Before you post a question about a bug or crashing issue, please read this!

[tchaos713 5]

I know that all of this information has been provided before in various places, but I cannot seem to find it now. I apologize if I am just duplicating a thread or blatantly ignoring some stickied thread. However, I have seen many posts where the first response has invariably asked for more information, so here is a (somewhat) comprehensive guide to what information to give.

If the problem involves the game crashing to the desktop, you might check the Crash to Desktop? Look here first. thread for suggestions or possible resolutions to your problem.

If you are posting a question about a bug or technical issue, it is of great importance to try to include the following:

• The version of Sim City 4 you are running (e.g. Vanilla, Rush Hour, Deluxe). The updates you have installed (if any).
  
• A picture, if relevant. A picture is worth a thousand words. Really. If your question has to do with missing anything (textures, props, buildings), post a picture. If you are having graphical anomalies, post a picture. If the problem is happening in-game, post a picture. There is an Omnibus Article detailing how to add pictures to your post. Read it. Apply your new knowledge.
  
• Your machines specifications. These include: Processor type and speed (e.g. Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz or AMD Athlon64 3000+), RAM (e.g. 256MB), Video Card type and memory amount (e.g. ATI Radeon 9600XT w/128MB), Hard drive capacity (e.g. 120GB), and (perhaps most importantly) amount of Virtual Memory (or Page File) (e.g. min 768MB, max 2048MB). All of these stats can be found by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties or by clicking Start, selecting Run, typing dxdiag, and clicking OK.
  
• Anything else that is relevant to the problem. For instance, any recently installed mods/lots/bats are probably relevant to the problem you are having.

The bottom line is that the more detail you can include in your post, the more likely it is that you will receive a quick (and accurate) response to your question.

Lastly, make sure that you name your topic something more descriptive than Please Help or its relatives Problem, Help and Help!!!!!!!! (I'm exaggerating, but not by much). For instance, if your problem relates to missing textures on farms that you downloaded, a good title would be Missing textures on downloaded farms, please help.

Thanks for your time.

If anyone has any questions or smack-downs for repeating information, feel free to PM me.

[MishaTennis 1]

Great list. It will greatly diminish the amount of time someone needs to get their questions answered. Once again thanks!

[MrCinatit 30]

a most excellent post, tchaos713. many times, too much information actually is a good thing.

i also cannot stress this point enough: use the search tool liberally. if you are getting brown boxes in your city, search and type in brown box. you will be amazed at the results - and a common question need not be bought up again.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Actually, I am going to pin this list. It can save people a lot of time and grief.

[tchaos713 5]

Thanks guys.

If you think of any info that should be added, please let me know.

[vester_DK 477]

Yes I second that. I can aggree more. Rather too much infomatio than almost notthing. A lot of times question is only meet with question from my end.

and the lastly... well lets quote the Rules: The All-in-One Simtropolis Guide to Posting

4. Do not post topics with meaningless or undescriptive subjects. I.e., Help!, Why?, and !!!! are not useful subjects and you will likely not get many reviews or responses.

quote>

[tchaos713 5]

Hey Mods:

Do you think we can re-pin this topic?

Doneft>

Thanks

[newyorkstate 6]

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Very courtious.

[ozzman7400 0]

This is my first forum attempt and I am not sure if I am posting correctly so please bear with me. Yesterday I downloaded some mega packs to replace individual items I had in my plugins folder. They installed just fine except for whenever I go to use menus such as rewards or recreation for example, I find that there are many squares with pictures missing but with discriptions and it causes my cursor to not keep up with each box I either scan over or scroll thru. I went ahead and removed the downloads and put the others back hoping it would fix the problem but it is still occurring. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I know that I was missing some plugins that go with the mega packs due to brown boxes showing up, but I do not see why that would be the problem I am asking help for. Thanks

[eyein91681 0]

Hey how do get the night patch for BAT? i have sim city4 d/e I already downloaded the BAT from simcity.com but the BAT buildings still dont light up at night

[tchaos713 5]

This is not a thread for questions.

However, I will answer the questions presented here:

1. I have occasionally had this problem myself. I think it has to do with bad coding of the .SC4Desc file of the individual lot. There's nothing to do about it until the maker of the lot fixes the file.

2. On the page with the BAT, there is an update labeled "SimCity 4 Update" under Recommended Downloads. You will need that update to see the night lights.

[rushman5 33]

Also, the EA Games crash is a result from a bad sound card/device or no sound installed at all!

Thought I'd include a little bit of hard-earned info!

[tchaos713 5]

Good call, but please post this in the "Forum Quick Guide" pinned at the top.

Thanks,

Tchaos713

[+Guest Mayor#1]

I still can't login into my account! See my avatar? It's broken.

Someone get dirk because it is impossible for me to email him, he couldn't accept my yahoo mail for some reason.

