Recently I have been wanting to play Sims 2, I managed to get it working few months back and tried to come back to it however it keeps constantly crashing, sometimes it crashes during the loading screen and sometimes I can get to the neighborhood however i can Never seem to go on create a sim or any current house or build any, it would just crashI have checked a few websites and they think that the recent Windows Update (the one revolving around intel CPUs) had broken it, my laptop can run it as its running an older version of windows 10 however I would really like to get it running on my faster Desktop, does anyone have any ideas and is there a possibility that EA would release another update fixing this issue? (I know the game is coming to 14 years old but there was an update in October 2017)

@MsPigglyPooh Hi, there is a thread over on Leefish forums addressing your problem almost exactly. The issue seems to be that Nvidia GTX cards plus Windows 10 simply will not run the Sims 2, at all. And yes that also explains why your older system will run it and your newer one won't--there is a basic incompatibility. I'm in the same boat, sadly. Here's the link if you want to check it out or post and talk to the very knowledgeable people there. http://leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=8809 There is confirmation that Nvidia GTX and Windows 7 will run the game, so I may see what I can do about getting Windows 7 back again.

@Hilarious30 @TheReaTruelKing @pookah11 @Reid1651 @Dragonkingf0 @Ragrup @0dragontiger0 @izzybarrett @FknVulpix @G4M3K177Y @klappa82 @vickylocaxsims @Emarielle @ashleywinker @vevex_banana Hi all, I'll put the same info here as I gave to another player. There is a thread over on Leefish forums addressing the constant crashing problem. The issue seems to be that Nvidia GTX 10XX series cards--along with a lot of other new cards--plus Windows 10 simply will not run the Sims 2 reliably. There is also an issue with Direct X 11 & 12 that the newer cards use being incompatible with the game. I'm in the same boat, sadly. Here's the link if you want to check it out or post and talk to the very knowledgeable people there. http://leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=8809 There is a pinned post listing what cards will/will not work you can check. There is confirmation that Nvidia GTX 10XX series cards plus Windows 7 will run the game, so I may see what I can do about getting Windows 7 back again.

I have an update on the sims 2 ultimate that actually worked for me and it stopped the crashing for my rig. This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0iwuLZyjMg) helped me out a lot. I forgot all about the data execution prevention that I used for the sims 3 when it would crash and I didn't know that it would work for the sims 2. I followed some of her steps. I still downloaded the graphics ruler fix but I also downloaded the 4gb patch fix and did the step with the data execution and my game has not crashed on me yet which is exciting! I'll keep ya'll updated.

@EA_Mai did you check the link before you deleted it? It would be great if EA provided a fix so people did not have to resort to third parties to fix their game. Sims 2 crashes ALL the time on Win 10 Sims 3 has major lags and crashes after Island Paradise EP was installed. This is well known that the world has major routing problems. Does EA fix it? NO -- so people resort to third parties to mod fixes. I would rather play the games I purchased (yes I purchased all of the EPS for TS2 & TS3) than use a mod that may or may not fix the game. So EA_MAI, please reach out to your superiors, bubble up the problems and work to have a fix. Turns out with TS2 it is maxing out at 2GB ram -- Well I have 32GB ram on my system so it should not have a problem with virtual memory etc. I am not entirely comfortable using fix on the Pleasant Sims website as it is not an official game patch and it is not a simple mod, it actually rewrites the executable. -- so what is the solution? Note: I did not attach the full DxDiag because it contains information about my machine that a hacker may find interesting and it doesn't seem like EA_MAI has responded on the forum to anyone who has posted them.

I have managed to get SIMS 2 on Origin to work.Literally I followed this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BRX0JlN8lMonly difference is that you don't move over dxgi.dll.at first the game wouldn't even launch but after i restarted my computer It then worked fine, remember to backup your files first though Just in case, hope this helped lol as I posted the original problem almost 2 years ago XD

The Sims 2 ultimate collection origin keeps crashing (Windows 10) FEB 2018

81 Replies

TarixSim
8 years ago
Mine seems to be crashing too, pretty much as soon as I get into create a sim. Hopefully there will be a fix. They still have Sims 2 customer support, so it might happen.
EA_Mai
EA Staff
8 years ago
Hi,

Great to see you are still interested in The Sims 2! Let me try to help with this 🙂

@Jozo7O was the game running without issues in that computer in the past?

