Patch Day Woes

Patch Day
I'm sure somewhere that is actually a curse word at least to any modders modding games.
Anyway, I went looking for updated mods first and downloaded the ones I could find that are in my game. It doesn't include all the mods and until a few days have passed it won't include all those that the modders never bothered to update their mods. But until then I decided I would see if I could play with fewer mods. This gives me the opportunity to remove mods that I haven't used or I don't use anymore from my game. It's like spring cleaning for The Sims.
It was after this event that the trouble began. Sims 4 had an error during download so EA's app stated to try again in a few minutes so I did. Only it stated the same thing. It was late and I was tired so I shut down and went to bed.
Morning came and I removed some more mods just in case then I tried again. No longer did it say it needed to download in fact the button was ghosted and wouldn't allow me to click anything. I used the trick of clicking on the three lines at the top left corner of the app, selected help, app recovery then clicked on clear cache. That action allowed me to click on play but then I received this 'activation.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support. Error status 0xc000012f'.
Ah the fun with software! What would our lives be without wonderful error codes to tell us about something that (unless your a programmer) we have no idea what it is, what it does or why it is important.
So I decided to consult the guru and entered the information into a search engine. There wasn't anything that popped up concerning the issue directly and EA even had a sort of similar post. Unfortunately, EA's remedy for that particular post was to install Internet Explorer. Confusing.
So was it telling me that it was an internet connection problem EA was having? I don't know so I hit it with the proverbial sledge hammer and uninstalled the app then I ran Ccleaner and it's registry cleaner to be on the safe side.
Of course this meant I needed to redownload the app and reinstall.
After I did that it wouldn't bother to load the game. No error message or any type of communication. It sounds like some spouses and their relationships which always leads to wonderful happy circumstances. :;
So I took out all the mods, even those that have been updated and tried again to no avail.  The program continued to be silent and uncooperative as ever.
Once again I reached for the sledge hammer and uninstalled The Sims 4! There should be a fix it tool for these things!
Now to reinstall The Sims 4 and since I have most of the packs with a few exceptions that will take a little while.
I think I may just go crawl into Terraria. It seems much friendlier right now. There must be some boss monster that needs killing.
It is never easy it seems. The reinstallation has been an adventure. Yes, that is a positive way to look at it.
The app went into a wonderful little circle animation with no progress information. The ability to see what was being installed wasn't there. I waited for most of the day then gave up, cleared the cache on the app and tried again with the same results.
So last night I hit pause, cleared the app cache once more and shut down for the night. I figured since I tend to wake up anywhere from 2 to 4 am that I would retry when perhaps there were less people trying to install the new pack. A pack that I paid for in advance just for the extra items. I know terrible, right? After all there is that law here in the US when they offer items to entice people to purchase early they are suppose to release said items six months after the release date.
I have noticed that this is another law that corporations ignore but then our own government is ignoring our laws. That is another subject though I am advocating that everyone fire their politicians at every level and hire people who have never been in office before. It is time for the status quo to end.
Back to troubles with Sims and installation. Morning came and I went to install the sims 4 at first there was nothing denoting that I even owned the game. It was missing from the panel with no option to install. I was a little panicky and angry at the same time but I cleared the app cache again and waited. Finally, the option to download the sims showed up so I clicked on the arrow and went to watching youtube videos to wait for it to install all the packs I have purchased.
In the back of my mind I hear my mother say, 'It's God's way of saying you are spending too much time playing video games.' No, she never said those exact words but I could see her telling me something like that.
Of course then my brain brings up a psychologist point of view, 'Do you think that hearing your mother's voice in your head is actually you feeling guilty about the time you invest in video games? Perhaps it is your way of telling yourself to spend less time with the computer.'
I know I'm weird but that is what makes life interesting, right?
Now my Sims 4 has finally been installed so it is time to click the button and find out if it will load. Cross your fingers, pray to God and beg for mercy then click the button.
It loaded! Call everyone! Throw a party! This is a major event!
Now to remod it and resume game play.
