How do you fix jerky, stop and go movement?

[Joria]

I am so tired of this as it is making my game so difficult to play.  My sims and any other actions I may want to do in build/buy have this jerky, stop and go movement.  It makes it so hard to place anything where you want it or to drag and drop to or from a Sim.

 I am currently practicing a challenge.  I have only ONE game file loaded in my EA folder.  All other games are in a separate folder on my desk top.

 I have cleaned out the cache files. 

I do not have a lot of graphic stuff going on except for water sprinklers.  My house is a very simple stock house where I have upgraded the kitchen and recolored walls and floors.

 I have recently uninstalled and reinstalled my games, although I was unable to manually uninstall/reinstall because I couldn't find some of the things I was supposed to do in my Windows 7 files. 

I regularly remove save back up file.

 I regularly exit and re-enter game.  When I do that I can play for about 5 minutes before it all starts up again. 

I do not have any third party CC except for couple of patterns and stuff from this forum.

 I do not EVER run any mods. 

I do have a LOT of EA store CC. 

I do not know how to limit fpm or what the settings should be.

I keep my exports in a separate file out of the game.

I keep my screenies in a separate file out of the game.

I'm really at my wits end because I think I've pretty much covered all the bases.  I have a good video card, one recommended for this system by another, well known site and by Wiki, but perhaps I need a different or better one?  My pc will be one year old this May.

Will stuff on the pc slow down the game?  Photos, music, etc.?  I have I-Tunes and a lot of music, (although not as much as before), and a tremendous amount of photos.

Please, someone who is really technologically savvy, help.

[Saltypaws]

How much memory do you have Joria?  I thought I had a good video card and finally had to upgrade it.  I also have started turning off my internet while I play and that has helped.  How about defrag and cookies clean up?  Like you said, it sounds like you have covered all the bases, but there has to be something.  I just realized my computer is 3+ years old, but so far, after keeping everything clean, still runs great, now that I have said that, "ducks and runs".  But do check your memory, if you have over 2 gigs of memory, that should be fine in that department.  Maybe someone else will know, Good luck, I know it can get frustrating.

[Hosfac]

Maybe try checking your task manager to see if you have any applications running that aren't showing up in the task bar.  A lot of time this happens to me if my anti-virus software decides to run a scan without telling me.

[Joria]

How much memory do you have Joria?

3 GB memory   I just checked and it looks like I've used about 1/4 of the space so may have to clean out some of the photos and music.  Not mine anyway.  Keeping it safe for the kidlet and I can just as easily put those photos on a disc.  Safer anyway.

It says 1% needs defragging so even though that's a small amount I'll defrag anyway while I sleep.  As for other stuff, I run a clean up utility every night before I shut down called PC Pitstop.  It's pretty good.  Cleans out all the cookies, temp files, straightens out paths, empties the recycle bin and more.  Worth the annual cost.  I also run a spyware thing.  Kind of redundant but better safe than sorry.

Maybe try checking your task manager to see if you have any applications running that aren't showing up in the task bar.  A lot of time this happens to me if my anti-virus software decides to run a scan without telling me.

Task manager?  What's that?    Is it the Control Panel?  I really am pc illiterate.  I used to be able to do this thing with the start up menu.  Somewhere I typed in msconfig and it brought up all the programs that opened at start up, most of them unnecessary and useless.  I usually selected to not have them running because they eat up memory, or something.  Anyway they slow the pc down.  Only I can't remember how I got there in the first place so can't check it again.  Betcha anything there is junk there needs turning off.

I started a new game tonight as a practice for the rabbit hole challenge.  It bogged down right away and I was playing in BB which is usually fairly empty of stuff.  Took me so much longer to do anything.

I usually have the internet off when I'm playing, including EA Download Manager.  I have my antivirus set to run late at night but there is this HP utility that drives me nuts.  It will start up right when I'm in a really crucial part of the game and through me into black screen.  I've tried uninstalling it but every time I start the pc it comes back.  It's a "troubleshooter" but to me it's a "trouble maker".  At least when it kicks me out of the game it doesn't crash it.  Just sends me to the desktop, eventually.  Meanwhile I'm cussing and fearing the worst.  lol

Off to defrag and sleep.  Thanks for the help you guys.