@TarixSim @Jozo7O, could you please give us more technical information about your computer? A dxdiag would be very helpful. You can find instructions on how to get a dxdiag here, and you can attach it to your answer.

That might give us more information about the problem as well 🙂

Thanks!

-Mai
Jozo7O
Rising Novice
8 years ago
here you are 🙂 It used to work about half a year 4/5 months ago on the same computer, and only just recently I have been wanting to play again, I have tried reinstalling it and repairing it via Origin but to no avail at best I can mess around in the neighborhood but I cant enter/edit a lot or even create a new sim, I've seen a few forums saying its something to do with Windows 10 update 1709 either not liking the Sims 2 post October update or the sims 2 at all.
diagee.txt105 KB
TarixSim
8 years ago
Here is my dxdiag file and also my most recent crash log.
So, I have just recently installed The Sims 2, but the problem that I am noticing so far is with CAS. When I launch the game and try to make a new family (I have tried in two different worlds) it crashes quite quickly. Likewise, when I play a pre-made family, I can play just fine it seems until I go to a mirror and change appearance (so far I haven't had much time to actually play as I have been trying to make a new family, so I don't know if it would crash after a while of playing, but it doesn't seem like it would). Every time it crashes with an ACCESS_VIOLATION error, which seems to be that it is trying to read or write to memory it shouldn't have access to when in CAS.
One thing to note is that my laptop is a 64 bit machine and the game seems to be a 32 bit game. Could that be causing any problems?
Sims2Exception 2018.02.06 22.09.27.txt13 KB
DxDiag_tmcox12_020618.txt74 KB
TarixSim
8 years ago
I have also read that this problem seems prevalent with Windows 10 Pro edition computers specifically. Not sure if that's helpful or not.
EA_Mai
EA Staff
8 years ago
Hi @TarixSim @Jozo7O:

Have you both already tried to run the game in compatibility mode with Windows XP (Service Pack 2)? I know for you it worked in that computer before, @Jozo7O, but please, try anyway if you haven't done so already. You would need to:

Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin (path might be different if you changed the Origin game installation folder)

Right click in Sims2EP9.exe > Properties.

Go to Compatibility tab

Select to run the program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2)

Select to run the program as administrator.

Apply the changes and double click on Sims2EP9.exe to start the game.

If that doesn't help, you might want to give the option 'Reduced colour mode' to 8-bit a try. It's also in Compatibility tab.

@TarixSim your graphics card is actually not that powerful, considering the specifications of the rest of your computer, and the issue could come from there. If compatibility mode doesn't work, could you try lowering the graphics settings as much as possible?

@Jozo7O great PC! Your computer has two graphics cards, as you probably already know. Could you try to change the card the game is using to launch? You should be able to do it using NVIDIA Control Panel. Let me know if you are not sure how to do that and I'll help 🙂

Thanks!

-Mai
Jozo7O
Rising Novice
8 years ago
Thanks XD 🙂 also I tried the compatibility mode and its still crashing, this time it crashed as soon as it brought up the neighborhood menu
And I try to go on the control panel and click on the list of games and it seems to list all types of sims 2 apart from EP9 XD lol, See image attached XD, any other suggestions?
TarixSim
8 years ago
Thank you. The issue seemed to be with my video card. All seems to be working fine now 🙂
EA_Mai
EA Staff
8 years ago
Glad to read that, @TarixSim! You could try to 'play' a bit with the settings until you find the best ones for you.

Enjoy the game! 🙂

@Jozo7O :D The pack is hiding! Luckily, we can fix that easily - see that button just to the right where it says 'Add'? Use it and NVIDIA will show you a list of the recently used programs.

If sims2ep9.exe doesn't even show in that list, use 'Browse...' option below that list to find it yourself. Remember by default it's inside C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSBin

Please, let us know if that helps 🙂
-Mai
Jozo7O
Rising Novice
8 years ago
Ok, so I loaded it in the list of applications but I cant see anywhere where i can try switch graphics cards, what option do i change?