reinstalled the works but no Mrs Crumplebottom

Sita · 06-04-2008, 11:48 AM

I put XP on my machine - reinstalled all my Sims 2 and EPs. but Nightlife doesn't seem to have worked. No Pleasure Sims, no Downtowns.
I tried reinstalling NL but it doesn't help. I cannot uninstall it from Control Panel so I assume it didn't install right in the first place... do I have to take all out and start again?

Greg · 06-04-2008, 12:24 PM

>blink< Obviously it's not an issue of the operating system alone since millions of folks are running The Sims 2 under XP.

If XP is running fine otherwise, it has to be a problem with the installation of The Sims 2.

Before removing and reinstalling the whole game, the first thing I would try would be to just install Nightlife. (I have always installed the expansion packs in the order in which they were released and patched each one as I went, but EA insists that it does not matter.)

Is there a Nightlife folder among the Program Files?

That is, see if this path exists: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife

If not, then somehow Nightlife didn't get installed at all.

If that doesn't work, the next thing I would try would be to uninstall the whole game, maybe run a registry cleaner to check to make sure there aren't any erroneous fiddly bits, and reinstall the whole game from scratch.

Miros1 · 06-04-2008, 02:08 PM

Weird! (I'm running XP on this machine and Win98 on the other and NL is fine on both.)

As Greg said, see if the folder exists, then try yet another install of NL. If still nothing, you'll need the famous uninstall and reinstall.

I do hope you've moved Downloads, Neighborhoods and Collections to a safe place?

Sita · 06-04-2008, 11:28 PM

yeah. Nightlife had apparently not been installed at all. Though I KNOW I DID... and the patch. But I dunno. Wierd things seem to happen around SIms disks.

Oh yes, Rose, downloads were out, are still...

I did sort it eventually by uninstalling alla way back so I only had Sims 2 and Uni in there, installing NightLife yet again and the patch, then I ran the game to be sure it was there. That time it worked. Now I have everything except tthe Christmas stuff installed, game works fine with no CC. Just adding CC in now as I write so fingers crossed... I'm working on the premise that it worked before so it SHOULD work now. Also put back my life-support programs, TS2Enhancer and SimSky, and Clean Installer.

Phew....what a day. well, three days actually. Keeps me off the streets though.

rdanner3 · 06-05-2008, 02:35 AM

Considering the chaos Mrs. Crumplebottom can cause to a date (I once saw her reduce a date that was nearly to "Dream Date" to close to the bottom!) I'm using the "No Mrs. Crumplebottom" mod to prevent the disaster. Haven't missed her yet, and the lack of Mrs. C would be (IMO) an improvement. One reason I find her odious? I've seen her do the very things she berates others for! (both in my game and in others I was watching as they played.)

However, everyone has their opinion about her, so I'm cool with however folks want to handle it.

Greg · 06-05-2008, 03:06 AM

That's one of the strangest ones yet! It's not impossible that you might have started to install Nightlife and something went awry, and you overlooked an error message. Or the installer failed to give you the error message that it should have. Or something. Color me clueless!

Sita · 06-05-2008, 09:18 AM

Greg, I think it must have been something like that. I'm clueless too. Certainly the disks were in the drive and I clicked all the buttons, and though I was/am quite ill and not thinking too well I am pretty sure no errors came up. Never mind, just a HUGE relief to have it all working again.

Some of the CC seems to work, need to reload game to see if it's got the rest.

Yes I quite like Mrs C. But my Sims don't depend on dream dates downtown... and they are quite good at avoiding her. She makes me laugh, which is the original intention I spose. Maybe I knew someone like her once!

Greg · 06-06-2008, 02:59 AM

I'm hopeful, Sita! The change in operating system shouldn't have a noticeable effect on the game other than that XP uses up more memory and might have some more overhead.

I have only seen Mrs. Crumplebottom a couple of times and all she did was stalk around, so I don't get to complain about her as much I might have.

