Hi group! It's been awhile again. It seems to get longer & longer between my visits. But I am playing the Sims 2 a little more recently, though the RPG game Oblivion is still getting more attention. As is my Anime watching, collecting hobby, etc.
I also bought a new computer recently. My old desktop PC is about 5 years old now. It can still keep up with the crowd, as it was top of the line when I bought it originally. Of course, I'd changed & added quite a bit to it too. A second bigger hard drive, more RAM, a bigger better video card, a DVD Burner & a more powerful power supply & fan. So the 'old thing' still works great (I'm on it at the moment). But I just thought it was finally time to 'jump'. Beside I usually buy a new machine every 4 years or so. Which is about the time, Microsoft brings out a new OS. It's Vista this time, last time it was XP.
So this time round the new machine is a notebook computer. No, not one of those little light weight ones. This one is a desktop replacement type. It's got a 17 inch screen & weighs about 8 pounds. Sorry, I know I should convert that to metric, but I'm just going by the specs. list. Anyway, the CPU speed is the same as the old desktop, at 2 GHZ. But it's got the Core Duo, as well as double the RAM. It's also double the video card RAM too. The video card isn't one of those cheap intagrated ones either. It's a NVIDIA! Bigger hard drive too. There is one little draw back with the hard drive, as it is slightly slower. Most notebook hard drives spin slower, because of the speed builds up heat. Which is very bad. So they spin slower! But over all the machine works quite well. If you are curious, it's a Toshiba Satelite model.
You probably all want to know how well it runs the Sims 2, right! Well I first backed up onto DVDs, all my Download folder & a few other things (careful Not to include the config files, as they are for different computers). Then started installing the game & all the expansion packs. I have all of them (just bought Celebration this week too).
Well just after it finished installing the main game it stopped. The computer then notify me, that there was a problem between Vista & the Sims 2. The computer wanted to got online to check something. It came back & said the problem was at the Sims 2's end & I had to go there for a Patch. So I go to EA's site & download a Patch, then install it. So it was finally back to installing all the expansion packs in the correct order. Just the usual disk shuffles, no problems. I'd only been up to Seasons, when I'd gotten the computer. This was where my desktop was to & the backup DVD was to there as well. So once there were all installed, I started up the game 'empty' to see how well it ran.
The game loaded up very quickly! The graphics are really great too. The only problem was some sound glitches. I guess the machine doesn't have the greatest sound card, as it is intagrated. But the desktop's was as well, but I guess the faster hard drive made up for it. So I checked out one basic neighbourhood, as I wanted to see if the Sims could actually fish. My other Sims couldn't fish for some reason. Probably a conflicting hack, which I'm having trouble tracking down. The base game Sims could fish!
So I exited the game & loaded in the DVD & copied over the backed up stuff. Started the game again. Still quite fast, around 5 to 6 minutes! Got to the enable stuff screen. Enabled stuff & exited again. Then restarted & got playing! The sound was still a little glitchy, but over all it's fine.
So this past week I added on the Celebration Stuff pack. It installs a Patch for Pets, then says that I have a newer pack already. That I should go get the Patch for it. So I go get the one for Seasons. Oh, while I was on site, I noticed that there is a new Ford car you can download if you want it.
So I finally get all the patches installed & do the enable stuff again & restart. The sound problem happens less, so maybe the patches helped. So it was now play time again. Still no fishing, so I'm still going to have to find that conflict. But I'll probably have to wait until SimPE updates, to find it.
If you haven't bought Seasons yet, you really should. You will love the weather. Particularly the snow! I've even frozen a few Simmies already, ha ha! But if you have a hack like the Insiminator (I still have an older version in my game. Pre-registration) & keep their stats up, they will thaw out in the spring & go about their business. Their skin will even go back to normal. It turns pale when they freeze & takes awhile to go back to normal.
