My Sims are acting strangely (spinning, freezing, etc.)

[sandchild13]

I hope I'm doing this right. :wtf:

In following what I've just read, this is my computer, basically.
I'm running Windows 7 on a Dell laptop
I'm not sure of my processor. But speed is slow. Sometimes. I have a computer nerd who normally tells me these things, but he won't answer his Skype. Even though he's on. *grumblegrumblemovingon*
I have 8 gigs of ram.....far more than I will ever need in my opinion, but whatever
I don't know what kind of graphics card I have. It came with the laptop, that's all I know. Sorry =[.

I have two families of any interest to me at the current moment. Family A and Family B for simplicity. I haven't downloaded any custom content recently, but I did install a ton of expansions (?) that I got for my birthday. I installed half of them (I think it was Bon Voyage, Pets, and Uni) and became impatient, so I started to play the game anyway, even though I wasn't actually done yet. ( :gjob: ) In the Sim creation area, they began spawning outside the room one makes them in, seeable through the window. When I tried to continue making them anyway, the game would crash.

I left it for a while and eventually got around to installing the others (Mansion&Garden, Teen Style, Seasons, Open for Business). I made Family A with no problem and was able to play them, but next time I tried, it suddenly began glitching. They would spin in place for no reason. I eventually got that to stop, once, but then I went into the Sim creation area for Family B. Everybody in Family B spawned outside, though it let me finish them. When I moved them into a house, they were spinning, too.

So now they spin, but Family A does something different. Family A is completely frozen in what they were doing, and the pets clip through the floor about halfway.

I've restarted Sims several times, I've restarted my computer several times, I even went into my download folder and deleted anything I thought that shouldn't be there (There were a bunch of "read me"s and jpgs.....not sure what they were doing in there.....). I found one that said the download may or may not (unknown) work with Mansion and Garden, so I deleted it, but the problem persists.

My dad suggested uninstalling and reinstalling. That's.....actually kinda beyond impossible at this point. I have far too many stories and families going. And houses that I've put hours into. Not happening unless it's an absolute last resort. I want to keep my families please =[.

tl;dr: One family spins, the other is frozen, don't want to uninstall.

[Mordant17]

To find out your specs, follow this [a href=http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:System_Specs]wiki[/url]. Be aware that later EPs are more taxing on the game.

To figure out where the problem is, go through the Game Problem FAQ (http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Game_Problem).

[Peni Griffin]

And even if uninstalling and reinstalling does wind up being the answer, you don't necessarily have to lose your neighborhood. You apparently didn't know to make back-ups, but if the game data aren't corrupted and you can re-install all the same EPs, the back-up you make at the beginning of the Game Help FAQ will be reusable in a new install.

If the game data are corrupted, and you have a backup utility making routine backups that include your My Documents folder, you may still be able to rescue the neighborhood from backups made prior to the corruption.

Very few laptops come with video cards that are suitable for Sims2, and running without sufficient graphics support can damage the computer, so that would be the first thing to check.

Deep breaths, and don't panic.

[Darby]

Did you patch, when installing? http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Patching_Your_Game

[NatteryakToad]

Have you tried moving them into a new lot? It sounds unlikely it would work since you've got two families glitching, but I had one family which froze and I moved them into a new lot and that seems to have worked.