These are my main weapons of choice



"Empty Standby List"
https://www.briteccomputers.co.uk/p...n-windows-10-2/

I also have Empty Standby List setup like in this video this automatically clears the RAM memory to enable your computer to use it more wisely. Without requiring a restart every time you open up another app, or game to play, after another, or leave your computer on for longer periods of time, without restarting it

video by @Britec09
How to Automatically Clear Cache on Windows 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaIGatqglVQ

"4GB Patch"
https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371

here is @teaaddict's way of installing the 4gb patch note without the "Empty standby list" setup. first I never got the 4GB patch to successfully work.

The Sims 2: 4GB Patch and other Graphics fixes[/B]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQctAW0DAfw&t=311s


To tell if the patch is working go to "Documents" "EA GAMES" "The Sims 2" "Logs" then open "config log" and scroll down to "Memory" And "Free Memory" it SHOULD SAY 4096MB"


The Sims 2 RPC mod for "Mansion And Garden Stuff" Or Ultimate Collection
https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post...-mansion-garden

here is a video by @Lord Chumps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrWW_STpD0

this mod is fantastic however, when I set my own game up to automatically clean the catche it crashes randomly to the desktop. While when I have it dechecked my game runs vary good and without any crashes, and checking single thread for using one of my cores instead of all of them does no improvement for my own personal PC, my game will also crash if I turn the advanced graphics to a higher setting then classic. that I'll note that as well with this mod.

I also do not use Norton anti virus software but I do use windows ransomware protection if that is important to note as well

Also I try to save the game progress as often as I can remember. Because that will leave less stress on the harddrive trying to keep up I think? all I know is if I don't save at least every hour or visit lots to exit the sims home lot. I could still get a possible random crash to desktop not as often as I did before I had the 4GB patch working and the Empty Standby List setup properly.

I miss my desktop computer, that's for sure. It could run TS2 non-stop for 2-3 days without saving (or saving just a couple or so times in the beginning of the run), around 30+ GB of CC, rare crashes, very rarely pink-flashing (snow, very heavy lots, maybe after 3 days of playing). Unfortunately that computer has major issues now... Most likely a hardware malfunction.

I'm bad with the "saving often", though. It's a thing from the photo sessions on my old computer. I like the ability to easily reset a chaotic scene (taking photos creates a lot of chaos). I'll set up the scene, buy new clothes, do any changes to the sims, and then save (often between each thing), and not save again during the rest of the session. Not saving after I've started importing in sims and posing them lets me have some freedom. If the game crashes or starts pink-flashing (which can happen), all the important changes are still there. Similarly, if I want to mess about with a test family, I don't save them. Bring on the chaos, come back to a pristine scene. Just the way I like it. For storytelling and testing purposes, that is. For playing regularly, I'll save progress.

Anyway - I use the 4GB patch and GraphicRules fixes. I have set up a version of the Empty Standby, but don't have it set to run when I'm not playing (I'll occasionally use it manually if Windows is eating standby memory, but it's not been too bad lately. Windows kept eating memory and gnawing on my harddrive due to Windows Updates for a while, but after over a year of frustration it finally coughed up the update it had troubles digesting, and I found a workaround, so now I don't get memory spikes every day - those updates eat memory like I eat dessert!).

I use a paid antivirus (but decently priced), which I'm very happy with. It has everything I need, and it's the least annoying one I've come across. It doesn't do self-promotion, it doesn't give popups every 10 minutes, it immediately deals with threats (haven't had many, but this thing sniffs them out before I realize there's even anything to worry about), and it's not annoying with updates (it gives a small notice it needs a restart, but not "NOW! IMMEDIATELY, OR YOU'RE UNDER THREAT!" like some others do). It has also never messed with or flagged any of my files, game or otherwise. It's pretty much the only antivirus I've liked, paid or otherwise (the free ones can be such a pain, and I'm never using Norton again - that one messed with my ingame camera and made my game slower...).

Haven't tried the RPC.

I currently play the UC instead of my trusty CDs, but I do use "George" (it lets you load the game without Origin or without using discs - you still have to install using them) - Sincerely can't bother with Origin more than strictly needed. I get enough of that mess when I once in a blue moon play TS4 (or TS3 - the last EP CD I have may have been a bad one, and I don't have a disc drive other than an external one, so the the easiest way to install the full game was through Origin - have barely played since installing, though). Origin uses resources in the background, and I don't need something that takes up resources I'd rather use for my game (I don't have any reason to believe the new EA app is any better).

