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[Azzer]

Ok, last night I ran TS2, right now I have Open For Business, Nightlife, and University all installed. My download folder measures in at 47.1MB, I have a few Bodyshop things, around 5 Custom Cars, and close to 10 careers, but it's taking forever to load the game. For example, taking 10 minutes on the first loadup screen, entering Pleasentview is another 10, then loading up a House in the neighbourhood is taking over an hour. :snore: Is there anyway of increasing it without taking any of the downloads away?

[AngelFrouk]

What are your specs? Also you can try to remove the downloads folder to see if it does speed up the game. You won't have to get rid of anything, just see if it does speed up.

[Azzer]

I got my comp new for Christmas this year, Windows XP, (if you need more I'll run the DXDIAG thing), but I've never had a problem running the Sims with downloads before. IE. when I used to play just Sims 2, I had some houses running and it was fine. When you say remove the downloads folder, just delete the folder and move the contents into the EA Games Folder? (Thanks in advance)

[AngelFrouk]

No, what i mean is; move the downloads folder to your desktop and try to load the game. If the problem lies in one of those downloads you should see that it loads faster.

[Azzer]

Right ok, I'll try that. I have noticed something though, when I run the TS2, after I downloaded something last night, one of the custom content had a funny road sign by it, that was yellow. With an exclamation mark by it..

Ok I moved the downloads folder, and it didn't take so long, so I think I'm gonna remove some of the things that it might be..

[simsample]

Delete the groups.cache file from my documents/ eagames/ the sims2. Also, defragment your hard disc- that will seriously speed up your loading time if you don't regularly defrag. Another thing is to set your game options to this:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/Bluefunk/CC.jpg

[Azzer]

Right ok, I'll do all that. I've never defragged my comp. My mum doesn't like me leaving my comp on all night to do it, so I never have.

[thefacelessevil]

Another thing to do is increase your RAM. When my RAM was at the required specs(512MB) it ran like a dog with broken legs. Now I have 1 GB and it runs a lot smoother.

Also, check the MB on your video card. 128 should be fine/help.

Also, when you first install a new expansion it takes awhile to load because it's doing so for the first time. Just shut down the game and re-enter and it should be fine.

[anelca]

Right ok, I'll do all that. I've never defragged my comp. My mum doesn't like me leaving my comp on all night to do it, so I never have.

do it in the day when you are up. it doesn't take that long really maybe 30 minutes

[Azzer]

Yeh it didn't take that long, so I ran it twice. I thought it would take longer. I deleted the groups.cache. My RAM is 512MB. I can't find the Video card. I'm gonna configure my options to what simsample said then put the downloads back in the right place. Thanks for help, you guys are awesome.

Edit: Didn't help at all. However I think it's something to do with the careers.

[simsample]

Do all of your houses take an hour to load up? Try it with the debug mode on (boolprop testingcheatsenabled true)- do you get any errors? You may have conflicting or unsuitable hacks. Try disabling the careers with the clean installer, and then reenabling them one by one.

[anelca]

watch those custom cars. they are very high poly and may possibly cause lagging in gameplay. not sure that affects loading time though

EP incompatable careers usually make the lot totally unloadable, but i'd disable or remove them anyway. personally, with OfB i find i don't need them in any case

[Malaygirl93]

What groups.cache do??

[Azzer]

I've wiped the careers out, so I'll check now in a sec.

[Chesspieceface]

An hour does seem exhorbitantly long. I have over 5 GB in Downloads and I am at the neighborhood screen in less than 10 mins. Still slow for my taste but nothing like what you are describing with just 50 MB.

[Sirenala]

And I thought my computer was slow... o_0 Try making a note of all the downloads that have that little 'road sign' next to then (it is a warning sign!), deleting them and then re-downloading them if you want to keep them. It might be that they're corrupted files... :) By the way, I am very proud of everyone who has posted in this thread, you are all very helpful!

[Azzer]

It only takes yonks with the careers in the Downloads folder.

[simsample]

I'd check out the threads/ sites where you downloaded the careers from, make sure they are compatible with your game and that there are no bugs reported. Perhaps you could pinpoint which careers are causing the problem, and inform the creator.

[KELSMIT3093]

An hour does seem exhorbitantly long. I have over 5 GB in Downloads and I am at the neighborhood screen in less than 10 mins. Still slow for my taste but nothing like what you are describing with just 50 MB.

ONLY 10MINUTES!? What parts are running in your pc? Ive usually got around 6 or 7gb in my downloads folder and my game takes about 30-45 minutes to load, and is extremely slow in CAS and building houses too(i never play the game so i wouldnt know how the gameplay is). My pc is not that bad either, my ram needs upgrading, but otherwise ive got:
ATI Radeon x800 PRO(256mb)
Maxtor 16mb cache(buffer) hard drive
Intel 2.8ghz hyperthreading
768mb RAM(but its really slow, like 2100)
Does my loading time and performance sound right given my specs and how much i have in my downloads? This always bugs me, and alot of times i dont play the game because of it. I know i should cut down my downloads, but i hate doing that, is that the only way to speed it up, or would more ram make a big enough difference? Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :lovestruc

[acsehi]

My specs are far from worse than this, and I will immediatlye search for some problem in my machine, if I can't get in the selected house within ten minutes...

