Hey, guys

I recently downloaded joandsarah77's lot: Llama Foods Supermarket and ekrubynaffit's lot: Simpoly Railroad and installed them with Clean Installer however, my game crashes every single time I have tried entering these lots and sadly I have not been able to enter either lot once.

The first lot has quite a bit of CC which I have downloaded all the necessary CC as per instructions provided, whereas the latter has no CC at all and yet for some reason the game crashes after trying to enter either one of these lots. I'm perplexed as to why the game would crash on such small sized lots as I have downloaded lots like Panmine's skyscraper buildings which are multi-story and CC heavy but have no problems playing with these much larger lots.

I am also experiencing the pink flashing glitch which frequently occurs when I exit a lot into neighborhood view but returns back to normal for a period of time after quitting and starting a new game.


SOLUTION
Problem: GUID conflict
- Scanned for duplicate GUIDS using SimPE > disabled > remove files from downloads folder

Fixes attempted:
- 4gb Patch
- Graphic Rules Maker
- Setting custom virtual memory (25000 - 30000)
- Memory Leak Fix
- Set group and assessories to read only
- Deleting thumbnails in Documents > The Sims 2 > Thumbnails MaraSims Pink Flash & Crash Fix

Laptop specs:
Windows 10
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200M CPU @2.50GHz
8GB Ram
64-bit OS, x64-based processor
Intel HD Graphics 4600

Currently playing The Sims 2 UC


Any help and insight to solve these issues would be greatly appreciated! :lovestruc

I tried downloading and play testing two others lots which have no CC (albeit large in size) Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Inc and a smaller lot House Boat Tropicana however, the crashing issue occurs with these lots too and leave me unable to enter them.

I have previously downloaded and played joandsarah77's house boat lot in the past on a different computer and didn't have any issues with playing it though.

Well, I'm stumped.

I've been mulling over this for ages and still can't diagnose the problem let alone solve it.

Tomorrow I will see if I can figure out my password to sim file share since the move has logged me out. I used the lot globe on it, but since I can't reproduce the issue (lot works fine for me) it might not change anything.

I did find, back when I had pink crashing that it got progressively worse. Lots with water became close to a sure thing for crashing as were overly large lots.

Intel HD Graphics 4600 isn't real good either. It's possible using CC and simply playing the game has began to wear it out.

^ billabum, do you have M&G? AL and M&G often work so that if someone uploads lots that are made with both of them, the downloader need to have both for the lots to work properly.

With some of the SPs you don't actually need them if you install with Clean Installer (any objects you don't have show up invisible or as basegame items), but M&G is more like a mini-EP than a SP, and runs on the AL engine.

Another possible problem can be a CC item that's causing problems with something that's found in both of those lots. Usually that's a problem with lots that have CC, but these two seem relatively CC-free. It could be an item you already have, though - this one is more likely if you also get crashing somewhere in the buy menu (I once came across a fire alarm that crashed various lots at random, and it also crashed my game every time I opened a spesific place in the buy menu).

Some of the lots like my houseboat have no CC, so something else is going on and I think it's more the OP's computer hardware.

^ What I meant was it doesn't have to be a CC item that comes with the houses, but it could be an EAxis item that clashes with a CC item the OP has in their downloads. The classic problem item that default-replaces something (but badly) or has a GUID conflict with an EAxis item, and you've had it for a while but you've never come across it because you just don't go to that place in the buy/build menu, or it's an item you simply never use, but suddenly when you install a lot where that item does pop up, it starts causing crashes.

Classic question then is, have you (the OP) tried just the lots without any other CC in your game? Just to make sure it's not some buggy mod or item that's causing crashes. Trying this will at least eliminate one possible problem (CC) so you can move to the next. Just because the lots work fine in someone else's game doesn't mean they are 100% certain to appear bug-free in your game, even if they are CC-free, unless the rest of your game is CC-free, too.

The OP said they use similarly large and/or CC-heavier lots without issues, so it's a bit strange that they'll get immediate crashes for just these lots.

But yes, hardware is likely, just be sure to eliminate other problems first.

Hey, Simmer22. Thanks for your insight

I have The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection so that should rule out missing EP/SP compatibility issue with these lots.

I tested the House Boat Tropicana lot and the Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Inc lot on another computer with a previous version of my game that still has CC in it (size of Sims 2 folder in documents around 2GBs) but with much less CC than the version I am currently playing on my laptop (around 5GBs). I was able to enter both lots and everything worked fine.

