Burglar Alarm Freezes Game

[jdratlif]

I seem to get robbed weekly. When the burglar comes in, my alarm goes off, but it also seems to lock up the game. Not permanently, it just stalls for about 45 seconds. The alarm is very loud and the system doesn't respond during this time (can't use mute button).

Does this happen to anyone else?

The one time it didn't happen was when I had my laptop plugged into an external display. Otherwise, the hard drive light become solid and the machine freezes.

I have all the packs and patches (1.12, 2.7.7, 3.3.11, and whatever Ambitions is). Windows 7 x64. I got Ambitions a couple days ago, but it happened before I added it, too.

[Pam]

Welcome to the Forum, jdratlif!

A couple of things come to mind:

1. Do you have any mods or third party custom content installed? These can mess up a game pretty badly.

2. Does your computer meet the minimum specifications for running the game?

Other technical minded members may have other suggestions and will probably be along shortly.

[Swede1992]

Since this seems to be more of a technical issue than an actual intended feature in the game, I'm moving this to the Technical Help section.

Now for your problem: No, I have not had it occured. Fact is, I have just installed all new patches and Ambitions and have just gotten my first ever burglar! It was never any such lag with him though.

[jdratlif]

No Mods, no third party anything.

I have a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4 GB RAM and an Intel Mobile Series 4 Express. I think I'm over the requirements. There is no lag anywhere else. It takes time to load the game, but once loaded it runs just fine.

I think it's the alarm more than the burglar that causes my problem. I hear the music change when my people are asleep, but nothing happens till the burglar comes inside and triggers the alarm. Maybe I should delete my alarm and see what happens.

I remember once finding a burglar in another game, but I didn't have an alarm so I woke my sims up to deal with it. No freeze then, but this was before I had any of the expansion packs.

[Pam]

Definitely try deleting the alarm and putting in a new one.  Sometimes just a single item can be bugged and replacing it fixes the problem.

[AriaGirl77]

Just another thought, you may want to check and see if your sound card drivers are up to date.  If you have on board sound then nevermind.

[jdratlif]

I decided to move. I deleted my old alarm and bought a new one for the new house. Maybe I'll be robbed less in this neighborhood.

I'm playing on my laptop, so everything is integrated. My sound drivers are whatever Windows installed.

Thanks.