[LeilaB]

Hello!

We just bought The Sims 2 for PC and loaded it on Sunday evening. That night, the game loaded up completely although it was very slow at times within the game. Monday things seemed to be picking up as well. However, last night, the game stopped loading at the "families" screen - we could get through the intro, the neighborhoods, and choosing the family to play, but the family load screen just loads and loads and loads and never goes to play. Last night I kept the game on all night to see if the family chosen would ever load - it didn't.

I thought it might be a memory issue so I deleted some underused music files and some games as well that weren't being played. Still nothing. This morning I uninstalled the Sims 2 b/c I thought that maybe my system is not strong enough - although it's not very old.

Any at all would be appreciated. Thank you!

System specs are:
Windows: Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180
Memory (RAM): 254 MB
CPU Info: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.20GHz
CPU Speed: 2198.3 MHz
Sound card: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Display Adapters: Intel® 82845G Graphics Controller | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD |
Screen Resolution: 1024 X 768
Network: Network Present
Network Adapters: Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport | WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface |
CD / DVD Drives: D: HL-DT-STRW/DVD GCC-4480B |
Default Printer:
COM Ports: COM1 |
LPT Ports: LPT1 |
Mouse: 3 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks: C: 37.3GB |
Hard Disks - Free: C: 17.5GB |
USB Controllers: Detected: 4 host controllers.
Firewire (1394): Not Detected
PCMCIA (Laptops): Not Installed
Manufacturer: Intel Corp.
Product Make: ESSEX2
Serial Number: 0030138887
AC Power Status: OnLine
BIOS Info: AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 04/01/03 | GATEWA - 4000301 | |
Time Zone: Eastern Standard Time
Battery: No Battery
Motherboard:
Modems:

Edited by LeilaB, 15 March 2006 - 08:06 AM.

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Hello LeilaB and welcome to G2G!

Your PC does meet the minimum requirements for the game but performance would be gained by adding some more RAM and upgrading that itegrated graphics card.
As for the loading thing did you have the Sims 2 patch installed?
Also did you have the latest drivers installed?

Edited by ZEUS_GB, 15 March 2006 - 08:33 AM.

[ZEUS_GB]

Hello LeilaB and welcome to G2G!

Your PC does meet the minimum requirements for the game but performance would be gained by adding some more RAM and upgrading that itegrated graphics card.
As for the loading thing did you have the Sims 2 patch installed?
Also did you have the latest drivers installed?

Edited by ZEUS_GB, 15 March 2006 - 08:33 AM.

[LeilaB]

Okay, that sounds great. I downloaded the patch and will update my computer at home tonight. Which is the integrated graphics card and is that something that I can update from a website or do I need to buy new stuff? Also RAM - is that something that I would need to purchase and have someone install?

Thank you so much for your help! I'm glad to hear that I *should* be able to play this darn game at least!

[jrm20]

Your having that problem do to the video card not being capable to run it efficiently.

256MB ram is why its loading so slowly. You should atleast get a 512MB stick of memory then get some kind of new video card that would be capable to play the game.

Those two combined is the problem.


Below is the current list of graphics cards supported by The Sims 2:

* ATI RadeonTM series (7000 or better)
o Radeon 7000/VE series (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
o 7200, 7500
o 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
o 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
o X300, X600, X800

* Nvidia® QuadroTM series
o Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4

* Nvidia® Geforce series (GeForce2 and better)
o GeForce2
o GeForce3, 3 Ti
o GeForce4, 4Ti, MX 420, 440
o GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
o GeForce 6600, 6800

Any of those video cards or above will work but you have to have the correct slot to fit some of the newer video cards.

You need to find out if you have an agp slot on your motherboard so that you can get a new video card of some type.

If you dont have an agp slot we need to know as your only other option would be a regular pci slot video card.( they run slower but there is some that would be plenty fast enough for your machine.)

Let us know so you can get the right video card and list a budget for a video card.