Miros1 · 06-06-2008, 04:06 AM

If you have BV or after, you need to make sure you don't have your folders nested too deep.

Zirconia Wolf · 06-06-2008, 12:17 PM

What was the official "too deep" determined to be?

Downloads > Folder

or

Downloads > Folder > Folder ?

-ZW

(Sita, if this is a new PC, how were you able to keep "them" from forcing Vista upon you?! )

Miros1 · 06-06-2008, 12:54 PM

Downloads/Folder is definitely ok.

Downloads/Folder/Folder definitely doesn't work for Build items.

(I think Sita put XP on the machine herself.)

Hokieman · 06-07-2008, 12:07 AM

Rose, not to disagree or anything, but I've got folders 4 deep (5 if you count the Downloads folder itself) with Free Time installed and everything shows up, build, objects and bodyshop packages. I specifically checked that after seeing your post about Odessa's problem. I wonder if it's an OS thing. Woirks in XP but not in Vista maybe??

Miros1 · 06-07-2008, 01:50 AM

Could be. We were just so happy to find a way to make the CC work that we haven't even gotten back to trying to narrow down exactly what has to be where. Poor woman had to buy a wig for her new job since she'd pulled her hair out!

Greg · 06-07-2008, 04:37 AM

If it's Vista, then it would have to be something odd about the combination of the operating system and some expansion pack that I don't have because nested folders work fine for me when running under Vista.

Or, it could just be that once again we are repeating rumors that started when someone either had a problem and attributed it to nested folders, or just made up the whole thing to see how much grief could be inflicted upon others. As always, if you have not thoroughly tested it yourself, then make sure to note that you are only repeating rumors when you post notes about bugs in the game.

Miros1 · 06-07-2008, 05:50 AM

Well, this was Odessa's experience... Downloads/folder/folder didn't work for certain downloads, Downloads/folder did. It's got a little more veracity than a rumor, although it's not something I did myself.

06-04-2008, 11:48 AM	#1
Sita Solar Max Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: England Posts: 371	reinstalled the works but no Mrs Crumplebottom I put XP on my machine - reinstalled all my Sims 2 and EPs. but Nightlife doesn't seem to have worked. No Pleasure Sims, no Downtowns. I tried reinstalling NL but it doesn't help. I cannot uninstall it from Control Panel so I assume it didn't install right in the first place... do I have to take all out and start again?

06-04-2008, 12:24 PM	#2
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	>blink< Obviously it's not an issue of the operating system alone since millions of folks are running The Sims 2 under XP. If XP is running fine otherwise, it has to be a problem with the installation of The Sims 2. Before removing and reinstalling the whole game, the first thing I would try would be to just install Nightlife. (I have always installed the expansion packs in the order in which they were released and patched each one as I went, but EA insists that it does not matter.) Is there a Nightlife folder among the Program Files? That is, see if this path exists: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife If not, then somehow Nightlife didn't get installed at all. If that doesn't work, the next thing I would try would be to uninstall the whole game, maybe run a registry cleaner to check to make sure there aren't any erroneous fiddly bits, and reinstall the whole game from scratch. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

06-04-2008, 02:08 PM	#3
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Weird! (I'm running XP on this machine and Win98 on the other and NL is fine on both.) As Greg said, see if the folder exists, then try yet another install of NL. If still nothing, you'll need the famous uninstall and reinstall. I do hope you've moved Downloads, Neighborhoods and Collections to a safe place? __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

06-05-2008, 03:06 AM	#6
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	That's one of the strangest ones yet! It's not impossible that you might have started to install Nightlife and something went awry, and you overlooked an error message. Or the installer failed to give you the error message that it should have. Or something. Color me clueless! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

06-06-2008, 02:59 AM	#8
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I'm hopeful, Sita! The change in operating system shouldn't have a noticeable effect on the game other than that XP uses up more memory and might have some more overhead. I have only seen Mrs. Crumplebottom a couple of times and all she did was stalk around, so I don't get to complain about her as much I might have. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

