I think this is a Windows problem...

[Anat]

Not absolutely sure though - I'm no tech expert.

Here goes - we just bought a new laptop (Toshiba Satellite). The shop installed Windows ME for us. Today, I tried to install MS Excel 2000. Everything seemed to work fine and the installation was coplete. Then, when we tried to run it it seemed to load and as soon as the first Excell screen showed up the whole application shut itself down without a warning.

We thought there might be something wrong with the particular installation and managed to run Excel from another computer on our network (it's a private home with 4 comps on a network, rach running Windows ME - we mainly use the network to play Starcraft :) ).

Anyway, this afternoon, I thought I'd try to install The Sims and see how the new laptop runs it. Again, the installation seemed to go through like a breeze, yet when I tried running it, it loaded the game fine (you know, how the games tells you it's loading the different components) and when it finished, it just shut the whole thing down without a warning.

Any idea what's going on? We do have other applications such as MS Word 2000, Outlook Express, Explorer, Starcraft and a few others installed and running fine.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!b

[Kento]

How much RAM do you have? Maybe you're already low on resources when opening those programs and it pushes it over the top and causes it to crash. But that's just a guess. Try unchecking some items from under the startup tab in msconfig to free up some resources. Start--run--type msconfig and click ok.

Do this. Click start--run--type msinfo32 and click ok. When the system info screen pops double click on software environment and startup programs. Then click edit--select all--edit--copy. Then come here and right click in your reply windows and select paste. This will let us see what you have running at startup. Then we may be able to recommend some things to uncheck to free up some resources.

By the way, if you have outlook running when that problem occurs shut it down and then try it. Also click ctrl + alt + del and 'end task' on all but explorer and then see if those programs will run.

[Anat]

Thank you for your quick reply! We have 128MB of RAM and these applications (Excel 2000 and The Sims) should work with less I think. I have tried running them right after turning the computer on with no other visible applications in the background (no Outlook Express) and it didn't help.I will go now and try closing everything with the CTRL+ALT+DEl like you suggested. If this works, I'll post here immidiately.


I did what you said with the MSinfo32 command and this is what I got:


*StateMgr c:\windows\system\restore\statemgr.exe All Users HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
ALiSndMgr alisndmg.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
EM_EXEC c:\progra~1\mousew~1\system\em_exec.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
internat.exe internat.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
IrMon irmon.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
LoadPowerProfile rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,loadcurrentpwrscheme All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
LoadPowerProfile rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,loadcurrentpwrscheme All Users HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
Microsoft Works Calendar Reminders c:\progra~1\common~1\micros~1\workss~1\wkcalrem.exe .DEFAULT Startup
Microsoft Works Portfolio c:\program files\microsoft works\wkssb.exe /allusers All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Microsoft Works Update Detection c:\program files\microsoft works\wkdetect.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Norton Auto-Protect c:\progra~1\norton~1\navapw32.exe /loadquiet All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
PCHealth c:\windows\pchealth\support\pchschd.exe -s All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
ScanRegistry c:\windows\scanregw.exe /autorun All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
SchedulingAgent mstask.exe All Users HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
SSDPSRV c:\windows\system\ssdpsrv.exe All Users HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
SystemTray systray.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Taskbar Display Controls rundll deskcp16.dll,quickres_rundllentry .DEFAULT HKU\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
TaskMonitor c:\windows\taskmon.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
TFncKy tfncky.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
THotkey c:\windows\system\thotkey.exe All Users HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
Tpwrtray tpwrtray.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
WorksFUD c:\program files\microsoft works\wkfud.exe All Users HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


Thank you again for your help!

[Anat]

Problem Solved!!

It took me a couple of hours of trial and error but I finally found the solution. It is so silly really. I downloaded some SIMS object files from the internet yesterday, even before running the game for the first time. Apparently one of those files was corrupted and caused the crash :o

Only after I installed the game on another computer, saw that it was working fine, and then had it crashing on me right after I moved the downloaded objects to its game folders... I finally realized that this was the problem...

Sorry about that and thank you again for your time and patience. I'm afraid there's not a lot I can give back on this forum, but if anyone's looking for cat advice, I'd be happy to help :)