I think the TS2 loads very slow, but always less than 2 minutes every house... Needless to say, my Downloads folder not too big (less than 1 Gb)

[Chesspieceface]

ONLY 10MINUTES!? What parts are running in your pc? ...my game takes about 30-45 minutes to load, and is extremely slow in CAS and building houses too...Does my loading time and performance sound right given my specs and how much i have in my downloads? ...Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated!

It sounds to me like your machine is performing suboptimally in general. I am running a [email protected], 1GB PC1066 RDRAM@533mHz, nVidia GF6800n @ AGPx4 (o/c'ed and softmodded). Not really any better than yours.

What I can tell you though is my machine is as clean as a whistle. I use professional defrag software like twice a week on all drives. Registry is cleaned and optimised regularly. All superfluous Windows services are disabled and nothing is running in the background at all. I also have the game files on 1 Harddrive, My Documents on a 2nd, and Windows and the Swapfile on a 3rd. So my machine can be accessing all 3 simultaneously.

That said, Sims2 is extremely CPU limited. Even with graphics pushed beyond the maximum, high everything, 4xAA, 4xAF 12-14 sims on the lot... the game only maxes out my cpu, my gfx card doesnt even get half as warm as it does from Oblivion (which overtaxes both).

So all that to say, if anything else is using your cpu or ram cycles TS2 shows it worse than almost any other game.

[simsample]

I'd agree with adam858, I only have a 2.4Ghz processor and an ancient FX5200, but even with 5.5Gb of custom content my game only took about 5 minutes to load up. My advice would be to create a user account specifically for gaming, to shut down any excessive tasks, defragment your hard disc frequently and of course, scan for viruses and malware and clean up your disc. I also have shut down all nonessential windows services (such as file indexing and the start menu program shortcuts) so that my computer uses all resources for the game. Defragmenting is the one which will make the most noticable difference in your loading speed, and also try deleting the groups.cache file.

[KELSMIT3093]

every time i delete the groups.cache file, in bodyshop and CAS, it takes even longer(like right now it takes longer to load my new downloaded files, and goes pretty quick when loading the files it has loaded before). Does that make sense? Or is it the cigen.package file that does that? i cant remember.

[simsample]

Did you clean up your computer, as I mentioned in my previous post? That may make a difference.

[KELSMIT3093]

i havent created a new user account yet, because im not sure if ill have to re-install the game or where id move my files to. ??? I daily check for viruses and spyware already, and i always want to defrag, but i have tons of stuff on my hard drive, not to mention that its 70gb full. So defragging takes FOREVER. do you know of any defrag programs that work fast, or atleast let me still do other things on my computer while its defragging? Thanks!

[simsample]

If you create a new user account, the sims2 folder will be created in the documents folder for that account when you play the game. You don't have to create the files yourself. However, if you wanted to transfer all of your savegames and downloads over, you could just cut and paste the Sims2 folder from c:\ documents and settings\ old account username\ documents\ EA Games to the same path in the new user account. You don't need to reinstall the game at all. Just remember that if, in future, you decide to delete a user account on your computer, that all of the sims2 files in that account will be deleted also.
As for defragmenting, I'd suggest leaving the computer on overnight whilst the disc defragments- this is perfectly safe, and I do this on my computer. Just make sure that the computer vents (on the back and sides of the computer) are not blocked or covered by anything, and it will be fine. Before you defrag, I'd recommend uninstalling any programs you don't use and cleaning out temp files, empty folders, etc. To do this you can use Disc Cleanup which is in Accessories/ system tools (right next to the Windows defrag tool).

[mike19]

defrag can also be done with the pc in safe mode. If you know how to do that. so any unneccesary programmes arent running only essentials. Otherwise if a programme runs in the background it writes info to the hard drive etc, and then defrag may starts again.
It'l help reduce the time a little may be lots.
mine can take between 12 and 14 hours to defrag with a 80 gig hard drive and 50% full.

[KELSMIT3093]

RE:SIMSAMPLE
So what if I create 2 new user accounts, can i install the game on 1 of them, but with still having my other installed game on another account? That would be perfect for me, because since I have so many files in my downloads folder, I separate my objects/build/game files from my bodyshop files, so that way when I want to use Bodyshop or CAS, my game loading time is cut in half. And then when I want to build houses, I move all my bodyshop files out of my downloads folder and move my objects, etc. back into my downloads folder(each group of files is about 8gb, so its much faster than say having 16gb at once!). :) But this process gets really tedious and annoying. So if I could have one account with my objects,etc., and the other with my bodyshop stuff, it would be soo much better. Or could I do this without installing it twice, and just put one group of files on one account, and the other on another?

RE:MIKE19
I took your advice and defragged in safe mode, i thought that would be a great idea. I'm not sure how much faster it was(because ive never actually finished a full defrag before(because it always took too long)), but it went faster than i thought, and it completed! Yay! So thanks!