Well, Shorty sez his is working fine... You probably just need to make sure you get the cracked patched executable.

I think that was part of the confusion; some of the "loudest" posters were certain that there was no patched crack, which meant trying to use the original crack on a patched game, which had serious BFBVFS potential.

Nice to know there is a patched crack available! From everything I have managed to read, if I use the cracked exe file instead of the disk exe file- and never start BV with the disk exe file- then SecuRom won't get installed in the first place. (Seems it's using the original exe that unleashes that beast. This explains why H&M- which has SecuRom too- never caused much of a problem; since it was a Stuff Pack, it's exe file was never used if you had any of the later EPs installed. )

Unless the act of patching installs SecuRom, then I predict a SecuRom free BV experience for me soon!

SecuRom, is installed as part of EA's game .exe, in BV and H&M, not in the patch. But, the patch does rewrite the game .exe and SecuRom.

So it goes like this.

Install the expansion pack, patch the expansion pack, then rename the original .exe file (I put "Not", in front of the file name) and copy over the "fixed" .exe file, link start icon to that "fixed" .exe file and no more EALauncher.exe or SecuRom.exe.
The EA installed game start icon actually links to EALauncher.exe in ~\TSBin, not Sim2EP6.exe.

Sneaky buggers aren't they!

However, I have had 2 crashes after about an hour or so of game play so far.

Is EA's record any better than that?

I'd guess this is the worst that EA had done yet. It seems that they've inconvenienced and alienated all of their paying customers without slowing down pirates at all. That doesn't strike me as very good business.

It's a real let-down for quite a few people. And the list of possible problems just seems to keep growing.

Oh phooey!

I was hoping that renaming/replacing that exe file would be the answer!

Sounds like circumventing SecuRom may not be feasible after all.

Drat!

***EDITED TO ADD***

After (finally) wading through the post (over at The Site That Shall Remain Nameless) about avoiding/removing SecuRom, I can't find any other reports of crash outs. Any chance it's a problem with a no-longer-compatible mod or something???

Over on MTS2 I found this post...
http://hideki.modthesims2.com/wiki.p...oyage_Launcher

...which is basically instructions for setting the Desktop Launcher Icon to use the exe file & not the Launcher file. While this wouldn't get rid of SecuRom installing by it's self, I wonder if setting it to use the "SecuRom Free" (no CD) exe does anything different.

Just kinda grasping (desperately) at straws here! I really really want BV installed, & am about to just say "to heck with it" & give it a go.

What's one more reinstall to a Sims addict, anyway?

Umm, goes with the game. R & D is fraught with "oh bugger".:p

I learned that long ago, in the pursuit of engine performance on the race track.
You hammer it until something breaks, then make that bit stronger, and hammer it again.:laugh: :blob7:

That's what I call fun.:asking06:

Now to chase down the author of the crack and ask if he can have a look at the crash logs.

Not fun.:confused:

For some odd reason, I have never had a lot of success from taking a hammer to my computer.

Satisfaction, yes. Success, no.

Maybe it works better (in the case of BV, anyway) if you take a hammer to the programmers instead?

Then again, there's the whole "legality" issue...

Yeah, upgrading programmers is risky business. :lol:

Legality, shmegality.

ZW, I like the way you think. Let's do some programmer adjustment instead.

Three crash logs now, all different lots and families, same access violation in the .exe file. Different process ID Threads.

Extract from last crash log.


Exception time: 11/28/2007, at 12:17:22.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 2096 (0x00000830).
Version information:
Application/module path: D:\EA Games\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSBin\Sims2EP6.exe (my edit, the fixed .exe, not EA's.)
Application/module version name: The Sims 2 EP6
Application/module version: 1.10.0.122
System version: Windows NT 5.1
System memory: 1024 Megabytes total, 144 Megabytes free.
Application/module configuration: ReleaseSRT


Extra Exception Data:

Shutdown: 0
HostName: BIGBOX
MemoryUsage: 547748K
Neighborhood Name: Pleasantview
Neighborhood Prefix: N001
Lot Name: 11dots Lot 1.1
Family Name: Marin
Extra Exception Data End:

Exception module: D:\EA Games\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSBin\Sims2EP6.exe.
Exception address: 0x00991f50. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00590f50.


The "fixed" exe author is not so easy to find. Anybody else feel like helping to find "FAirLIght" of "Team Fairlight"?

I can find plenty of Google references to "FAirLIght DOX 2007", but, that is only documentation for games he\she\it have "fixed".
Must be deeper "underground" than I know how to find.:asking06:

Hmmm...

Well, a Google search of "Sims2EP6.exe. no cd crashes" turned up several references to a thread on The Site That Shall Not Be Named, a couple blogs & one place (Torrent) that wanted to send me to porno sites.