However, after testing these lots on the computer with the latest version of my game that has all the CC I have downloaded thus far, the game now also crashes on this computer.

The computer belongs to my brother which he built.
Here are the computer specs for reference:
Windows 10
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7500 CPU @3.40GHz
16GB Ram
64-bit OS, x64-based processor
GTX 1050ti

With this being the case it could very well be a CC issue rather than a hardware issue but as joandsarah77 mentioned, some of these lots do not have CC and yes, I can still play much larger multi-level and CC inclusive lots without crashing. To make matters more complicated, I tried testing another non-CC lot (Illiana's The Avu - Drive In Movie Theater) with the latest version of my game on both the laptop and computer which crashed as well.

The pink flashing glitch now occurs every time I start up the game on both the laptop and computer, which I remediate by tediously setting "boolProp UseShaders false" in ctrl + shift + c whenever I play. Not ideal at all but this appears to be a secondary issue.

If it's a CC issue, what can I do to fix this?
Considering that there's hundreds if not thousands of CC files, how can I filter/locate the problem mod(s)/item(s) and remove them?
Or worst case scenario, would I have to start the game from scratch in order to play these lots?

Rename your sims 2 folder and let it make a new sims 2 folder, try all the lots in that new folder. The Sims 2 folder under documents can itself sometimes become corrupted.

Uploaded the lot to file share (just the lot none of the CC)
https://simfileshare.net/download/2033871/ LlamaFoodSupermarket

*TINY UPDATE*
I have started deleting the game thumbnails advised by MaraSims on her Tumblr (tip #6 on her post) Sims 2 Pink Flash & Crash Fix. I have been able to enter the Illiana's The Avu - Drive In Movie Theater lot (no CC).

The pink flashing glitch still persists on every startup and I have not been able to successfully enter any of the other lots I have mentioned so far.

Hi, joandsarah77. Thank you for the suggestion

I renamed my Sims 2 folder (Sims 2 OG) and let the game make a new Sims 2 folder. I then tried all the lots in that new folder including the Llama Food Supermarket 2 you uploaded on Sims File Share (thanks!) in a test neighborhood I quickly created and ...Voila! Each lot worked fine with zero crashes and pink flashing.

It would be swell if this were the case with my Sims 2 OG folder. All these issues are making my game almost unplayable but I love The Sims 2 so much and finally being able to play it again (my old computer's harddrive blew up and I lost all my files so I gave up playing for a long time) after so many years, I really want to make this work.

Good I found that my older hood had more pink flashing then my newer one and moving them both across to a new Sims 2 folder helped a lot but didn't get rid of it completely until I did some more tweaking and updating.

That's great to hear

Btw, the hood I am playing in my Sims 2 OG folder at the moment is my re-creation of Panmine's Sim City hood where 100% of my gameplay has taken place. Apart from the subhoods I have created within the main hood, I have not played any of the pre-made hoods.

What fixes should I do next? I'm pretty exhausted at this point after trying so many different methods to no success. My CC folder is relatively small compared to a lot of other players who exceed 20+GBs of content. I can't even begin to imagine what that would do to my game lol

Uploaded my config log below for technical details if anyone cares to check it out

To see if it's a CC issue - enter the lots on the computer where you are able to enter the problem lots, take pictures of as many objects as you can (preferably all if possible), then go ingame on the computer where you have problems, place an empty lot (no sims), and place out all the objects you can see from the pictures. If any of them make your game crash or cause an error, or you find a section of the build/buy catalog you can't click without the game crashing, that's probably the problem item. It could be an idea to use Testingcheats too (but if you have other problem areas in your game, you could end up getting a lot of error messages - they could be helpful in diagnosing the problem, though).

Make sure you have the original CC items in, so you can recreate the circumstances where the lots crash. It's not an ideal solution, but could be quicker than 50/50, at least with EAxis objects. Also, you don't have to do this for all the lots, I'd probably do it for the smallest/easiest CC-free lot with the least objects that still crashed to avoid too much work.

Other than that it's the usual 50/50 and similar ways to check for problems. HDCU, scanning for duplicate GUIDs, etc.

---

As for the Useshaders cheat, you can turn it off "semi-permanently" in the "userStartup" file, so you don't have to enter it manually. Just write it at the top and forget about it until you want to turn it back on again. Saves you a lot of trouble. Not entirely sure if it allows you to turn it back on ingame, but I think so?