I recommend RPC for those who installed the collection with the discs. Or even with origin And don't want to bother with the origin client.

I have the all the disc versions with all the official game patches (installed) as well. And the first thing I noticed with RPC, is that I no longer need to use my disc for playing, with that RPC mod, the entire game runs without requiring the disc. :lovestruc

When and if my game crashes, I figure out what made it do so.
Most often it is because I have a non-compliant house that does not work in the game.

Don't ask me why it does so-but it crashed the last time when I tried to move the Beakers out of their house in ST (as a shopping district) into PV.
Perhaps it was because the game was set in the medieval era and it didn't want to recognize the house, but the only way I could get them out of there was to literally teleport them into another lot in PV and join them to another family.

I've patched my game with the 4 gig patch but nothing else really major.
I've been working with the original game and a altered exe. to keep from using the disks-and I don't have the UC.

I don't like putting extra programs into the game that I don't think are necessary.
I do, however, run the Compressorizer and Mootilda's HoodChecker every single time before I run the game.
And I do clean out the caches when necessary.

The first thing to do if you game is crashing is check your cc! Most crashing is due to bad cc or too much cc.

RPC in itself can cause crashing if you alter the original game settings for view distance and LODs. RPC and 4Gb patch do the same thing, but the 4Gb patch enables more RAM and eliminates the need for a disk/EA App.

I hardly ever get crashes and when I do I just restart the game and usually it's fine.

I'm very lucky in that I now have a computer that is much more powerful than needed to run TS2 so I don't really need to do anything - I remember the days of carefully disabling every other program including print spoolers!

I barely get crashes, but I usually pray that my last save was recent when I do get them. I started saving every day or two just to make sure I don't lose an entire family's rotation like last time.

I don't need the RPC just for the loading without Origin purpose, and after reading about it, I figured the things it offered are likely to cause more issues/crashing if you don't use the settings wisely. Figured I'd manage without, at least for now. Have to see if my game can run fine in general before I mess with higher settings.

I had a lot of crashing/pink-flashing with my new laptop in the start, but after fixing one setting in the GraphicRules, those issues pretty much disappeared. Turned out the old version of the GRM was the culprit.

My old desktop computer had some really strange issues - I got headless sims and disappearing EAxis items. Turned out all it needed was some fixing to the memory handling (that time's version of the 4GB patch) and probably also adding the useShaders cheat, because it worked fine after that. I also had a program that emptied the standby memory. Got some pink-flashing with heavy snowfalls and on CC-heavy or big lots, and the occasional random crash (plus some crashes linked to a bad fire alarm - couldn't use electronics for quite some time until I figured that one out. Maybe also some bad clothing items, but those I'm not sure of).

I'm still in the process of going through my old CC to kick out bad stuff and pair up items with their meshes, so I know what to chuck out. I no longer want to see any borked items in my downloads, and sure don't want any crashes from them...

I recently decided to delete all the clothes and objects, I couldn't deal with so much charging time and so much pink flashing, the only thing I can't delete is the hairstyles. So I'll try to have less furniture and less clothes xD

"I use The Sims Clean Pack Installer"
https://modthesims.info/d/409950/si...aug-2-2014.html

to help me find bad CC, as far as this program telles me I have no bad CC in my game except for a TV, but I love that TV and I can't see why it's listed as red, it does not crash the game when I use it so I keep using it, but the stuff I would not trust are things like TV's or objects that this program detects as mods or behavior mods. (edit) in some cases

Some of what this program lists as red such as mods for one example are fine, some not fine but this program should help you especially with finding bad clothing items, although I am NOT a sims 2 expert, and I don't know how this program works just so you know.

^ The Clean Installer (in most cases) doesn't tell you whether CC is bad or not. It lets you know what you're installing when you install houses or sims (Sims2Pack files), and any colored files you see are modded items and such - but they aren't necessarily bad items. If you want to weed out bad items, most of the time you have to use other programs or methods (but you can choose not to install certain items, you can have a look at them before installing, and you can repackage lots/sims, so it's absolutely a big help there).