From what I was able to gather, there have been a couple reports of people complaining about the FairLight version of the no cd crack...but then there's a bunch of posts that say it's working fine for them.

I'll see what else I can find when I'm awake tomorrow...

Well, if all they "fixed" was bypassing the launcher/SecuROM, all the natural Maxis bugginess is still there.

Jase from InTeen swears that the EP was developed by whinos paid in booze because there's a huge amount of new code full of new programmer bugs.

ZW, I chased all that down to get this far.:)

Read all the threads, took the chances.
Whoops, tripped over.:p

There is a little feel good poster featuring penguins. The text reads.

Our greatest triumph, is not that we never fall down,
rather, that we get to our feet again every time.

I like penguins, they are unique to the southern hemisphere, and typify every body, that lives south of the equator.

There is a university rugby song about that too.

"I get knocked down, but I get up again, cos you're never gonna keep me down, I get knocked down, but I get up again" ad infinitum ad nausium.
Well, it is a jock beer drinking song.

So, the upshot is, my personal favourite multiple choice answer.
D. All of the above.:laugh:

Lady M, I wonder if a "bug zapper" might help.:p Over at EA I mean.:confused:

Ah, good old plan B. Try another plan.

Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.:salute:

As long as I see no smoke from the old Athlon, as we say over here, she'll be right, mate, she'll be right.

Can't say I can argue with Jase's assessment...but the part that's driving me nuts is the inconsistency of the complaints: for every "It's broken" post now there seems to be a "It's working fine for me" one- at least since the BV Patch was released.

Same thing on the threads about using no-cd cracks & bypassing SecuROM.

This is making it virtually impossible to prepare my PC for BV as I honestly have no idea what I'm preparing for anymore!!

Once BV is patched, there is only that SecuRom thing, and all that does is check that the disk is genuine, maybe. We hope.
The EALauncher can be bypassed by re-linking the game start icon to the actual game Sims2EP*.exe instead of EALauncher.exe, with no ill effects at all.

It's just that I really don't like seeing my installation disks getting marked.

And of course, last night, when I decided to try the other way around and use an emulated disk image of the game as per "that" sites instructions.

"Athlon the Unassailable", refused to download the adware emulator needed.
My computer won't let me do things that are dangerous to it.
This is a good thing.
I'm currently sort of unsure about my XP SP2 status.
It is 1 of 10 from a Microsoft Partners pack from my friends shop, now closed.

I know first post here, but I have lurked for a long time. I'm playing bv with fairlight's no-cd crack and really not having any problem with crashes. I patched the game and downloaded the patched no-cd crack. To install the crack I simply placed the original exe file to my desktop unzipped the crack and placed into the tsbin etc. Made a shortcut to that exe, starts without launcher.

I placed the original exe in a folder. The cd crack cannot be patched if a new patch comes out only the original exe. Saving the original exe means you don't have to uninstall/reinstall when a patch comes out.

I had a few hack conflicts which affected the game, but that was totally my fault. I get the blue screen every once in while-lasts about 15 secs only crashed once due ti BSOD. My graphic card can't be changed or updated. Have had the BSOD since seasons. Have just learned to live with it. My nephew is a trained IT who loves to help me out and he can't find an update. I play mostly on my laptop.

This is the first time I have ever played with a no-cd crack. I never would have considered it, if securom wasn't such a problem.

G-day Roxy.
That BSOD you talk of.
Is that the dreaded Windows foot stamp, or just the game going "Kachonk, I just crashed, boo hoo".:p and giving you back the desktop?:confused:


I've gone through all the rigamarole, sometimes it works, sometimes it freaks.
Buuuut, knowing me as I do. It is probably a conflict in one to several(?) of the *many, many, many, recurring to the power of lots*, hacks I have installed.

** this is a specific mathematical formula I have been working on since the base game.

Welcome to Sun Sims, Roxy! That sounds like good news. I've never had the guts to try a no-CD hack but if I ever decide to install Bon Voyage, I'll seriously look at that option.

Greg, we are all talking about exactly the same option.

You either use FAirLIght's "fixed" NoCD "crack", or you use the YASU (yet another SecuRom utility) game disk image.

I just may have a couple more conflicting hacks to cull, or, "Athlon the Unassailable" doesn't like pirates. Not a good thing considering my heritage.


EDIT..

Seems that was it, I found another weather hack from pre-SSN, the "Wintermute\Harp Weather Machine" seems to have argued with the "Desert Weather" hack.
Almost 2 hours, built a new Sim, moved into a new lot and got her settled, played my selfsim for a while, moved to another family lot to play a while.
All using the "fixed" game file, all seems good now.