help! (Custom Content No Show + Non-changable Screen Size)

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

the year i first got my laptop i had all the ep's., (OFB nightlife, university, 2 stuff packs) and then i got it re-imaged for school, and put them all back on except for nightlife and univiersity. Then i got pets and put it on. THis whole time i used the smaller screen size, which was 1024x768 (i think thats it) Then i borrowed universtiy from my friend (couldnt find mine) and installed it. Now, i can only use the 800x600 screen, much bigger, and anything i download doesnt show up in the game or bodyshop.

does anyone know the problem and how i fix it?
Please help me! i hevent been able to play the game because it is much slower and no custom content. I really want it to be like it used to be!
(do u think when i get seasons itwould help?)  

[FullmetalBeast]

Un-install, re-install?  

[Menaceman]

Have you checked to see if you have custom content enabled in your game? I had a problem with custom stuff not showing up once and it was a simple case of me fogetting to enable it.

(I'm moving this thread to the help forum where it belongs.)  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

FullmetalBeast

Un-install, re-install?

i tried that already crying i did enable custom content, but it still isnt there (maybe i didnt save the setting, im not sure) and, like i already mentioned, the stuff doesnt show up in bodyshop either.  

[Menaceman]

Most perplexing. I don't really know what else to suggest.

(Btw, I've edited your thread title so that it meets the thread naming rules. Hope you don't mind.)  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

what aout the screen size? how can i make it smaller when 800x600 is the only choice? i used to be able to have it 1024x764, but now i cant crying thats what i want to fix most right now  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

can someone please help me! crying i need to fix it crying i er-bought nightlife (old one had a scratch) and installed it, and its still the same size. what about seasons, does anyone think it will help?  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

i still havent solved the problem, if you know ANYTHING that might help please tell me  

[Enelya Anarion]

...so custom content isn't appearing. Does the "downloads" file start with a capital D?

About the screen size issue, I'd contact maxis on their site and see if they know anything.

You said that the screen size issue appeared when you installed university, right? Have you tried installing everything but that when you reinstalled?  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

Enelya Anarion

...so custom content isn't appearing. Does the "downloads" file start with a capital D?

About the screen size issue, I'd contact maxis on their site and see if they know anything.

You said that the screen size issue appeared when you installed university, right? Have you tried installing everything but that when you reinstalled?

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about universtiy: well, yeah..... thats how it used to be! and even longer ago i had university and it was fine! i borrowed it from my friend and for her the screen size isnt as big as mine is now, but not as small as it was before  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

i fixed the downloads problem! i was looking through all the old posts i nthe guild, and one was about this problem and someone said to make a new downloads folder. i did it and it WORKED! YAY! one problem solved!  

[Enelya Anarion]

Kittyprincess190

Enelya Anarion

...so custom content isn't appearing. Does the "downloads" file start with a capital D?

About the screen size issue, I'd contact maxis on their site and see if they know anything.

You said that the screen size issue appeared when you installed university, right? Have you tried installing everything but that when you reinstalled?

about universtiy: well, yeah..... thats how it used to be! and even longer ago i had university and it was fine! i borrowed it from my friend and for her the screen size isnt as big as mine is now, but not as small as it was before

You're not really answering my question. Did you uninstall everything and then reinstall all except the university pack?  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

Thinking it would help, i uninstalled university. In the dorm everything was going so slow (unlike before) and it didnt help. So that wasnt the problem.
For now ill set my laptop to this one setting so it is in the middle of the screen with a black border around it. It looks the same size as it used to full size. I still want to fix the problem.  

[Kitties_at_the_disco]

do any of u think teh sims 2 seasons would help, maybe cuz its newer?  

[komietta]

Let's see, things to do (you may have tried some of them already):

1. Uninstall ALL custom content and try running the game to see if it lags less and just runs better in general. Although most custom content that has been made more recently should work just fine, there were numerous problems with objects when University was released because the object formatting within the game was changed a great deal.

2. If you don't already have it, download, install and run Clean Installer. You may have some custom careers or hacks that you aren't aware of in your game. Clean Installer will help you find and disable or delete them. Custom careers in particular crashed many a University game.

3. This one is something of a maybe. You might want to try the patches available at the official site for the game. Usually, successive EPs tend to include the patch features in them, but I suppose it's possible it hasn't applied properly because of the order you're installing them in (though honestly, I strongly doubt this one - I'm just trying to run through possibilities).


As to the issue with the size of your game, I'm presuming you've gone into the game options and tried to change the screen size. Is the 1024x768 option just greyed out an unclickable? During any Sims 2 installation, the game assesses the capabilities of your computer and if it thinks your computer can't handle certain options, it will automatically disable them. When this happens, there is little you can do but upgrade your computer. While it does seem a little unusual that this only happened after the Uni installation (Pets has higher graphics requirements so I would have expected this to come up after that installation), it may be determined in relation to the specs needed to run properly with all of the EPs installed. The last bit is just speculation.

If you can tell me your computer's specs (HD size, RAM, processor speed, graphics card), I can make an educated guess as to whether or not your problems are hardware related.