Problem with The Sims

[AmdEmAll]

Hey, my mom plays "The Sims" a lot and she has all the add ons for it. Vacation and the others, I don't remember but she says it worked fine and she didnt play it for a while, then she starting playing it again and it has a huge problem. While playing the game it kicks you out of the game right to the desktop. This is without any errors or anything. Now she says she goes to play it again after it crashes and the problem occurs faster and faster. Like it will play fine until 45 minutes. Then she plays again and it crashes in 30 minutes, then again in 5. As far as I know she has the latest patches and everything for the game. The computer is a Celeron 500 on a Abit BE-6 motherboard with 192mb ram, sblive, Matrox G400 with latest drivers, Windows 2000. Does anyone have an idea of what could be causing this? Because I don't know, sounds like the video card to me but i've tryed several different versions of drivers to no avail. Oh and windows has all the patches for is including SP2.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Plz someone help

 

[Muadib]

There was a patch for the Sims. Do you know if she installed it?

 

[DaveSimmons]

She might have picked up a virus through Outlook or spyware/adware through Internet Explorer.

 

[AmdEmAll]

She has the latest patch for it. As for the virus thing, I think there norton antivirus pops up saying there is a virus sometimes, I think it was backdoor g or whatever but how could that cause the game to crash the the desktop? They have norton firewall running, wouldnt that stop backdoor from working?

 

[DaveSimmons]

She's running her PC with at least one virus loose on her system? Yikes!

Aside from causing her PC to send out worm-infested e-mails, virii/worms can also infect other programs and damage them in the process, and can also just stay in memory taking away memory and system resources needed by other programs.

 

[AmdEmAll]

It's not a virus/worm. It's a Trojen. It comes up occasionally saying that it has detected backdoor g trojen. It doesn't delete or quarantine it for some reason though. Actually it only says there is this trojen when you restart the computer. Backdoor is a program someone uses from another computer to control the computer with the virus on it. Wouldnt the firewall stop that? I'm gonna go scan and update there virus files right now just to see what it says.

 

[Mavrick007]

Heh I would get any virus, trojan, worm, or non-program file off your machine that shouldn't be there.
You have no idea what havoc these can cause. Do a search on your specific virus and see what it actually does.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Ok it is backdoor g dr or something. Norton says it has infected the c:\winnt\administrator\registry.exe. It asked if I want to delete it or not to touch it. Now that is a main file i'm sure. What should I do??

 

[wolfpacrules]

:Q your mom play computer game! my mom does not even know how to use VCR

 

[AmdEmAll]

Yep She is addicted to "The Sims". I wish she would play counter-strike. heh.

 

[Muadib]

If I were you, I would backup any data files you may need, wipe the drive, and do a fresh install.

 

[Dan]

AmdEmAll:: A quick onlne search turned this up:

BackDoor-G Trojan: A new Trojan horse program sent by a hacker over the Internet via an email spam format as a screensaver could allow PCs to be accessed by unauthorized users.

BackDoor-G Trojan horse is considered a potentially dangerous new Trojan horse program that could allow hackers to remotely access and control infected PCs over the Internet, according to network security and management software maker Network Associates.

BackDoor-G affects Windows-based PCs. When executed, BackDoor-G turns a user's system into a client system for a hacker, giving virtually unlimited remote access to the system over the Internet. The Trojan also is virtually undetectable by the user, although it has been reported as spreading as a screensaver and an update to a computer game.

I think that pretty much covers it. Update your Norton Antivirus dats and do a complete system scan. Quarantine/delete the virus before you do anything else. Delete the file -- you can always ro a reinstall if you have to.

I play the SIM's myself from time to time. I also had the same problem with it crashing on me at one point. As I recall, I was using Win2K for an OS at the time. With the release of the "Vacation" expansion pack, I took up the game again and it's been running fine. Of course, now I'm using WinXP Pro.

Your mom may want to reinstall the game. (After you deal with the virus.) Copy the Maxis\The SIMs\Game Data folder to another partition, burn it to a CD, etc. After a clean reinstall she can copy the saved game data file back into the game. That way she won't lose any of her houses, careers, etc.

 

[FOBSIDE]

getting dumped back onto the desktop has something to do with the audio or video settings if i recall correctly. when the game doesnt like the settings you have it kicks you outta the game i believe.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Dan are you saying I could let norton delete the registry.exe file and it wouldnt ruin the computer? Doesn't that control the registry or something like it? I want to avoid formatting and reinstalling windows at all cost. They have tons of mp3's on that computer. Fobside i'll change the video and sound settings and see if it makes a difference. Thanks.

 

[gil11542]

Anything on that computer that you dont want to loose should be backed up elsewhere or on CD, anyway. If you can get rid of the virus one way or another than you need to wipe the drive and Format C, You just add to the problem by leaving active viruses on your PC.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: AmdEmAll
Dan are you saying I could let norton delete the registry.exe file and it wouldnt ruin the computer? Doesn't that control the registry or something like it? I want to avoid formatting and reinstalling windows at all cost. They have tons of mp3's on that computer. Fobside i'll change the video and sound settings and see if it makes a difference. Thanks.

No, he's not saying that at all!! In fact before you do anything, you should backup your files!! Deleting that file will cripple your PC, but you might avoid a total reinstall, by running a repair of W2k.

 

[AmdEmAll]

Bump

 

[Mavrick007]

Do you have any backup of your registry from not long ago?

 

[AmdEmAll]

Nope I hooked there comp up to my network. So I think im gonna transfer all there files they need over the network, then format or do a repair install of windows 2000 or possibly xp pro. Does there computer pose a risk to the other computer on the network by them having a backdoor trojan on there computer? I am running xp pro and I have everythign hooked up to a linksys router. The router have a firewall built in. Will that protect me?

 

[RSMemphis]

<i>getting dumped back onto the desktop has something to do with the audio or video settings </i>
I second that.
If you have a decently fast CPU, drop the audio acceleration to a lower level.

I had that problem once with Sims. Switching the motherboard later took care of that problem though.