SC4 freezing?

[fakename1314 0]

My SC4:Rush Hour is locking up at completely random times while playing. Strange thing is though, my mouse cursor is still free to move all over the screen, but clicking anything does nothing. I cant alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del. If I continue to click, my system eventually beeps. Could this be a NAM issue? (Only mod I have installed) or a hardware issue? Ive updated sc4 with both updates. Ive tried reinstalling and installing NAM right over (though never tried to run it without NAM to see the results). Any thoughts? Need system info? Let me know - This is extremely frustrating.

Thanks

Also on a side note, this is completely irrelevant. Is there a way to download files from simcity.ea.com through firefox? My internet explorer fails to load any page from the site. (It loads the 60 some odd images, but then only displays the background).

[Jazzmaster 716]

Hello there, and welcome to ST! Are you playing any custom music while playing SC4 through the custom tunes option? If so then that could be your problem, don't ask me why but it kept happening to me so I just uncheked it. Alright, it's almost midnight, so I'm goin' to bed.

Peace out,

-Yoshiisland

[fakename1314 0]

I have music, sound, all music files and custom tunes unchecked (I run winamp in the background ) When the game freezes, winamp continues to play music in the background if thats any help. The only way to get out of it is a hard reboot.

[tungston 19]

The problem is not the NAM, if it is installed properly.

I suggest you either uninstall the NAM, and try the game, or uninstall the NAM, then install it again, after you have read the readme very carfully, and made sure you have removed all the old transit mods, and previous NAM files.

Also don't run programs at the same time while doing the test.

[fakename1314 0]

Uninstalled NAM - no good. Im going to try reinstalling sc4 without importing my old cities and run completely fresh and new.

[dada222 9]

Well, stop running winramp in the background, that might be causing your problem. Also, can we have your pc specs?

[fakename1314 0]

Continues to happen with a completely fresh reinstall, all new maps, no mods, and other programs running. This only happens with sc4.

AMD 64, 3500+ 2.2 GHz

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

2x Corsair XMS 512mb 184pin DDR 400, PC 3200

GeForce 6200LE 256MB 64-bit

Windows XP SP2

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: fakename1314 Continues to happen with a completely fresh reinstall, all new maps, no mods, and other programs running. This only happens with sc4.

AMD 64, 3500+ 2.2 GHz

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

2x Corsair XMS 512mb 184pin DDR 400, PC 3200

GeForce 6200LE 256MB 64-bit

Windows XP SP2quote>

 

Have you installed the AMD Dual Core Optimizer? [link]

[fakename1314 0]

Its not a dual core...

[fakename1314 0]

Well heres the thing. I just ran it to get the problem again. When its 'locks up', I can hit alt+tab and wait ~3 mins and the menu pops up. Eventually the task bar shows up and I can then right click and choose to close sc4. Ofcourse the 'end now' option shows up and I can click and Im back to my desk top. Mind you between every click, theres a 3 min wait. My computer appears to be running fine otherwise so I doubt this has anything to do with hardware. This is a really funky problem. Im lead to believe the larger my city, the sooner it'll happen which may be a memory problem. I'll need to try it more vigorously to know for sure.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Dual core or not, try the fix.

This almost sounds like you have some kind of call home to mama virus.  Done a scan lately?

[tungston 19]

Some files, if changed since install, will not be removed with the uninstall. After the uninstall, the Maxis SimCity 4 program folders need to be deleted. Sometimes even the registry needs to be cleaned of bad keys.

[fakename1314 0]

Uninstalling removes HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Maxis folder in the registry. Are there others I should be aware of?

I have run numerous antivirus, AVG, Mcafee, hijackthis

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: fakename1314 Uninstalling removes HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Maxis folder in the registry. Are there others I should be aware of?

I have run numerous antivirus, AVG, Mcafee, hijackthisquote>

 

It's been a long time since I went through the registry looking for SC stuff, but there were a few keys.  Search for maxis, sc4, and simcity, that should bring all of them up, if there are any left.  Some are irrelevant, like the file extension, recent file shortcuts, etc.