  To make matters worse, it could be multiple bad meshes, none of which you know about until the game crashes and you have to go digging again.  You think you found the bad one, but go back into game with everything, and crash again.  Or everything runs fine for a month, and then crash.

[PeachFuzz]

*sigh*

Here's what Ive tried so far:

I've ran the game without the LotCatalog (haven't tried that previously). There was no crash when opening the clean installer in either the downloads or LotCatalog (which just contained defaults) section afterwards.

Then I ran the game without the Downloads folder and left the LotCatalog inside, the first error message appeared again while scanning the LotCatalog in the Clean Installer.

I installed all of the Lots, one by one, WITHOUT the CC that it came with, I still received the first error message in the LotCatalog section of the Clean Installer.

What I've concluded so far:

- The game will RANDOMLY pick out lots and attach the first error messages to them, while loading the LotCatalog in the Clean Installer.

- The particular lots wont show up in the LotCatalog (not within the documents file) even though I've installed them before and had no issues when the cc was installed.

- Whichever new lot that REPLACES the removed lots (which i install afterwards) that was assigned a lot number causes the error message.

- When I remove ALL the lot numbers that have the "system out of memory" message ATTATCHED, I will recieve the SECOND longer error message in the Clean Installer.

This has happened three times with small folders of lots that I've installed in my game before. It doesn't matter which collection of lots I install first, when ALL of them are within the game without the cc it came with I get the first error message. I've individually installed each lot with each small folder , a few at a time, to see if the error message was caused by ONE of them, but there wasn't.  (sorry if I may be repeating myself >_>)

[Theraven]

The most important question: Does your game crash when you run it, load the lots, or play?

Your CI problem might as well be that it doesn't handle loading all those lots at once. I don't think you need to be worried if your game runs fine.

[PeachFuzz]

Yes, it crashes while loading lots, while controlling a sim on any lot, or just building hoods. It never crashes while loading the start up page. Like I've mentioned before, sometimes after particularly navigating in a neighborhood for about 25 minutes, it will suddenly crash, or whether I'm placing a hood or entering a community or residential lot. Sometimes it will crash after only two minutes.  Ah, I also tested earlier without all of my custom neighborhoods installed, so it's not any of them thats causing issues. ( I just wanted to be sure)

Edit:
Hmm, why would it suddenly be having a hard time loading a lot of files, out of the clear blue sky ? (it seems). I've been using the Clean Installer for years prior to now without any issues.

[Theraven]

And like I said before, that sounds like what I explained about memory crashes. Are the lots loaded with CC, or do you have seasons with weather on? That might make the problem worse.

You said that your game don't crash without CC, or with only 85% of your CC in? That can also be the way of memory crashes. Most likely your game only handles a certain amount of CC, and crashes when the memory usage reaches over the game limit. Same with the CI - it only handles a certain amount of loaded items, and crashes when it reaches its limit. The game or the CI don't care whether you've got enough memory to run Pixar's render farm. The game only handles so much because it's a 2004 game and not a 2013 game, despite the last EP coming out in 2009. Back in 2004, even 2 GB of RAM was a whole load, and 4 Gb memory in a laptop was almost unthinkable unless you spent several months' worth of salaries on it. My laptop only had 512 mb, and that was considered an alright laptop at the time (and not counting inflation into it, the old one cost about the same as my new one, but was lousy in comparance).

And are you absolutely sure all the crashes ingame doesn't have a thing to do with the lot corruption or some such from all the crashes in CI? Could be... (probably not, though).

By the way, have you tried to delete the cache files? That might help on the game crashes.

[PeachFuzz]

Yes I'm absolutely positive the crashes have nothing to do with the lots, they were NEVER corrupted to begin with and there's nothing wrong with ANY of the cc that I had installed.

It doesn't really matter if I delete the cache files or not.

I kind of disagree with the ' memory crash thing' at this point, honestly. Maybe I shouldn't use the clean installer anymore and use a different program to clean house, perhaps I won't have any issues.

[Theraven]

The Clean Installer is meant to install the houses, and to clean up before you install them. Once you have installed them it can't do anything much. Usually it's the CC that comes with the house that makes trouble, not the lot file itself.

[PeachFuzz]

I really don't know what else to say, I've tested and stated what I've done in the previous post. Obviously it was neither that was screwing with the ci.

[ancienthighway]

TS2 really doesn't care where a .package file is in your game folders when it comes to mods and objects.  It seems pretty obstinate about having Bodyshop items in Downloads or SavedSims though.  Have you looked at SavedSims at all?

If I were you, I'd look in every folder in My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 to see if anything looks amiss.  In addition to the cache files already mentioned, delete Neighborhoods\NeighborhoodManager.package.  Set the Folder view to details so you can see the date associated with it also.  Sometimes the date will provide you the clue you need.

Examine all the folders in Program Files (x86)\EA Games if you haven't reinstalled everything.  I think you said you did, but I may be thinking of someone else having problems.  Again look for any package files that may be amiss, focusing on date, since these files should be fairly consistent on date with some exceptions.  Custom modular stairs are installed in these folders along with one other build mode object, but I don't recall off hand what it is.  Walls maybe?

After doing all that, and you still have problems, the problems reside in custom MESH files as has been suggested multiple times already.

[caffeinated.joy]

Also, this is just something to keep in mind as you work; clean files can corrupt for a variety of reasons. This means something that has been working fine for months or years can suddenly, and for no apparent reason, pitch and fit and give up. Fortunately, this doesn't happen too often, but it does happen.

[PeachFuzz]

I dunno, this might be another stupid question but.....


I don't have the scriptorium installed, could that be part of the issue. ?

[ancienthighway]

If you have custom modular stairs, walls, fireplaces, and lights that have custom effects, and installed them without using Scriptorium, then it is possible you installed them incorrectly.  Restore the original files and use Scriptorium to install them.  But if you don't have any of those, Scriptorium won't do a thing for you.

[PeachFuzz]

Hm, well I installed all of the custom stairs and such using the scriptorium, ran my game and played a test lot with a sim for a few hours, there wasn't any crashing and neither was there when I controlled that sim to visit multiple community lots. I also didn't encounter any crashing error message after placing a handful of lots in the neighborhood (after the 25 minute mark). It seems to be running fine now. >_>

Ah, I also deleted the neighborhood manager file aswell

Edit:

*sigh*

The game crashed when I sent the sim to a different community lot in a different neighborhood after leaving one in its current hood.

*headdesk x30,000,000,000,000*

I guess I should search for some more faulty crap in the program files.



Edit:

I.give.up.

[Theraven]

How long had your game been running? Memory use for a program sort of builds up. If run long enough, it might crash (again, the meory crashes I've been talking about). Happens to me once in a while. If I run my full game I can open the makeover panel 3-4 times, but any more than that and it crashes. I gave up community lots a while ago because of that same problem (I like better residential lots for storytelling anyway).

[ancienthighway]

That's true Raven.  There is a memory leak in the game, i.e., memory is not released when no longer needed, and the game reaches a point where it wants memory and can't get it because it's already hogging it all.  I'd have to run task manager to monitor usage and then force a crash to say where it is, but it's easier just to restart the game periodically.