[TheChronicR]

Task manager?  What's that?    Is it the Control Panel?

In Windows XP Professional (don't know fore Windows 7, but it's worth checking, still), I open it by clicking CTRL+ALT+DEL. Another way to open it is right-clicking on the taskbar. As Hosfac said, it shows all of the processes your PC runs at the moment. Go to the 'Processes' tab and remove the ones you don't use, i.e. Skype, MSN messenger, etc. Hope that helps

[malteser60]

Is it Windows 7 you're running? Here are some things you can do:

Run msconfig to stop any unnecessary programme's from loading up at the start. Windows 7 to go start and type msconfig in search prompt. With Windows xp it's something similar, can't quite remember, I believe there's a prompt line in the start menu.

To see what is taking up most of your pc resources you need to run the task manager. To do this press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select task manager. Go to Processes tab, then click on the CPU heading. This rearranges the items so that those using most CPU will be on top.

Windows update can be quite resource consuming in Windows 7 i've noticed, and I'm pretty sure it used to be also in Windows xp. Same with any other programmes that have an automatic update. If you can disable all those that should speed things up a bit as you won't have programmes constantly checking to see if they need an update. Sometimes my laptop will be running painfully slow just internet browsing (and I have a beast of a laptop), then all of a sudden it will speed up and run as normal, and I realise that it was the windows update.

What antivirus are you using? Some, like Norton, are notoriously resource heavy. If you are disconnected from the internet whilst playing the sims then you can turn off your antivirus and that should free up some more pc resources. Same with the anti spyware/adware. These two programmes will continuously run in the background checking everything so they use up valuable resources.

Hope some of these help, and that somebody else can think of something. But it does sound like you have some sort of background programme or task that is running and using up most of your pc resources. Especially if you keep your pc running clean from cache, cookies, temp files, etc.

Edit: TheChronicR beat me to the task manager bit. So, Windows 7 instructions, still type Ctrl+Alt+Del. Takes you to a screen (with blue background) with a list of options. Choose the last one 'Start Task Manager'.

[Hosfac]

It's CTRL+ALT+DEL in Vista as well.  It might be easier to just use the task manager than it would to run the msconfig (depending on your computer knowledge), since the programs that show up in the msconfig aren't always 100% clear as to what they are.  Some of those are also vital windows functions, so if you decide to try to do that, just follow this simple rule:  if you're not 100% sure what the program is, let it run.

[malteser60]

I kinda think it's the opposite actually. I'm always confused as to what is running in task manager. But in msconfig most programmes are very obvious, i.e. HP Printer startup for example. You don't really need your printer interface to start up everytime you boot up your pc. Also, if you end a task in task manager, next time you restart the computer it'll just start up again.

But you are right in that if in doubt, leave it alone.

[Joria]

Is it Windows 7 you're running? Here are some things you can do:

Run msconfig to stop any unnecessary programme's from loading up at the start. Windows 7 to go start and type msconfig in search prompt. With Windows xp it's something similar, can't quite remember, I believe there's a prompt line in the start menu.

To see what is taking up most of your pc resources you need to run the task manager. To do this press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select task manager. Go to Processes tab, then click on the CPU heading. This rearranges the items so that those using most CPU will be on top.

Windows update can be quite resource consuming in Windows 7 i've noticed, and I'm pretty sure it used to be also in Windows xp. Same with any other programmes that have an automatic update. If you can disable all those that should speed things up a bit as you won't have programmes constantly checking to see if they need an update. Sometimes my laptop will be running painfully slow just internet browsing (and I have a beast of a laptop), then all of a sudden it will speed up and run as normal, and I realise that it was the windows update.

