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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Aug 2019 at 2:59 AM Last edited by M-hzer : 25th Aug 2019 at 3:31 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Hack Conflict Detection Utility not working
I decided to use HCDU to try to scan any potential conflicts before playing with my mods. Unfortunately, it failed to work, possibly because of the Unicode in the folders. Is there any way to somehow make it work, or change the Document folder's name so it wouldn't have Unicode?

EDIT: Changing the display language to English worked, however, after installing various mods, HCDU began silently shutting down. Are there any catch-all way to solve that?
Quote:
Sims 2 Hack Conflict Detection Utility - Version 2.00.03

Error: 63
Bad record number

Module: modSimsPackage
Procedure: gsOpenPackageFile
Location: 5000

Install Path: H:\ドキュメント\EA Games\Sims 2 Hack Conflict
Data Path: H:\ドキュメント
Sims Path: H:\ProChang\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\Base

Additional Error Data:
Filename = H:\ドキュメント\EA Games\The Sims 2\downloads\BuyMode\CJH_WeddingMat.package
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Forum Resident
#2 Old 25th Aug 2019 at 3:39 AM
Hello! Definitely a good idea to use HCDU before playing with a set of mods!

Funny, just today I explained to someone how to set the filepaths so that HCDU will properly read your files. (This was not exactly your question, but looking at what you're trying to do, I think it is something you need to know---because HCDU cannot read a Downloads folder that is located in an Origin-based TS2 game.) Please check the top of this post for details.

Also, HCDU as a program doesn't have to be located in the EA games directory, so you can just choose to locate it in one that doesn't have troublesome Unicode.


(Edited to strikethrough because none of that above is actually relevant to you, is it, looking more closely at the info you've offered!)

And adding this...could you change the language on your computer temporarily so that the words "My Documents" would actually be the name for your documents folder? It's true I don't know how much support for non-English languages is built into HCDU.

In any case, the one thing I can still say as I did before is this: there are members here far more generally tech-savvy than I, so if the above is not enough, I think you'll still be in good hands here.

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
Forum Resident
#3 Old 25th Aug 2019 at 5:35 AM Last edited by Sims2Maven : 25th Aug 2019 at 5:56 AM.
That thing is a tricky little sonofagun. You can put it anywhere that's convenient, but - and this is very important - you must temporarily move all the files you want to check to a dummy Downloads folder (C:/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads). And yes, it needs to be called just "The Sims 2". Do not change the name of your game folder - make a dummy folder instead. When you're done checking, you can move the files back.

That was the only way I got it to work (with some helpful advice), and I also have the Ultimate Collection.

By the way, I don't think the HDCU is multilingual - Paladin wasn't much of a linguist. So use English for your dummy folder.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 25th Aug 2019 at 8:22 AM
Btw, you need a capital letter for Downloads.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 25th Aug 2019 at 11:58 AM Last edited by M-hzer : 25th Aug 2019 at 3:30 PM.
Changing the system language to English worked well, and I might keep it this way to avoid Unicode-related shenanigans and because I believe I'm pretty good at English. Thanks!

EDIT: HCDU now silently shuts down without any warning after installing various mods, help please?
Forum Resident
#6 Old 26th Aug 2019 at 3:01 AM Last edited by natboopsie : 26th Aug 2019 at 4:22 AM.
Hello again! So glad that you were able to get HCDU to play nice with your My Documents folder by changing the system language to English. (By the way, it certainly reads like your command of English is more than up to keeping that as your normal system language, I agree. ) It already looked from your original post that you'd figured out on your own the bit about the UC needing a dummy Downloads folder for HCDU to read, and good for you!

Now as to your new issue. Please specify: when you said previously that HCDU started working, are you saying that it was able to generate a conflicts report, with a count of total conflicts (the count could even have been 0)?

Or are you simply saying that it no longer threw the error in your OP, but it never actually generated any conflict report at all, even one indicating 0 conflicts?

I'm asking because it would be very unusual for HCDU to stop working just because you added or changed the mods in the Downloads folder that it reads. Its operation should not be affected by which mods you have.

It will also help if you can provide a screenshot of how far HCDU does get---in other words, can you show us an image of the last thing that HCDU shows you before it shuts down?

ETA a note on syntax: what Charity said about the downloads folder needing to be capitalized as "Downloads" for HCDU to read it is true. TS2 will not read any mods from a folder called "downloads", so neither will HCDU. Sounds like your problem is bigger than that, but since your OP does show a lowercased "downloads" folder, thought I'd mention it.

@Sims2Maven To reduce file corruption odds just from sheer moving back and forth, there's one other thing I should have told you when I gave you those tips about HCDU's needed directory structure: instead of moving your Downloads back and forth from one location to the other, preferably just keep the one you intend to use in your normal UC folder (in My Documents), and *copy* that over to the version that HCDU reads each time. The more frequently you move those mod files, the higher the chance your OS will accidentally corrupt the data in one or more during a move---and plain ol' data corruption sometimes is the reason that people complain some mod or another has stopped working in their game.

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 26th Aug 2019 at 9:10 AM
@Sims2Maven
Previously, with few mods, HCDU was able to generate a conflict report, saying there are 0 conflicts. However, with mods in place, it stopped generating any conflict reports, shutting down after displaying the "Searching for Hacks" screen, with no progress on the initial test. Later tests with varying mods resulted in various results, yet it always crashes without generating any report. I am unsure how to take screenshots, but hope this piece of information does the job.

