I started having this problem when I installed the NVidia 5.13 reference driver. When I went back to 3.78, everything worked. Try the NVidia Release Candidate 3.78 driver, available at www.nvidia.com and see if it works for you.
 
The other predicament this creates for me is that I can't use the 5.13 driver. This driver worked so beautifully under Quake III and Unreal Tournament that I hate having to give it up.
 
System:
Pentium III 667
256MB RAM
Windows 2000 Pro retail
SoundBlaster Live with creative Liveware 2k
LeadTek WinFast GeForce DDR
Creative DVD
Plextor 8/4/32 CD-RW
bla bla bla bla.....

got that problem too
 
not the vid card!
 
i used these with the Sims, all ending in a lockup:
 
Creative 3D Blaster Banshee AGP
Creative Graphics Blaster Riva TNT AGP
STB Voodoo3 2000 PCI

I have tried the 3.78 drivers and my other games crash and burn with them. Most of my other games will reboot me after 1 minute with those drivers. I thought TheSims would work with Win2k but apparently not.

Answer this.....
 
I installed the v1.1 patch, then none of the cheat codes would work, I had to uninstall and reinstall the game, anyone else have this problem? Also, on the bottom of the box it states:
 
Operating System: Windows 95 or 98 (Windows NT is not supported)
 
CPU Type/Speed: 233MHz or faster Intel Pentium CPU.
 
Memory: 32 MB RAM
 
HDD Space 300 plus space for saved games and windows swap file
 
Graphics Card: High Color (800x600) 2mb or higher with directdraw compat. driver.
 
CDROM Speed: 4x CDROM or higher
 
Other Needs: DirectX7 Compat. snd card, keyboard, mouse.
 
[This message has been edited by EddiE314 (edited 03 April 2000).]

Okay, i have a Dual boot system with Windows 2k pro and Win98, i restarted in win98 and installed the Sims, Played ok but it too locked up after about 70minutes as opposed to playing it in win2k it locked up in about half that time if not less. I really don't know what the problem is. I ruled out the possibility of it being a heat problem because i moved my voodoo3 pci to the bottom-most pci slot and put my ethernet card and DVD decoder card above it, CPU1 runs at about 95F which is pretty good considering it only has a common fan/heatsink combo on it and its overclocked from 400 to 550MHz, I tried clocking both cpu's back down to 400. And it still froze in win2k AND win98. I got desperate and installed the v1.1 patch but guess what?? IT STILL LOCKED UP! I've also tried other cards, including: a Banshee and a TNT. Yup, thats right..still locked up. I'm going to go and get the latest voodoo3 drivers to see if it helps but i seriously doubt it. Please, if you have this problem too, feel free to post a reply. maybe we can all find a common problem we all have, thus maybe solving this problem.
Thank you.

Copied from www.thesims.com
 
The game crashes and dumps me out to my desktop. What can I do?
 
I get an error message: “Invalid page fault in module unknown” or “Invalid page fault in module Sims.exe.” What now?
 
What do I do if my computer locks up on the loading screen or in the game?
 
End any background tasks in order for the game to run stably:
-Hold [Ctrl] and [Alt] and then tap the [Delete] key. This should bring up the "Close Programs" window.
-Highlight an unnecessary application and press "End Task".
-Repeat this procedure to close any other programs (excluding "Explorer" and "Systray")
 
Disable any anti-virus and/or crash guard software you have running.
Lower the video hardware acceleration to “basic”:
- Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
- Pick the "Performance" tab
- Choose "Graphics"
- Lower “hardware acceleration” to basic.
Try selecting "game compatible device" or "use any available device" from the multimedia control panel.
Make sure that your desktop is set to at least 800x600, 16-bit high color and that you are using the latest driver for your sound and video cards. If your drivers are out of date or lack DirectX 7 support, there is a workaround:
- You'll need to modify the shortcut to The Sims. Browse to the Program Files\Maxis\The Sims directory (or whatever directory you've installed the game to), right click on Sims.EXE and drag it to your desktop, and select "Create Shortcut(s) Here".
- Once you have the shortcut on your desktop, right-click on it and select Properties.
- In the ‘Target’ field it should say:
"C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Sims.exe" (or the path to whichever folder it’s installed to).
- Add the following to the end of the “Target” line: “-nodx6 -skip_verify -skip_intro -w”
If the game still crashes, you may be having sound problems. As a last resort, add “ -nosound” to the desktop shortcut as well.

hrmm...... i downloaded a rip of the Sims(boring, boring, boring game, IMO) and never had a single problem with it in win98 or win2k
Celery366
Intel i440LX/EX
128MB PC100
S3 Savage4 32MB(latest Stealth III drivers)

I had a rip of it too, i used to play it forever and a day with no problems, then all of a sudden...BOOM! Lockups out the a$$!!
 
I got may hands on the retail of it expecting to not have lockups, guess i was wrong.

I am running the sims w/ win 2K, voodoo 3 2000 PCI, and it runs great, even better than it did in 98.

Well I switched my video drivers to the Release Candidate of 3.78 and they worked great. My other games don't crash and neither does TheSims. So whatever it was that was causing it before it is gone now. Its weird that all the other leaked detonator drivers that I have tried don't work but 3.78 do. Oh well. Thanks for the help.

I am running the Sims in 2K w/ the v1.1 patch all works great.