Greetings,

I am attempting to load SIMS ver 1 and a few expansion packs e.g makin magic on a win xp system however after install I am getting a display of the makin magic splash page and then nothing afterwards.

Can someone assist me with this please?

Regards,
John

I don't own this game so I don't know how much help I will be, but...does the regular install of the base game work correctly? Is the only problem when you load the magic pack? Do you have other expansion packs that you can try?

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

I have several expansion packs and initially loaded them all up with the same result.

The base module of Sims exhibits the same behaviour.

With any sims module installed the makin magic install overides all the others and it is this disk that is required to be present in the cdrom drive when the game is invoked at the icon.

I just get the makin magic game splash screen and some action at the cdrom light and then nothing happens! very frustrating.

I have tried installing the game and making the start icon win98 compatible but does not have any effect.

Regards,
John

Hey Weekendwarrior,

Make sure that all of the installations completed without any errors sometimes when installing the sims on my pc sometime I will get a error in the installation at this point it a good idea to just uninstall and begin again.

End any background tasks in order for the game to run stably:
-Hold [Ctrl] and [Alt] and then tap the [Delete] key. This should bring up the "Close Programs" window.
-Highlight an unnecessary application and press "End Task".
-Repeat this procedure to close any other programs (excluding "Explorer" and "Systray")

Disable any anti-virus and/or crash guard software you have running.
Lower the video hardware acceleration to “basic”:
- Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
- Pick the "Performance" tab
- Choose "Graphics"
- Lower “hardware acceleration” to basic.

Try selecting "game compatible device" or "use any available device" from the multimedia control panel.
Make sure that your desktop is set to at least 800x600, 16-bit high color and that you are using the latest driver for your sound and video cards. If your drivers are out of date or lack DirectX 7 support, there is a workaround:
- You'll need to modify the shortcut to The Sims. Browse to the Program Files\Maxis\The Sims directory (or whatever directory you've installed the game to), right click on Sims.EXE and drag it to your desktop, and select "Create Shortcut(s) Here".
- Once you have the shortcut on your desktop, right-click on it and select Properties.
- In the ‘Target’ field it should say:
"C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Sims.exe" (or the path to whichever folder it’s installed to).
- Add the following to the end of the “Target” line: “-nodx6 -skip_verify -skip_intro -w”
If the game still crashes, you may be having sound problems. As a last resort, add “ -nosound” to the desktop shortcut as well.

I hope this may help let me know if you need more help

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Hi,

Thank you for your help.

I have had some success with loading the SIMS modules on this PC.

I was directed to a patch called SAFEDISK which apparently corrects cdroms readinf something called safedisk?? and indeed worked for me along with loading up in win98 compatible mode.

The safedisk.exe file is available at:

www.macrovision.com

Thanks for everyones help, it is much appreciated.

Regards,
John

Now go to the store and buy Sims 2

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If practice makes perfect and nobody's perfect... why practice?

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I don't think so after the problems with installing SIMS 1

For me personally I didn't have any install problems with the Sims2, I have had problems with the install of the sims but the sims2 has yet to give me any real problems.

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Just an FYI, Macrovision's Safedisk is a DRM program some game companies use to "prevent" copying. Most likely it was a screw up w/ the anti-theft software that caused you problems. Just one of the things to be aware of when you're shopping for games, music, other media.

__________________
Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

Help!! i am trying to install sims deluxe and while installing it keeps saying there is an error on file and then it says this is due to lack of system resources (0x5a). im pretty sure i have the system requirements and definetely the memory.