Sounds very slow and tedious but I’m willing to try anything at this point.

Thanks for the advice. I will attempt this and report back once I’m done. I hope my experience can help others who are having similar issues solve theirs.

Might be a silly question but when installing lots that have CC included with Clean Installer sometimes I have files which are already in the downloads folder therefore, would it be an issue not overwriting the duplicates? Should I overwrite every time I encounter this because there were a few times where I did not overwrite.

I renamed my Sims 2 folder and then let the game make a new one to enter the smallest CC-free lot that crashed (Simopoly Railroad ) and took all the necessary photos. Then I opened the game with the problems and placed an empty lot and before I could place any objects after clicking on the comfort section in buy mode the game crashed. No other section in buy or build mode crashed, I tried opening the comfort section and it crashed again

I removed The Sims 2 Pre-Order Items from my downloads folder because I noticed having some of the items from these folders caused the game to crash. The game no longer crashed when I opened the comfort section but after testing the Simopoly Railroad lot again, it crashed. This is so confusing. I'm not sure what is causing the crashes as I have been getting mixed results from the tests I tried so far.

How do I narrow it down from here? I do have subfolders within my download folder to categorize my CC but I have (regrettably) not done a good job in doing so as many of the lots I have downloaded which have CC included have been left uncategorized whenever I install lots

I would avoid overwriting unless you're sure that the version of the CC included with the lot is both up-to-date and compatible with your version of TS2 (this is not normally a problem with lots downloaded from MTS). I would recommend double-checking the CC even if it isn't a duplicate of something you already have. At least put new CC and mods into a "testing" subfolder until you're reasonably sure that they don't interfere with anything.

I have all EPs, so compatibility isn't usually a problem. I have had objects installed into my game that were badly out of date and caused problems. One that I remember was an outdated buyable newspaper that interfered with my sims' ability to look for jobs.

You are trying again with the original The Sims 2 folder, right? Try copying the Downloads folder into the newly created The Sims 2 folder. If it still crashes, I'm 99% sure it has to be CC conflict.
They already mentioned this, but you should run the Hack Confliction Utility
And then check for GUID issues. You will need SimPE: https://simswiki.info/wiki.php?titl...:GUID_Conflicts
If these don't give any conflict, I guess you will have to do the 50/50.

Two crashes in the same place in the same category tends to be a sign something's wrong there. And it could be more than one file.



Did you try going through the entire comfort section, or all arrows of the buy mode section? Just opening the main category may not be enough to find the item. That's kind of why you need the pictures, to see which items you're actually looking for in the various categories. You can "cross them out" from the problem list if you can place them down and they don't cause any problems.

Items could crash the game or cause errors at several different stages, for instance
- When the game loads
- When a lot containing the item loads
- When the buy mode section loads (loading the item or the thumbnail)
- When you click on the item in buy mode
- When you try to place the item
- When a sim tries to use the item

Below are screenshots of the duplicate GUIDs and hack conflicts found after scanning with SimPE and HCDU and as you can tell there are 'a lot' of duplicates. I'm not sure what to make of all this though.

What does this mean and what would be the next step?
If I disable/delete these files would it cause the CC lots that include these objects to have blue flashing due to missing objects?
Could removing these potentially solve the crashing issue?

Remove them to a folder outside the game and check your game. You, of course, made your back up so it doesn't matter if the copy blue flashes.
Blue flashing can mean you deleted a master from a set where all the other items look to the master for their texture.
Disabling does not work well enough, always remove.
Conflicting GUIDS can cause crashing, not always but sometimes.

Much success!

After removing all the duplicate GUIDS from my downloads folder I’m now able to enter every lot mentioned without crashing

There were 121 duplicates discovered which I disabled (in order to “mark” the problem files in the downloads folder) and then removed to a separate folder. The Llama Foods Supermarket lot is missing a few objects here and there however there is no blue flashing which I think I can live with after everything I’ve had to deal with lol

The game no longer starts up with the pink flashing glitch although it does happen after exiting several lots but that could be attributed to my laptop overheating

I just wanted to thank you all so much for your help, I really appreciate everyone’s input and sound advice. I’m sure this thread will be of help to other simmers who might also face similar issues with their game. This really goes to show how awesome the Sims 2 community is!