The Downloads folder is correctly capitalized and spelled as "Downloads", just in case.
Forum Resident
#8 Old 26th Aug 2019 at 2:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by natboopsie
plain ol' data corruption sometimes is the reason that people complain some mod or another has stopped working in their game.


That's why I keep backup copies of everything I download. (More specifically, I download to storage first, and then install from the storage directory, so if anything goes wrong, I can easily replace it.)
Forum Resident
#9 Old 26th Aug 2019 at 11:35 PM
Hi again, M-hzer.

With Windows 10, my experience with HCDU has been that it sometimes appears to hang (sometimes even with a Windows error message) while actually continuing to scan. Given long enough, it usually finishes the scan correctly, despite looking like there is a problem partway through.

The main situation in which that happens is when the user uses Alt-Tab to a different window on the desktop.

But if you are not using Alt-Tab or Shift-Tab to move away from the active HCDU window, then we have reached unfortunately the limits of my expertise---I cannot guess why HCDU would crash, unless perhaps it is again a filepaths issue. So the only other thing I can personally suggest is perhaps check to be sure that all the Origin filepaths for the UC are now fully in English and that they match the English release's folder hierarchy. (Although the thread itself is on an unrelated topic, you can find a good start to checking your filepath names in the post here.)

Please let us know if that checks out, and perhaps in the meantime someone else will come who is more technically skilled in this regard---and if you let me know what you find, perhaps I can also think of who else might be able to help better!

By the way, M-hzer, I also apologize for any confusion that I caused. Sims2Maven and I are two separate people, and the reason I was tagging them (using the @ symbol) at the end of my previous reply was because that last bit was a side message intended for them and not for you. To avoid identity confusion this time, I'll just quote in their message since I do need to reply to them again. But indeed, the side discussion I am having with her is not germane to the main focus of your thread; so if it goes on further I'll take it elsewhere.

Quote: Originally posted by Sims2Maven
That's why I keep backup copies of everything I download. (More specifically, I download to storage first, and then install from the storage directory, so if anything goes wrong, I can easily replace it.)


Of course. I do the same. And you're free to run your own files as you want; I was just pointing it out because when giving advice to other players, it's probably not wise to assume that they do the same with backups---and if they don't, then corrupted hacks can cause a significant problem for them. I thought you might want to be sure that your advice remains as helpful as possible, and I wanted to be sure that what I told you included full information of the risks of unnecessary copying.

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
Alchemist
#10 Old 26th Aug 2019 at 11:50 PM
I just want to add in case it hasn't been said... I don't move my Downloads to use HCDU at all. I just rename the The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection folder temporarily to The Sims 2. Seems less risk of making a mistake to me.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 27th Aug 2019 at 9:08 AM Last edited by M-hzer : 27th Aug 2019 at 11:27 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by natboopsie
[...]So the only other thing I can personally suggest is perhaps check to be sure that all the Origin filepaths for the UC are now fully in English and that they match the English release's folder hierarchy. [...]
By the way, M-hzer, I also apologize for any confusion that I caused. Sims2Maven and I are two separate people, and the reason I was tagging them (using the @ symbol) at the end of my previous reply was because that last bit was a side message intended for them and not for you. To avoid identity confusion this time, I'll just quote in their message since I do need to reply to them again. But indeed, the side discussion I am having with her is not germane to the main focus of your thread; so if it goes on further I'll take it elsewhere.[...]

Tried putting the main game folder into the correct folder (which is in English), but it did not work. I'll just play the game until a problem arises, then I'll use the 50:50 method and basic logic to solve it. (eg: there shouldn't be two mods trying to change how Mr. Humble works)
Also, I am the one that should be apologizing for the mixup, as my brain somehow thought Sims2Maven gave the advice, not natboopsie.
Forum Resident
#12 Old 27th Aug 2019 at 5:14 PM Last edited by natboopsie : 27th Aug 2019 at 7:38 PM.
Basic logic is a good foundation, M-hzer, agreed! And by the way, you are very kind.

Quote: Originally posted by M-hzer
Tried putting the main game folder into the correct folder (which is in English), but it did not work.


I'm not sure what you mean here, but if you decide that actively troubleshooting this matter is something you want to pursue further, it can always be discussed then. It seems possible it could be the filepaths somehow, if there was some discrepancy you found.

But I will still hope for you that someone comes by who has better ideas about why HCDU might shut down spontaneously before completing scans---especially if it works until you add more mods! It's an interesting problem.

Meanwhile, enjoy your game.

ETA: @Sunrader thank you for mentioning about simply renaming to run the HCDU! I think I've never wanted to accidentally lose the special "TM" bit at the end of the folder name---I actually have a quirky affection for it, lol. But I like your idea well enough that I may give it a try.

*Ongoing TS2 informational projects (come on by to contribute, get info, or spectate!): (1) the SimPE Preservation Project and (2) Conflict Tracking for the 3t2 Traits Project Mods
*Need a Pescado mod? Use his hack directory: in the first post, find the link for your latest EP, then go in hacks/
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