What antivirus are you using? Some, like Norton, are notoriously resource heavy. If you are disconnected from the internet whilst playing the sims then you can turn off your antivirus and that should free up some more pc resources. Same with the anti spyware/adware. These two programmes will continuously run in the background checking everything so they use up valuable resources.

Hope some of these help, and that somebody else can think of something. But it does sound like you have some sort of background programme or task that is running and using up most of your pc resources. Especially if you keep your pc running clean from cache, cookies, temp files, etc.

Edit: TheChronicR beat me to the task manager bit. So, Windows 7 instructions, still type Ctrl+Alt+Del. Takes you to a screen (with blue background) with a list of options. Choose the last one 'Start Task Manager'.

Ok, pretty much at start up now it's my mouse, my internet, and Norton, plus EA.  Not sure if EA needs to be in there but don't want to mess with it.  I have everything disabled from there I can and start up is set for selective start up rather than the full start up.

Same thing with task manager.  I remembered with Vista and XP you could safely shut off/remove anything labeled with your user name so did that.  Wasn't that much there and very low cpu use but every bit helps.

What I have NOT been doing is shutting off Norton when I'm offline playing the game!  DUH!  I can't really change my Norton to something else as it is part of the cable thing that we use for internet but I can shut it off when I'm offline.  Thanks for that tip!  I had totally forgotten it.  As for my spyware/adware thing, I shut it down after each time I clean out the pc.  Disable it I should say.
So it is not running in the background at all.  It's one of the few things I remembered from my Vista/XP days.

How/where do you shut off the automatic update for Windows?  I KNOW that sucker is running because when I go to shut down at night it tells me to leave the pc alone it's about to update.  Then again, how would you know when and if to update?  Hmmm, I frequently get an update message from Adobe and Itunes/Quicktime as well, but no idea where to go to turn these off.  I particularly get annoyed at the Itunes one as I do NOT want it to be my main music thingie.  It's only on my pc to keep my kid happy buying the occasional song she wants for her IPod.  I did not find these items listed in msconfig or task manager.

Thanks so much for the help.  I'll actually be able to help my dh with his lap top as well.  He is so leery of cleaning anything out then complains when things are slow.

Oh, would having a background on your desktop slow things down?  I have a gorgeous screenie of the nectary remodel I did on mine.  He keeps his desktop empty but he shares it with the kid and she is constantly changing "her" desktop.  She's given up asking me if she can use my pc when I'm in the middle of a game which I pretty much always am if I'm not here.  lol 

Thanks again everybody.  I'm going to go play without the Norton and see if that helps.

[Hosfac]

How/where do you shut off the automatic update for Windows? 

To be honest, I don't really remember now...but I know I configured mine to notify me before downloading updates, and it never does.  Windows just does whatever it wants, it seems.  I would still download the updates, but it would be nice to know when it's happening so I don't get involved in something that I'm going to have to stop so I can restart my computer.

If nobody else knows off the top of their head, I'll look around and find it.

[Joria]

Shutting Norton down did the trick!  I was able to play all day without a glitch, other than normal game glitches anyway.  Thanks so much.  I never would have thought of that.

[TheChronicR]

How/where do you shut off the automatic update for Windows?

For Windows XP:
1. Go to Control Panel,
2. Click Automatic Updates,
3. Choose 'Turn Off Automatic Updates'.

I did not select any of the options when installing Windows, so it keeps telling me to configure my settings, but I just ignore it. It does nothing but sucking my internet speed, and shutting my computer down every time it finishes. Just ignore it. You won't lose anything. I wouldn't recommend turning off any Antivirus program, because mine, Kasperski Anti-Virus, only restarts when I restart the whole computer. Antivirus is very important when using internet, though, be sure to turn it on when you're finished playing Sims.

[Hosfac]

My internet is cable, so my computer is always connected to the internet.  Aside from physically disconnecting the modem, there is no real way for me to play offline.  Thus, I can't shut my virus scan software off.  All I have to do though is stop the scan if it starts automatically, because that's the only time it really causes problems for me.