The Clean Installer is absolutely worth installing, though - the default installer does a crap job, and often renames files, so if you don't want a ton of randomly named files in your downloads, use the CI.

The CI can give you some indication of whether CC is potentially bad, for instance when it finds unfinished files (project files from Bodyshop) - but those can also be defaults or similar, since these also lack certain resources, so I'd take anything the CI tells you with a grain of salt, and check it further. I always check files in SimPE before removing them (like the million and umpteen mailbox and trashcan recolors I've found in some people's lot uploads - I've found they're easier to weed out and decheck in the CI since I don't have to open every single file and can look at the texture, but I always miss a few).

I think most every player here has 4gb patch, stand by memory and graphic rules done.
RPC does not stop crashing and may indeed cause it.
The only time my game crashes is if it goes pink or its a random crash or new CC. For most who are properly set up constant crashing will be from CC. A run of Hood Checker may also fix some crashing.

@Sokisims clothes can but are less likely to be the cause of pink flashing. Look more at large textures objects, particularly hood deco like trees, water, better Nightlife which gives lighted hod deco, high res lot adjusters from RPC, items made visible in hood view and the amount of overall meshes in your download folder.

I've looked at RPC and decided not to risk playing with it, because the graphics card I have is adequate enough to run the game.
I firmly believe in the saying:
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I have deleted like more than 9 gb of both things in a neighborhood that has many sub-hoods, I am going to try to have the necessary clothes and only some sets of objects. Now works fine.

My game rarely crashes. If it does crash, it's almost always the fault of some mod or CC I *just* added to my TryNewThings folder. So I remove new additions until I identify what specific .package files cause the crashing. Depending on how badly I want the new thing, I may then do a 50/50 on the rest of my downloads to see which CC conflicts or pull the existing The Sims 2 folder and retry the new file(s) completely without any other CC or mods present.

If it still crashes, I shrug and delete it. I play on a Mac so I'm aware there's a lot out there that won't work because my highest EP is BV. Some CC is marked as BG compatible but it really isn't.

My game and my computer are otherwise nicely stable. I can, and, have played up to 15 hours with no crashing. But I always quit the game and shut down the computer at night (or the not-so-small hours of the morning, as the case may be).

Around the turn of the year I had a rash of crashes. They started just after I (with the help of someone from Microsoft) set Windows 10 to backup to OneDrive. It's not really what I would call a backup -- more of a "mirror". It was trying to mirror what I was doing to the cloud in real time. What's more the version on OneDrive became the definitive one; the one on my C: drive being merely my local working copy. That may work for a lot of business software, but for a game as intensive as The Sims 2 . . . . well, I reckon they're pushing their luck. I don't know that backup to OneDrive caused the crashing. But I know the crashing started just after it was installed. One of the early crashes occurred while I was trying to save the game. That leaves the game in an inconsistent state, and therefore, almost by definition, causes corruption.

After a couple of months of this, I succeeded (with some difficulty) in more or less reverting my computer to the status quo ante, so my Sims game (and most of my other programs) is back on my C: drive. I restored The Sims 2 from a backup made before the crashes started. This lost me a little gameplay. Since I did that, my game is once again stable with very few crashes. I am enjoying it immensely.

So once again my answer is to make and keep lots of backups. So, when something does go wrong, I lose the minimum amount of gameplay.

I'm not (yet) using the 4GB patch, because my game is running well without it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I did however download it today, so I've got it ready if and when I do need it. (It's possibly relevant that I only have the first three EPs, and I don't have as much CC as some players. Most of what I do have is Body Shop.)

I almost never get crashing and most of the times I do get a crash can be my fault for not remembering to switch modes or activate game boosters correctly and the other times can be glitched CC like one object and I found what it was right away since it was my only addition before the game started crashing on load.I've got quite a few software managers to stop things from starting up and running in the background.I used to get crashing more just after the most recent Norton update before disabling Norton after it broke the TS2 install which had to be repaired.I've even fairly recently gotten malware alerts pointing to Noton's install location and it was acting very suspect after that nasty update adding a few unwanted and uncontrollable "enhancements" and hijacking control over my firewall.

