Electronic Arts UK Community - View Single Post - The Sims 2 Open For Business

The Star Hermit · 25-09-2007, 07:56 AM

How can I prepare my PC for installation?

Backing Up

The first step to take would be to back up your current game files in case of problems during installation of Open For Business To do this, follow the steps listed below:

Find the following location on your hard drive: My Documents\EA Games.
Right-click on the folder called The Sims 2 and choose the 'copy' option.
Close the window.
Right-click on your desktop and choose the 'paste' option. This puts a copy of your current The Sims 2 folder on your desktop.
Move the copy of your The Sims 2 folder to any location you wish for safe keeping. This could be another folder in My Documents or better still, how about compressing it into a .zip file and put it onto CD/DVD or a flash stick for extra safety.

Graphics Card Drivers

When running The Sims 2 and other games that use the latest version of DirectX, you may need to update the drivers for your video card, especially if you haven't done so in quite a while and as a preventative measure. You can update your graphics drivers for free by downloading them from the website of your graphics card manufacturer. The latest versions for the two most common sets of cards (depending on your operating system) are:

For more information about about checking your card and current drivers, see The Troubleshooting Guide Graphic Cards section.

*Note: Versions correct at time of posting.

Hard Drive Housekeeping & Temp Files

Before installing any new program, it advisable to clean up and organize your hard drive. Sometimes a hard drive can become cluttered with a number of temporary files, or files that are out of order on the hard disk due to uninstalling and reinstalling. It can also suffer losses in integrity that can cause errors. Cleaning up your hard drive will help increase the performance of your game and help prevent problems while installing The Sims 2 University.

For more information on performing these procedures, see The Troubleshooting Guide Hard Drive Housekeeping section.

In addition to using the Disk Cleanup utility to empty temp files as part of your Hard Drive clean up, you can also clean up any temp files/folders manually that the utility has left behind. For more information see The Troubleshooting Guide Temp Files section.

Background Tasks

Almost certainly there are a variety of programs running on your computer, eating up resources, even if you don't know they are there. These tasks can cause conflicts when installing new software and it is advisable to shut them down when you come to install The Sims 2 University. This will include shutting down your anti-virus program (if you have one) as such programs can sometimes cause install conflicts if left running in the background, even on higher end systems.

For more information, see The Troubleshooting Guide Background Tasks section.

25-09-2007, 07:56 AM	#4 (permalink)
The Star Hermit Fleet Commander Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Sol 3 - Sector 001 Age: 40 Gender: Male Posts: 25,916	How can I prepare my PC for installation? Backing Up The first step to take would be to back up your current game files in case of problems during installation of Open For Business To do this, follow the steps listed below: Find the following location on your hard drive: My Documents\EA Games. Right-click on the folder called The Sims 2 and choose the 'copy' option. Close the window. Right-click on your desktop and choose the 'paste' option. This puts a copy of your current The Sims 2 folder on your desktop. Move the copy of your The Sims 2 folder to any location you wish for safe keeping. This could be another folder in My Documents or better still, how about compressing it into a .zip file and put it onto CD/DVD or a flash stick for extra safety. Graphics Card Drivers When running The Sims 2 and other games that use the latest version of DirectX, you may need to update the drivers for your video card, especially if you haven't done so in quite a while and as a preventative measure. You can update your graphics drivers for free by downloading them from the website of your graphics card manufacturer. The latest versions for the two most common sets of cards (depending on your operating system) are: ATI Radeon Series: Catalyst 7.9 - Released 10th September 2007* Nvidia GeForce Series: Version: 162.18 - Released 5th July 2007* For more information about about checking your card and current drivers, see The Troubleshooting Guide Graphic Cards section. Note: Versions correct at time of posting. Hard Drive Housekeeping & Temp Files* Before installing any new program, it advisable to clean up and organize your hard drive. Sometimes a hard drive can become cluttered with a number of temporary files, or files that are out of order on the hard disk due to uninstalling and reinstalling. It can also suffer losses in integrity that can cause errors. Cleaning up your hard drive will help increase the performance of your game and help prevent problems while installing The Sims 2 University. For more information on performing these procedures, see The Troubleshooting Guide Hard Drive Housekeeping section. In addition to using the Disk Cleanup utility to empty temp files as part of your Hard Drive clean up, you can also clean up any temp files/folders manually that the utility has left behind. For more information see The Troubleshooting Guide Temp Files section. Background Tasks Almost certainly there are a variety of programs running on your computer, eating up resources, even if you don't know they are there. These tasks can cause conflicts when installing new software and it is advisable to shut them down when you come to install The Sims 2 University. This will include shutting down your anti-virus program (if you have one) as such programs can sometimes cause install conflicts if left running in the background, even on higher end systems. For more information, see The Troubleshooting Guide Background Tasks section.