It loads! I have started a habit that every time I install a new pack I start a new character so that if there are things that aren't working just right I can protect my previous sims from having these horrible experiences.
Ah the joys of owning a computer! Yes the game works and I was able to reinstall most of my mods though there is one I'm greatly missing so I will check for an update again.
This isn't the issue. I purchased a new front usb/microphone/headset hub because my old one had a defunct usb connection. It looks great and it works only... After installation for some reason the microphone playback was too low to hear what was recorded. I sought the almighty guru for any information that it could provide. The settings were checked and rechecked, drivers uninstalled and reinstalled, the troubleshooter wizard ran for both microphone and sound and the troubleshooter did seem to find an issue but it didn't solve the problem. But I discovered as I was investigating that it was more than the playback volume for my microphone. It affected any voice whether it was on youtube or otherwise. Game sound and music were fine. Since I listen to the sound on my headset I thought I would see what software was originally created for the headset. It was then that I noticed something. Something I don't use so I had totally forgotten about it. The head set has a mute switch. Somehow in all the moving things about a switch was moved. Now why the mute switch would affect all recorded voice in any format I'm not certain. Was the sound hooked up wrong? There did seem to be only one spot to hook sound on the motherboard. I would think that the mute shouldn't apply to anything more than the headset but then I'm not a tech guru.
No, I'm the proverbial back yard mechanic of computer pc. My level of expertise is scratch the surface and see if it bites level. Though to be fair my ex came over and installed the hub for me and I do trust him when it comes to these things. He has always been one to ensure something is working properly before he walks away from it.
Yes, I know I haven't done any thing to my pc other than play with it though it wasn't my intention. It is what it is. I'm not able to lift the heavy case and I have tried even if I shouldn't have.
However, the new power unit has arrived and will be installed soon then hopefully a used graphics card and maybe I'll be able to start recording again. It has been a process and where that might amuse some it has been irritating and frustrating for me.
My brain has continually created scenarios for the sims and I did want to resume Lou's story. This will wait for a little while longer because my Father's birthday is this Friday. He lives in another state and he really wants to see his family so we are going. After all how many times in a life do you turn 90? I don't know about you but I would wager not many. :;
It is Wednesday and there won't be a video but I hope you have a wonderful day, an even better week and a fantastic weekend.
P.S. It is after Dad's birthday and we had a whirlwind trip. We saw family I haven't seen for many years and my son has never met so it was good. Dad is struggling with dimintia and lack of hearing but I think he enjoyed his birthday. My son and I had purchased him something he had asked for. He had asked for an item that at one time he had had but I didn't know where it was or what happened to it so we bought him a new pair of binoculars. He forgot he had asked for it.
But hopefully he will use them to watch the birds from his window.
Christmas is upon us and we haven't managed to decorate. It has just been one thing after another. My son sighed last night and said, 'I guess I'll get something up Saturday the night before Christmas.' He usually has a tree up and decorated before November ends.
He absolutely loves Christmas and has since he was a child. When he was little he and his Grandfather would go cut a Christmas tree then later when Grandpa wasn't able to (for various reasons-vacationing somewhere else for one) his Dad would. He even became picky about how it was decorated. I would hang some Christmas balls then he would move them. It had to have a certain order and balance to it. LOL He has asperger so he likes things a certain way.
After learning about his disability I realized my Grandmother had it too. She would get upset if different colored towels touched or were too close together. I just thought she was a strange old woman though I dearly love her even if she has been gone for many years now.
So this year is a strange year for our household and the gifts we have gotten for each other aren't wrappable. Digital games are so hard to wrap and mine well... it came during summer and I have been enjoying it. My ex used some inheritance money to rebuild our porch because it was falling apart and I needed a ramp.
I do feel loved this holiday season and I hope that my family feels loved too.
God is amazing! He has given so much to us and what have we done? Screwed up everything and blamed him for our ineptness.
Merry Christmas! May your days be filled with joy and laughter, may you have loving family surround you and may God guide you in all your endeavors.