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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 5:41 AM Last edited by The ForestBalrog : 12th Dec 2017 at 6:05 AM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Random crashes & white thumbnails in buy mode / can't delete Downloads
My game was working fine last night, today I downloaded a couple items - some poseboxes was pretty much it. My game started randomly crashing, so I took out the content I installed today, seemed fine, but then when going into buy mode it started crashing again. I took out some more content I had downloaded the past week, although it's strange because I was building a lot yesterday for several hours without any issues. Some of the time when I load the game, buy mode categories will load without issues, and then randomly will crash, or it will crash as soon as I go into buy mode. I read to delete files in the thumbnail folders, I did that, but now when I go to buy mode all the thumbnails are loading as white outlines of the objects (this includes regular non CC) and if I try to buy any items it crashes instantly. I'm not getting it, I don't understand what happened? I can't believe downloading poseboxes could corrupt everything like this.

Here's the weirdest part. I tried removing my entire Downloads folder, and my game actually proceeded to load all of my downloads. How is that possible? I am so baffled. Can anyone help?

*Update*: After messing around for awhile I finally got the game to recognize that the Downloads folder was gone. I'm not sure what was going on, and I don't understand how that's possible - anyways, the problem is still there without the Downloads folder. I was able to successfully load a few pages of Buy Mode, went through electronics (which had been crashing), then I went through Misc., and on the third page all previews generated as white outlines and when I clicked on one it crashed the game. So, I at least know it isn't my Downloads folder, but in my 12 years of playing this game I've never had this happen. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
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retired moderator
#2 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 11:07 AM
This is very odd. What happens if you generate a clean Sims 2 folder?
Game Help:User Files-Remove All User Fileswiki
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#3 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 12:51 PM
Also are you on disks or the UC? If you are on the UC your game may need repairing. Make a backup first.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#4 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 1:26 AM
Thank you both so much for your help! I am using disks joandsarah77, but I did make a backup anyway. I went ahead and renamed my Sims 2 folder and let it create a new one like you suggested simsample, and that fixed the problem.
After doing that I gradually added back in my Downloads, Neighborhood, Saved Sims, and everything appears to be fine. I went through and let it generate thumbnails and the problem didn't come back, and my game hasn't crashed. I did not add back in any of the CC I had removed when I was troubleshooting (There was a Christmas tree I had downloaded which WinRAR said the name was corrupt, had a ? which was turned to a _ when extracting, I thought that was the problem but weird that the problem didn't go away when removing it), I also did not re-add Inteen or pineapple5050 post processing effects (my game had been working fine with them for over a week, but now I'm scared that they caused a conflict somewhere). The other things I had not tried removing before creating a new Sims 2 folder had been the file called "Cigen" (idk what that is?) and also the CEP files, though I'm not sure how those would effect my game? Any idea what might have happened, could a broken CC or one of those hacks I mentioned mess up everything like that even after removing the files?
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retired moderator
#5 Old 13th Dec 2017 at 1:41 AM
The post processing effects could have potentially affected the thumbnails; I'm not sure what that mod does entirely but if you delete the thumbnails files but leave the folder there, the game will build all thumbnails from scratch. If you delete the folder too then the game should copy the basic thumbs over from the install files, although CC thumbnails will still be rebuilt. Regenerating thumbnails can take quite a while, so if you click too quickly the game might struggle a bit and the OS could cause a crash if there's an illegal memory access. If the post processing is applied to thumbs generation it could affect this.

Cigen is just a bodyshop cache; that can be deleted with no problems. CEP should not cause the game to crash unless you have CEP extras for EPs you don't have- for example, the BV rocks when you don't have BV installed.

No way of knowing what caused the problem really, I would create a 'Test' folder in the downloads and put the stuff you haven't added back in a few at a time, and see what happens. Make sure you have a safe backup, whatever you do.
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