Wednesday, 25 April 2007
nVidia crash update:
I just posted this on the BBS:
Here's an update on our "nVidia crash" research.
We have still not been able to reproduce the crash, nor has nVidia. We believe the problem is caused by video card/software conflicts, but the issues don't seems to happen to all people that have the same video cards. Which is part of the mystery.
But because we haven't seen it does not mean we don't believe it's happening, so we'd still like to fix this if we can.
And for that, we need your help.
I'd like to invite some volunteers who live or work near our studio (we are located in Redwood City, California, USA) to bring in your PC that is experiencing this problem. We can then see the bug occurring and hopefully figure out what is going on to fix it.
It'll be like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Your PC will be your golden ticket, we'll give it to the Oompa Loompas to check it out, and I'll be Willy Wonka and take you on a tour of the factory and give you free chocolate to take home. Or if not chocolate, some free games or Sims hats or something equally cool. I don't think I can give away the whole factory, though. I think that would get me in trouble.
Here's who we'd like to hear from. Obviously someone who can get themselves here with their PC is a must, but in addition to that, contact us if:
1) You have a nVidia GeForce video card that is supported by the game. Check the list here if you're not sure:
http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=280
2) You are experiencing a random crash where the game either goes to a Windows BSOD (a "blue screen of death" with only text on it, usually containing lots of codes like 0X000AE435 or something like that)
OR
3) You are experiencing a crash where the game goes into what appears to be a loading mode, where the screen is all blue and only the Sims rotating hourglass is visible on screen (you may still here the game sounds in the background during this time), and the game does not recover from this. Your computer may restart, or hang, or the screen may go black. We've heard of varying symptoms.
Note that if your game IS able to recover from this state and is then playable again, you are not experiencing the issue we are after.
So if you think you may be one of these people, please email us at
Sims2TechHelp@ea.com and describe what it happening to your game, and we'll get back in touch with you.
If you are one of these people but you aren't close enough to come to EA, we may still be able to have you send some information to us from your PC that may help, so email us and we'll get back in touch if we need to.
Thank you, and we hope to hear from you!
-sam