Game Help:System Checkup

System Checkup

Problems

Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms?

• The whole computer reboots or freezes up while loading or playing the game.
• Blue screen with white writing and lots of error text.
• General poor performance, slowness, and lag.

Solutions

If so, it may be time to take a look at your computer and see if it's the problem. Even newly purchased computers can have issues, especially with high-strain games like The Sims 2/3.

Your System Specs

The first thing to do is to find out what your system's specifications (specs) are. That will tell you all the details about your computer - what kind of everything you have, which is quite important!

Think of your computer like a truck. Your truck is made to work, to haul things. The Sims 2 and/or The Sims 3 are very, very heavy, and requires a powerful truck to haul. You may have a new truck, but that doesn't mean it's a powerful truck... or you may have an old but still quite strong truck. Identifying exactly how many cylinders, what type of engine, spark plugs, radiator, etc., you have is important in knowing whether your truck can handle the load to begin with.

Now then, forget all that truck business and go find out what's under your hood. See this article for full details and instructions to help you identify all of the important specs on your computer: Game Help:System Specs

System Requirements

Once you have identified your system's specs and know what you have, then you need to check whether your computer can handle the game and its expansions.

For both TS2 and TS3, the base game, expansions, and stuff packs can have different system requirements and supported hardware. As more expansions come out, the requirements get higher as the game needs a more powerful computer to do fancy things. Certain EPs or SPs may have limited supported graphics cards - so just because your computer was good enough for the base game doesn't mean it'll always be good enough.

You should always check the system requirements for any game you buy to make sure your system is not only powerful enough to handle the game, but that your graphics card and other hardware are supported. Even if you have a good computer, if your hardware is not supported, the game probably won't work. Just because the base game works for you doesn't mean newer expansions or stuff packs will, so know what you have and what is supported before you buy!

You can see a full listing of all the system requirements for Sims 2 and Sims 3, see:

• Sims 2 System Requirements
• Sims 3 System Requirements

If your system doesn't meet the requirements...

... then you cannot expect to be able to run the game properly! If your hardware is not supported and is not powerful enough to run the game, no amount of tweaking, prodding, and praying will get it to run correctly.

You MUST at least meet the minimum system requirements for the game to run at all, and you must meet or exceed the recommended requirements to expect it to run anything resembling well.

If you're not a computer person, this explanation here will probably help: Game Help:Your Computer is Like a Car.

Your only options are to either upgrade your current computer's hardware or purchase a new computer.

Upgrading your computer or purchasing a new one

If you need to upgrade your current computer's components, or purchase a whole new computer, the absolute best thing you can do is educate yourself! Examine the list of supported hardware for the game(s) you want to play and do some research on those parts to compare their performance and prices. Learn what a good system is composed of nowadays, and about how much that will cost. Identify whether your current system even can be upgraded, and if so, if it's worth it - it may be more cost effective to just purchase a whole new computer rather than upgrade the one you have.

For much, MUCH more information on computer hardware, upgrades, and buying a new computer, see: Computer & Software Help on MTS

System Health

You can also look into doing some basic computer maintenance, cleanup, and scans to ensure that it is running well in general. This will not only help the game work better, but will improve the general performance of your computer.

There is a GREAT guide available at PCStats: Annual PC Checkup

That guide covers, among other things:

• Removing dust
• Oiling fans
• Placing your computer in a low-dust environment
• Defragmenting your hard drive
• Disabling unneeded startup programs

These elements may be enough to get your computer running well again, and by extension, The Sims 2 working better as well. However, as a responsible computer user, you should also be doing the following regularly:

• Internet Security and Antivirus Protection
• Spyware/Adware Protection and Removal

Blue Screen of Death

Are you still experiencing (after doing all the above) a blue screen with white lettering? That's called the Blue Screen of Death, and its appearance can mean something has gone extremely wrong - or maybe just a little wrong. For information on fixing it, see:

• Crash Recovery and the Blue Screen of Death

Bad Hard Drive?

Sometimes general computer problems can be due to a dying hard drive. For information on symptoms and diagnosis of a bad or dying hard drive, see:

• Diagnosing Bad Hard Drives

Bad Memory?

A generally flaky, grumpy computer can be due to bad memory. For information on symptoms and diagnosis of bad or dying memory/RAM, see:

• Diagnosing Bad Memory

Tweaking Windows

If you are using Windows, here's some great guides on how to change some settings and things to make it run a lot better:

• 101 Tips and Tweaks for Windows XP
• 104 Performance Tips for Windows XP
• 99 Performance Tips for Windows XP
• Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

Related Links

• Sims 2 Slowness and Lag
• Game Help:System Specs
• Sims 2 System Requirements
• Sims 3 System Requirements
• Graphics Cards