General Sims game questions and answers

Updated: 08/31/2020 by Computer Hope

My Sims are not speaking English or any language I understand

The Sims

The Sims do not speak English or any other human language. They speak a language that you cannot understand.

I can't get into the downloading sections of https://www.thesims.com

To get into the main sections of The Sims website, you must register your product and have a valid Serial Number. If you have a valid serial number and cannot register, we recommend you contact Electronic Arts for additional support. Computer Hope does not provide updates and patches for this product.

I've lost my serial code for The Sims, how can I get a new one?

Contact Electronic Arts on how to obtain a new one.

When scrolling to view other portions of my house, it scrolls extremely slow

The Sims is a very resource intensive game, especially when you get several families and objects in your house. Verify you have removed all TSRs from your computer. Finally, there are some issues with the video that also attribute to causing the game to slow down. You can find a patch to help fix this issue at The Sims website.

Every time I enter the house, the game crashes

You have corrupt data and we recommend you evict the family, bulldoze the house, and create or move into another.

Objects, such as my TV and stereo, are not making noise

If you are running a pirated version of this game, you will experience this issue. To resolve the issue, we recommend you purchase the game. If you purchased The Sims, verify you have the latest DirectX drivers and latest patches installed on the computer.

My Sim began twitching and then went into ashes?

A twitching Sim is a rare issue where the game does not properly display the flames and your Sim gets killed. Although this is a rare issue, it is one of the issues resolved by the patches.

My Sims are coughing and sneezing, how do you cure them?

While there is no medicine for your Sims, you can cure them by giving them plenty of rest and liquids, and always keeping their energy bar high. If this is done, your Sims will be cured in a few days.

My Sim has a night job; after missing one night, they are fired. How can I not get fired?

A Sim getting fired after missing one night is a known bug with the original release of the Sims and can be resolved by downloading the latest patch.

The game is saying the staircase is already in use although it is not, how can I fix this?

A Sim saying the staircase is already in use is a known bug with the original release of the Sims. This bug is resolved by downloading the latest patch.

Where do I install my new skin?

If the skin file is a compressed file, such as skin.zip, ensure that you unzip the file first.

Once the file is extracted, the skins need to be placed in the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\Game Data\Skins" directory. If you installed the game in a different directory, it may not be in program files.