Annoying purple screen

[stardust-MX]

I'm playing the game, and after some time, a blank purple screen appears from nowhere, it seems to be a loading of some sort, then it disappears.Once it happens, it keeps returning from time to time, I have to exit from the game, and load everything again.

I found out that this happens when I go back to the game after press ALT+Tab on the keyboard to return to the desktop, but the problem is: I didn't press ALT+Tab.

I happened once or twice with Family Fun Stuff, but with Pets this happens quite often and I'm getting REALLY tired of this.

My sys specs:

Semprom64 2800+ @ 1.6GHz
768DDR RAM
256MB XFX GeForce 6200 - ForceWare 93.71
Windows XP SP2

I have all the expansions and stuff packs installed.

*Bug Update*

Sims can't use cellphone, they disappear from their inventory when used

The function "invite to enter" of the phone doesn't work

[julianarosalia]

First, backup your entire My Docs/EA Games/Sims2 folder. Then go through all the steps in this faq: http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=139718 Let us know if that fixes the phone problems. As for the graphical glitch, you can try different drivers for your video card. http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=146389

[simsample]

The purple screen (it appears blue on most people's computer) is usually a sign of a memory dump- that is, for some reason the graphics chip is not working efficiently, so is running out of memory occasionally. This is a common occurrance with NVidia cards with The Sims 2, although some ATI Radeon users have encountered this. The usual solution is to remove old graphics drivers and install different drivers, however this is not always effective. I solved the issue on my own card by doing this, and I also increased my RAM too which helps some people. This thread charts the experience of people attempting to solve this; take a look for ideas of the best drivers to use:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=117748&goto=lastpost
The last few pages concern the 'blue screen' issue. Link to program for removing old drivers here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?p=1153022
The cellphone issue is probably caused either by an out of date telephone hack or maybe a custom phone.

[stardust-MX]

I don't think the problem is my RAM, because my cousin has a PC with 1GB of RAM and the same thing happens, the video card is the same.About the drivers, I'm using the last, but the same happens if I use 91.47 and 91.31.Older drivers causes troubles with other games, and besides, I think that the cursed screen will appear again no matter what.

So, I guess that there's no solution to this, is there?EA won't see my money again until they find a solution for their incompetence...¬¬

*I removed the custom cellphone from the downloads folder, maybe this will help

[simsample]

I was specifically referring to a memory issue with the graphics chip; the bluescreen is when the chip dumps memory, so indicating that it has run out of memory. This is not a memory problem as in hardware, rather software- the game and drivers are not working well together, therefore the graphics chip is not working efficiently. Whether the issue is caused by the game or the chipset drivers is hard to say; it's more a case of they don't work well together (hence people find that their graphics on other 3D games are fine). Trying new drivers or even different drivers, and clearing out the old drivers is a good place to start; increasing the amount of RAM can help by giving the game more memory to play with. The fact that the game works on a different computer is irrelevant; when I had the bluescreen issue my daughters identical PC worked fine- the only difference was that I had different drivers.

[stardust-MX]

I see..so what driver are you using?

I've just remembered that when I installed the 93.71 driver, before I got Pets, the game had serious crash problem, something like this:

": Direct 3D has returned an error: D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE!Now the program will shut down."

What version I should use?

*Since I installed 93.71 ForceWare, my system is acting weird.After the BIOS, in the Windows loading screen, nothing appears, only a black screen with a underline flashing in the top left corner of the monitor.

Then I fix the boot with my windows cd, but this doesn't work sometimes and i have to format the HD.Could the driver be the responsible for it?

[simsample]

I'm using the 84.21, but they are quite old now. It does sound from the problems you are haing that the drivers are not installed correctly anyway- I'd definitely recommend to remove all graphics crivers and then reinstall some fresh drivers- try the ones you already have again, perhaps.

[stardust-MX]

I reinstalled Windows XP and instaled the 93.71 "fresh", the black screen boot returned.

I hope that someday nVidia staff learns how to make drivers

[simsample]

Okay, the best thing you could do now is to try out some different drivers- some people find that the older drivers (7x.xx) work well. You should be able to get some on NVidia's archive.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=117748&c=1&ht=0&page=17&pp=25
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

[stardust-MX]

I'm sorry, I didn't reply before beacuse I had some..hmm...probs, I found out that all the trouble with my PC (the boot issue), was caused by the power supply, I bought another and everything is going fine.

Thanks fot the hint about the driver, I'm now using 82.65 and the purple screen is gone, so i think that for 6200 users, best thing is to use the 80's ForceWare.

I got this answer from nVidia support:

I understand from your email, that you are using Geforce 6200 graphics card getting artifacts while playing "The Sims 2 Pets" game.

I suspect the issue with the driver version you are using and I suggest you to please follow these steps given below to download and install the driver version 84.21 most compatible for this series of graphics card.

That's it, thanks for the feedback =)

[simsample]

Wow, that's very interesting, thanks for letting us know! Having adequate power to the graphics card and other devices is extremely important, and of course the later EPs put up the system requirements for the game (so make your computer work harder= requires more power). However I've never heard of anyone directly attributing the bluescreen problem to the power supply, so this is an important piece of information. Thanks for letting us know! If you need any help with the drivers, this article may help if you haven't already seen it:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=146389