Tell him that my:

Email account here is broken, and for some blasted reason it doesn't exist and that I'm still able to post as Mayor#1. And I lost my password, because it got changed in the email change.

Mods, I'm telling you this is the only way I can communicate, so if you ask me to email dirk, I can't because he doesn't accept my yahoo for some reason.

[tchaos713 5]

Reported to Moderator.

In the future, confine yourself to one thread or another, no need to go on a posting rampage.

[+Guest Mayor#1]

Report all you want, it's not gonna do anything because I Can't do anything on this website anymore,  and I already have a moderator who knows about this issue. Two, this is the only way I can tell anyone about this problem. Quit reporting on people who ACTUALY NEED HELP, or i'll report you for false reporting.

I can't email dirk, because he doesn't take my yahoo email. Didn't I already say that.

Dirk I need your assistance, if you read this PM me, because I can't compose new PM's. My profile is bugged.

[Rymac91 15]

ok....could you narrow down your problem to things you can't do on the site that you'd normaly be able to do? and you might want to create a seperate thread for this issue if you can.

[tchaos713 5]

Perhaps I should clarify.

I have passed this on to a moderator.

Edit:  Perhaps you would get more help if you weren't so rude.  You have been a member of this site for far longer than I have.  You should know better.  You should also know that I rarely use the report button, but I figured it was the quickest way to a resolution in this case.

[+Guest Mayor#1]

You haven't solved anything, you've made it even more difficult for me to get help now. Looks like I'm gonna get a new profile. Thanks a lot, I'm gonna think really highly of you tchaos713. All I asked for was a little help, and I got flamed for it. It kinda hurts when your down, and someone tries to keep you down thx.

 

and you might want to create a seperate thread for this issue if you can. quote>

Didn't you read everyting I've said? I've already said, I can't POST new threads, so I have to post replies. 

I can't get into my main profile, from the main page because my password was changed when I changed my email address here. They sent one to my new email, and for some reason that email was not sent to the new email. So now I am stuck, without a new password, and the website says the new email does not exist. So I am stuck, and frustrated. Put yourself in my shoes please.

[tchaos713 5]

Fine, think of me what you will. For your edification, my message along with the report said "This guy needs help."

Anyway, why don't you try to PM one of the mods? If you can post, surely you can also PM.

[Kingmaster98 0]

Tchaos, you just caught me at a bad time, I'm fine now. Nothin against you. When something doesn't work I get pissed and turn into a bull. Sorry for taking it out on ya. This is my new name BTW. But something else is wrong, I'm getting tags on my posts instead of smilies.

[morrisnatte 0]

This would be a good place to mention (I'm doing so now I guess) the bug and crash issues with incompatability between different region versions of SC4, Rush Hour and Deluxe.

I was using a European version of SC4 and an American version of Rush Hour. This was causing a lot of crashes and strange behaviour in the game. After I found out about and installed a compatability patch the game is running a lot smoother and does not crash randomly as before.

The patches I am referring to are known as SKU or "EP1 Update 1" and you'll find hem at: http://simcity.ea.com/update/index_update.php

I hope this will help people that are having the same problem as I had!

Cheers!

[all.names.taken 0]

I have the same problem as many others, I can't post a new topic therefore I will try making a new reply, sorry, I would love to PM the mods instead but I want to be able to play quicker before school starts.. I don't want to wait a lot

Anyway, the problem is: I am missing simcity_5.dat - my CD that I bought ages ago probably have a problem with it, it gives CRC problem, anyway, I am wondering if someone could copy their original and fresh Simcity_5.dat and upload it some where for me, would be thankful!

Thanks.

edit: I am running Sim city 4 (the normal one..)

[Lh 0]

I will use this guide profusely once I am able to start posting threads.

[tchaos713 5]

@all.names.taken:  I have been away for some time, however, I doubt the site rules have changed in this respect.  It is against site rules (and illegal to boot) for another user to send you files that are on the CD.  Your only recourse is to contact Maxis.

[clubshishi 0]

why when I try to downlaod from the stex i get a blue box can some body help with this ? I'm using the latest explorer to download and can't.

[J00B91 0]

Hello! I can't get SimCity 4 to work.

I am running SimCity 4 (Orginal Version)

My comp specs:

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Intel Core Duo CPU E8500 @ 3.16 3.17

4 GB Ram

Nvidia GTX 260 896MB

1.2 TB Harddrive

I have re-installed the game twice. I am using a legitmate version of the game. I have no 3RD party plugins or anything.

Help would be apprieated

Thanks

-J00B

[Nuclear550 3]

Hi guys i have a question. This has nothing to do with specs. The problem is that when i play one of my cities in simcity, a brown box appears on a maxis made building. After a 30sec or so, the game crashes. I have no idea wat is going on.

Nuclear550, please see my PM.

Going to close this as it has veered from the original intent. Will stay sticked so first post can be easily viewed.

- CaptCity