06-04-2008, 11:28 PM	#4
Sita Solar Max Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: England Posts: 371	yeah. Nightlife had apparently not been installed at all. Though I KNOW I DID... and the patch. But I dunno. Wierd things seem to happen around SIms disks. Oh yes, Rose, downloads were out, are still... I did sort it eventually by uninstalling alla way back so I only had Sims 2 and Uni in there, installing NightLife yet again and the patch, then I ran the game to be sure it was there. That time it worked. Now I have everything except tthe Christmas stuff installed, game works fine with no CC. Just adding CC in now as I write so fingers crossed... I'm working on the premise that it worked before so it SHOULD work now. Also put back my life-support programs, TS2Enhancer and SimSky, and Clean Installer. Phew....what a day. well, three days actually. Keeps me off the streets though.

06-05-2008, 02:35 AM	#5
rdanner3 Herald of the Dawn Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Central Alabama, US Posts: 53	Considering the chaos Mrs. Crumplebottom can cause to a date (I once saw her reduce a date that was nearly to "Dream Date" to close to the bottom!) I'm using the "No Mrs. Crumplebottom" mod to prevent the disaster. Haven't missed her yet, and the lack of Mrs. C would be (IMO) an improvement. One reason I find her odious? I've seen her do the very things she berates others for! (both in my game and in others I was watching as they played.) However, everyone has their opinion about her, so I'm cool with however folks want to handle it.

06-05-2008, 09:18 AM	#7
Sita Solar Max Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: England Posts: 371	Greg, I think it must have been something like that. I'm clueless too. Certainly the disks were in the drive and I clicked all the buttons, and though I was/am quite ill and not thinking too well I am pretty sure no errors came up. Never mind, just a HUGE relief to have it all working again. Some of the CC seems to work, need to reload game to see if it's got the rest. Yes I quite like Mrs C. But my Sims don't depend on dream dates downtown... and they are quite good at avoiding her. She makes me laugh, which is the original intention I spose. Maybe I knew someone like her once!

06-06-2008, 04:06 AM	#9
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	If you have BV or after, you need to make sure you don't have your folders nested too deep. __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

06-06-2008, 12:17 PM	#10
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	What was the official "too deep" determined to be? Downloads > Folder or Downloads > Folder > Folder ? -ZW (Sita, if this is a new PC, how were you able to keep "them" from forcing Vista upon you?! ) __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

06-06-2008, 12:54 PM	#11
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Downloads/Folder is definitely ok. Downloads/Folder/Folder definitely doesn't work for Build items. (I think Sita put XP on the machine herself.) __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

06-07-2008, 12:07 AM	#12
Hokieman Solar Max Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 520	Rose, not to disagree or anything, but I've got folders 4 deep (5 if you count the Downloads folder itself) with Free Time installed and everything shows up, build, objects and bodyshop packages. I specifically checked that after seeing your post about Odessa's problem. I wonder if it's an OS thing. Woirks in XP but not in Vista maybe??

06-07-2008, 01:50 AM	#13
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Could be. We were just so happy to find a way to make the CC work that we haven't even gotten back to trying to narrow down exactly what has to be where. Poor woman had to buy a wig for her new job since she'd pulled her hair out! __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

06-07-2008, 04:37 AM	#14
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	If it's Vista, then it would have to be something odd about the combination of the operating system and some expansion pack that I don't have because nested folders work fine for me when running under Vista. Or, it could just be that once again we are repeating rumors that started when someone either had a problem and attributed it to nested folders, or just made up the whole thing to see how much grief could be inflicted upon others. As always, if you have not thoroughly tested it yourself, then make sure to note that you are only repeating rumors when you post notes about bugs in the game. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

06-07-2008, 05:50 AM	#15
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Well, this was Odessa's experience... Downloads/folder/folder didn't work for certain downloads, Downloads/folder did. It's got a little more veracity than a rumor, although it's not something I did myself. __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).