I use the weather hack from Sim Wardrobe site. It's great for changing the weather to what you want. You can even make it snow forever. The snow will cover everthing, including all ground level lights. Almost up to the Sims knees. Cool! If you keep an eye out, you might even see the cute secret penguin go past your lot. You can run out & pet it too. Oh, don't forget the gardening, sprinkles & greenhouse building. Anyway, I'd better run, as it is very very late/early here. See you around. Bye for now. SEJ
I also bought a new computer recently. My old desktop PC is about 5 years old now. It can still keep up with the crowd, as it was top of the line when I bought it originally. Of course, I'd changed & added quite a bit to it too. A second bigger hard drive, more RAM, a bigger better video card, a DVD Burner & a more powerful power supply & fan. So the 'old thing' still works great (I'm on it at the moment). But I just thought it was finally time to 'jump'. Beside I usually buy a new machine every 4 years or so. Which is about the time, Microsoft brings out a new OS. It's Vista this time, last time it was XP.
So this time round the new machine is a notebook computer. No, not one of those little light weight ones. This one is a desktop replacement type. It's got a 17 inch screen & weighs about 8 pounds. Sorry, I know I should convert that to metric, but I'm just going by the specs. list. Anyway, the CPU speed is the same as the old desktop, at 2 GHZ. But it's got the Core Duo, as well as double the RAM. It's also double the video card RAM too. The video card isn't one of those cheap intagrated ones either. It's a NVIDIA! Bigger hard drive too. There is one little draw back with the hard drive, as it is slightly slower. Most notebook hard drives spin slower, because of the speed builds up heat. Which is very bad. So they spin slower! But over all the machine works quite well. If you are curious, it's a Toshiba Satelite model.
You probably all want to know how well it runs the Sims 2, right! Well I first backed up onto DVDs, all my Download folder & a few other things (careful Not to include the config files, as they are for different computers). Then started installing the game & all the expansion packs. I have all of them (just bought Celebration this week too).
Well just after it finished installing the main game it stopped. The computer then notify me, that there was a problem between Vista & the Sims 2. The computer wanted to got online to check something. It came back & said the problem was at the Sims 2's end & I had to go there for a Patch. So I go to EA's site & download a Patch, then install it. So it was finally back to installing all the expansion packs in the correct order. Just the usual disk shuffles, no problems. I'd only been up to Seasons, when I'd gotten the computer. This was where my desktop was to & the backup DVD was to there as well. So once there were all installed, I started up the game 'empty' to see how well it ran.
The game loaded up very quickly! The graphics are really great too. The only problem was some sound glitches. I guess the machine doesn't have the greatest sound card, as it is intagrated. But the desktop's was as well, but I guess the faster hard drive made up for it. So I checked out one basic neighbourhood, as I wanted to see if the Sims could actually fish. My other Sims couldn't fish for some reason. Probably a conflicting hack, which I'm having trouble tracking down. The base game Sims could fish!
So I exited the game & loaded in the DVD & copied over the backed up stuff. Started the game again. Still quite fast, around 5 to 6 minutes! Got to the enable stuff screen. Enabled stuff & exited again. Then restarted & got playing! The sound was still a little glitchy, but over all it's fine.
So this past week I added on the Celebration Stuff pack. It installs a Patch for Pets, then says that I have a newer pack already. That I should go get the Patch for it. So I go get the one for Seasons. Oh, while I was on site, I noticed that there is a new Ford car you can download if you want it.
So I finally get all the patches installed & do the enable stuff again & restart. The sound problem happens less, so maybe the patches helped. So it was now play time again. Still no fishing, so I'm still going to have to find that conflict. But I'll probably have to wait until SimPE updates, to find it.
If you haven't bought Seasons yet, you really should. You will love the weather. Particularly the snow! I've even frozen a few Simmies already, ha ha! But if you have a hack like the Insiminator (I still have an older version in my game. Pre-registration) & keep their stats up, they will thaw out in the spring & go about their business. Their skin will even go back to normal. It turns pale when they freeze & takes awhile to go back to normal.
I use the weather hack from Sim Wardrobe site. It's great for changing the weather to what you want. You can even make it snow forever. The snow will cover everthing, including all ground level lights. Almost up to the Sims knees. Cool! If you keep an eye out, you might even see the cute secret penguin go past your lot. You can run out & pet it too. Oh, don't forget the gardening, sprinkles & greenhouse building. Anyway, I'd better run, as it is very very late/early here. See you around. Bye for now. SEJ
