hi everyone i have the sims 2 collection. the sims 2 deluxe, all the way to the sims 2 BV. i installed the sims 2 all the way up to university and everything was fine played great. every expantion after that installf fine but when i go to run the game it gets to the splash screen and than it stops. i shrink down the window and there is a little box with a red circle with a white x in the middle of it. if i click close on the box it closes out the game. i can post enything about my system you need and also anything about the game. i have looked and looked but i cant find anything to help. i have more than enough to run everything on my pc. i have tried changing and updating my drivers and everything.

Have you looked at the system requirments for that game as well as those for the expansion pack(s), namely what you most recently installed that caused the problem? Have you tried unintalling/reinstalling the game? All of it? I would start there since an addition to the game might have corrupted it. Or you can use a system restore point created before you installed the expansion(s)? That might work. Also you can contact the manufacturer for specific help.

is there any way that i can take a screen shot of all the stuff on my desktop? that way i can put it on so if there is any software on my pc that would be causing it you could see it. also is there a program that will gather att the info about my pc hardware, os, ram, so on and so on? that way it will be easier to just post everything that way. i dont think it has anything todo with the requirements my pc exceedes what is recomended by more than half. i just put in a new graphixcard it is a visiontek xtasy radeon 9250 pci card i believe.

Print screen will take a picture of whatever is on your screen at the time (you'll need to paste the picture onto a picture editor such as ms paint) however the best way to work these things out is by look at what was going on with your computer at the time of the problem. That why I suggested that you try uninstalling/reinstalling your game since thats the program that your having the problem with. Any changes that you make to the program (or even normal use) can corrupt the program to the point that you can't do anything with it w/out uninstalling it & reinstalling anyway. You can also try uninstalling the expansion pack you most recently installed especially if your game worked previously before one was installed, does that make sense? However if the game is corrupted then uninstalling an expansion pack probably won't work. You can also try using a restore point but that isn't guaranteed since it sometimes doesn't work. The best thing to do first is to uninstall the program and at first only reinstalling the game itself (not worrying about the expansion packs) as part of a process of elimination.

You mentioned putting in a graphics card. Has the game worked since you put it in without crashing for a significant amount of time? As for system info you can get most of that by right clicking on my computer & selecting properties. Also are you almost out of room on your hard drive? A screen shot won't help me.

ok i uninstalled the expansion pack that started everything not working and the game worked fine. i than tried to put on another expansion pack after that one and it did the same thing. every expansion pack past hot date does it. without any expansion pack past hot date the game runs fine. ive played it forhours at a time without it crashing. the longest was 6 hours. well it was on for 6 hours. it has never crashed. i know the expansion packs all work b/c i installed them once before and they all worked fine. after the install i put the cd/dvds back in the casses and put them in my safe. they look as new as the day i bought them. well minus the dust on the cases lol. what is the little box that pops up with the with the big red circle with the white x in it. it only has one thing you can click it says close thats all and when you close it it closes out the whole game. this is the same pc i put it on before. the only difference is i had to redo the whole computer due to a virus. the only upgrades i did at that time was a new HD and more ram. other than that everything else is the same. here is everything that you needed i think if i forgot anything i will post it in the next post.

compaq presario sr1403wm
200 gb HD
dvdrw drive
2 gb pc3200 ram
AMD athelon 64 +3700 cpu
windows xp pro sp3
visiontek xtasy radeon 9250 pci graphix card



here is the list of the sims 2 games i have.


* the sims 2
* the sims 2 hot date
* the sims 2 university
The Sims 2 Open for Business
The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff
The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff
The Sims 2 Pets
The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff
The Sims 2 Seasons
The Sims 2 Celebration! Stuff
The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff
The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff
+ The Sims 2 Content Manager
+ The Sims 2 Pre-order Bonus Content
+ The Sims 2 Additional Official Content
+ The Sims 2 Additional Unofficial Content

there are a few that i havent gotten yet lol. ive marked the ones that play fine witha star. all the ones without the star show the little box i spoke of earlier. the box with the red circle with a white x in the middle of it. the ones marked with a + are things i downloaded from maxis and the sims websites. everything that goes to the first 3 sims on the list work fine. all the others dont work without the others games working. if there is anything else you need to know let me know and i will find it out and let you know. oh also ive updated my drivers and unistalled everything and tried again. but just like lasttime i got the same thing. little box from hell lol. ok i will leave you to read through all of this and try to make sence of this jumbled mess. like i said ifyou need anything else just let me know.

thank you

I does look like your system is powerful enough for that game.

What do you mean about hot date? What does the box say? Can you provide a screen shot? Hit the print screen button, open up your favorite picture editor such as ms paint & paste the screen shot unto the canvas & then save the file (as jpeg/jpg instead of bmp). You'll then have to find a website to host the picture for you since these servers don't allow you to do that. I recommend ImageShack because its free. They'll give you a link to the picture & when you do your reply put done the link. An expansion pack with unofficial content looks questionable to me. If it isn't designed by the manufacturer then there could be a hidden, previously unknown incompatibility & the manufacturer probably won't support it & may not even support "official" games/expansion packs with it installed depending on their policy. If you still can't install any other expansion pack your problem could still be the original game (so I would still uninstall it) or it could always be your installation of windows. I understand that with so many games you might not want to reinstall it all but it might come down to either doing that, reinstalling windows, or going without the expansion packs but lets try the screen shot first.