For the past 2 days my game has not loaded or even opened at all, it worked fine yesterday morning but when i tired to open it again it couldn't and a message error box without text and red circle with the white cross is the only thing appearing, i've recently had issued with some bad NPC's but managed to sort everything out and it worked fine yesterday morning after i've unintalled it multiple times and starting over and now it just doesn't work at all, i've used the same disc for about 8 years but it doesn't have severe scratches, i've also tried to restart my pc to see if that was the issue.. i hope someone can help me with this pproblem or give me some advise, thank you!

Try deleting the Accessory.cache and Groups.cache in your C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder.

Yes it worked thank you so much, i'll keep it in mind if it ever happens again, thank you!

You're welcome. Glad you got your game back running again :lovestruc

If you can remember, try to delete those cache files everytime you play. I don't know why, but they are so fragile, especially if you have custom content.

You shouldn't have to do it every time you play, but any time it doesn't load, that's the go-to first step. If you add substantial new CC, you'll almost certainly have to do it.

Think of a cache file as a post-it note. Just as it's frequently handy to have a post-it note stuck to the edge of the screen with bits of info you know you're going to need to refer to a lot - phone numbers, the number of square feet in an acre, the correct spelling of exaggerated, whatever - the computer uses a cache file for information it's going to access a lot, so it doesn't have to run all the way back to the source. It makes the program run faster. But, just like that post-it note, it deteriorates over time, more or less rapidly depending on changes in situation. The phone numbers you need change, you finally get exaggerated down and now you can't spell occasion, the glue dries up and loses its stick, and the whole thing's been erased and overwritten so many times even the number of square feet in an acre is hard to read. So you throw that away and need to make a new one. That's what deleting the cache files does - throws away the old note and provides a new one for the computer to write to with all the new data.

Usually deleting the groups cache is enough. The accessory data doesn't seem to change as often.

If you've used Bodyshop since you last played, you may also need to delete some files generated by that program. They'll be brand-new strange files, so you'll know which ones when you see them. Cigen.cache and, um, Registry, I think? (I hardly ever open Bodyshop.)

Regarding the Accessory.cache - may not be neccessary to delete it every time, but if you do changes to CAS content (download new default replacement clothes, edit a mesh or recolor you've already used ingame, or similar) not deleting the file can result in info from the old files lagging behind, and you can get issues (from personal experience it could be the wrong mesh/texture showing, exploding meshes - even the same mesh perfectly fine on one sim and exploding on another, in the same load).

I usually delete all 2-4 cache files every time, because I often remesh or fix items. If I don't delete them, my game or Bodyshop rarely lasts more than 1-2 rounds before they refuse to start, so I've made it a habit. Loading takes a bit longer (only first load after restarting the computer for Bodyshop), but I don't mind too much.

The others generated by Bodyshop are "Cigen.package" and "Contentregistry" - and yes, they can cause some issues too.

Cigen has Bodyshop thumbnails, and is mostly just a problem if you find the thumbnails don't show like they should. This one can be useful to keep around for faster Bodyshop loading.

Or ...

You could try adding the word "old" (without the space between) before the word for each of the first four files in your game. I tried it with mine, and it worked fine. :D