RPC has nothing I need that I haven't already taken care of myself. I use 4gb patch and have edited my graphicrules by hand. I've never used the exe that needed to contact Origin, though my UC is from my Origin Account. I turn off all Windows and Microsoft bloat and all automatic updates, including deleting the preinstalled Norton which did cause loading issues. I use Emsisoft virus protection that I swear by. The only time my game crashes is when I'm making something myself and haven't got it right yet or when testing something I knew was suspect when I started. I did try the new lot imposters but they crashed so I decided I didn't need them. I use multiple game folders and keep cc light and Maxis match so my laptop is not working too hard anyway.

I've never looked into the empty standby thing, but if the game can only use 4gb and I have 16gb with nothing else other than win 11 running, I'm not sure I need to worry about it. Will look at it though.

I have had so little experience of crashing that wasn't obviously dependent on cc-problems and quite easy to figure out. I wouldn't know how to fix anything if the reasons were more complicated, and I have no idea how to prevent it either. I try not to worry about things like that, and just play and be happy. But of course, I try to keep cc within reasonable limits and I try to take lots of breaks playing so I don't tax the computer too much.

I've gone and added quite a bot more CC in the past few days to my game and it still runs very smoothly and it's making my Pleasantview look much more historically accurate to the 17th century period it's set during.

Crashing has been a constant issue for me.

First it was a lack of RAM. Game would crash whenever the "heavy snow" in winter tried to appear or melt away on any lot. Got me into saving every five minutes to avoid losing progress and to this day I still save constantly, almost more than I actually play.

Then it was more memory shenanigans-- something to do with a Windows update or a lack of properly allocated memory, that would cause my game to crash upon loading lots and saving. Had to reallocate the proper amount of memory and my game seemed to be fine again-- back to the usual "crash every other day" deal, and it subsided until I eventually grew tired of Sims and took a long hiatus to focus on other things in my life.

I've only just booted my game up after a three-month hiatus and only fifteen minutes into playing I've gotten my first crash in the middle of gameplay! I only downloaded the Max Slope Values mod, so hopefully that's the issue and restoring my game files to their original form will save it.

At this point, I've had so many "crash episodes" where I have to troubleshoot things and spend days trying to diagnose the issue that I'm out of ideas. I perform suggested regular maintenance on my game and hoods, run only my game on my computer to try and preserve RAM, and save every hour in game. I've practically rebuilt my game, mods, CC, and computer to try and run it smoothly. By now, I've accepted that for my game and my computer, it's a hostile relationship on life support and the only thing I can do now is react to it.

I have no more crashes since I make sure my cc I download are under a certain amount of polycounts; I have plenty of gigas of cc still thanks to the maxis match low poly community , ts3-ts4 to ts2 converters etc.
I also downloaded a lot of fixes from MTS it is important to have some.
The sims 2 hates very high polycount cc , when I see something 24.000 polycounts for instance a clothes, a hair I don't download it. (this is an example)
I always delete the duplicates and the mods that are in conflict.
When I see a furnitures non MM I don't download it because they are heavy on polycount.
When a furniture is 5.000 poly I don't download it . (this is an example)
I have my game fully patched and I use the GRM.
I also play on compatibility mod (me I choose windows vista sp2, my older sp is Mansion and Garden but you can choose older windows if you got an earlier EP/SP as latest), I also play on windows mode, and I run the program as administrator.
I run CFF explorer, I unchecked the 32 bit machine because my computer isn't (no effect it's a placebo), and I let the program use more than 2Gb of ram.
I delete the securom because my physical copy installed it by default, so I got a and I avoid the launcher as this. I kept the original as backup in case of.
I don't use the full collection because I wasn't aware at the right time to get the full game free.

Just in case someone is using Compatibility mode + the 4GB patch (or CFF) and finds the game doesn't have access to 4 GB (especially using the 4GB patch), these two could be cancelling each other out, or one takes priority over the other (might want to check your log file to see if the first memory line says 4096 mb). It's possible that a direct fix with the CFF goes around this issue, though.

(Problem with the patch/mode mentioned here)

I haven't used the compatibility modes on my game for several years. I don't think I've bothered with running as admin either. The times I tried I always had issues with finding a mode that worked, and I much prefer using the patch.

Not all non MM furniture is high poly, in fact, some items that shipped with the game are over 5,000 polys. Best practice is to choose items that are 800-1000 polys per tile in game.

What if I don't have "config log" in "Logs" folder?