Sims 2 Ultimate Collection crashes midway through first loading screen

Recently, my Sims 2 UC has been crashing halfway through the first loading screen (meaning I can't even get to the neighbourhood selection screen). Just before that started happening 2 days ago, I had installed a ton of new CC.  I tried running my game without the Downloads folder, and it worked like a charm. I put the Downloads folder back in, and the crash was there again. I figured it had something to do with the new CC I had installed, so I took it out, but the crash was still persisting. I have no idea what to do to solve this. Going the 'take half out, see if it works' method to weed out the problem would take forever, as I have about 2000 CC items in my game (may not seem like a lot to some, but it's really a humongous amount for me personally). It can't be that I have too much CC in my game, since the overwhelming belief seems to be that the game can handle half of a computer's RAM in terms of CC. I have 4GB of RAM with about 600MB worth of CC. Some of my CC also has a high poly count (hair and cars), but that shouldn't be a problem up until I'm actually in the game and using the high poly items. In the Sims 2 Clean Installer, some of my CC does have a red backround in the 'Type' column, all of that CC are behavior mods and weren't a problem 2 days ago. Has anybody ever experienced this? It seems unlikely that the problem would be in any of the recently installed CC, as I've tried running the game without it but it didn't change anything.

Unfortunately some CC become part of your game, it looks like you cannot remove these completely.
I suggest your start a "fresh game" by renaming the folder Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 to the Sims 3_old.
Then start your game and see if the probem still exists.

Finding the culprit in your CC won't be very easy, however with 2000 items:
1. 1000
2. 500
3. 250
4. 125
5. 63
6. 32
7. 16
8. 8
9. 4
10. 2
11. 1
It takes at the most 11 tries when you reinstall the CC from the The Sims 3_old file to your new folder.
It will cost you a hell of lot of time restarting the game after every try.
But that is the price you have to accept for using CC.

Tarac wrote:I suggest your start a "fresh game" by renaming the folder Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 to the Sims 3_old. (...)

The main location of mods in The Sims 2 is Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 (Ultimate Collection)\Downloads. Some items like houses or lots are found under the folder "Teleport", instead. @BurningBridges99, try deleting the cache files, with all mods removed:
https://www.games4theworld.club/t22860-deleting-cache-files-in-the-sims-2#

Also make sure to remove items under the folder "Teleport", if you have any.

I've created a new TS2UC folder in My Documents/EA Games and the game ran fine without CC. Then I created a new Downloads folder, put in the 1st half of my old Downloads folder and the game crashed mid-loading screen again, so the problem seems to be within the 1st half of my CC. Now I'm a bit confused as to how to go on; do I just remove the 1st half of my CC and put in the 2nd to check if there's any problems there, or do I create another new My Documents/EA Games folder for the game and put the 2nd half of my CC into the Downloads folder in there, since the problematic CC seems to have become irremovable, as @Tarac said?

@The_gh0stm4n deleting cache files in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 Complete Collection folder, the Thumbnails folder and the Teleport folder didn't help.

BurningBridges99 wrote:I've created a new TS2UC folder in My Documents/EA Games and the game ran fine without CC (...)

You don't have to "create" these folders (except for the subfolder "Downloads" maybe). But generally, the folder is created by starting the game.

My advice, move all of your CC to one place like on a desktop folder. Then remove ALL of your The Sims 2-folders under My Documents. Start up the game, wait, and exit again. Note that since you removed the folder(s) under Documents, it will take a while until you get to the main menu.

Once you exit the game, create the subfolder "Downloads" now under Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 (Ultimate Collection). And try putting in the time, and adding your CC slowly. It does involve work, yes, but with these custom-made items it is needed.

BurningBridges99 wrote:I've created a new TS2UC folder in My Documents/EA Games and the game ran fine without CC. Then I created a new Downloads folder, put in the 1st half of my old Downloads folder and the game crashed mid-loading screen again, so the problem seems to be within the 1st half of my CC. Now I'm a bit confused as to how to go on; do I just remove the 1st half of my CC and put in the 2nd to check if there's any problems there, or do I create another new My Documents/EA Games folder for the game and put the 2nd half of my CC into the Downloads folder in there, since the problematic CC seems to have become irremovable, as @Tarac said?

@The_gh0stm4n deleting cache files in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 Complete Collection folder, the Thumbnails folder and the Teleport folder didn't help.

Devide the "faulty"CC again in 2 parts and try again after the removal of the 1st lot of Downloads you inserted.

BurningBridges99 wrote:@The_gh0stm4n deleting cache files in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 Complete Collection folder, the Thumbnails folder and the Teleport folder didn't help.

Also, that "50-50 method" doesn't take into account the (very common) case that two or more combinations of items are causing the issue. As soon as you think you found one bad item, it's possible that the problem is connected to another bad item that worked in conjunction with the previously removed item...if you follow me.

It's good advice, but like so many things on the internet written by people who have little practical experience with the issue at hand. Not talking about Tarac who merely relayed the method, but rather about these Sims Gurus, bloggers, writers of major gaming sites, YouTubers, etc.

The best and safest course of action is to add CC items slowly to the game. What are these CC items anyhow, in many cases? The 197th recolor of the same refrigerator? The 5,639th hair dye?

Not worth it, to add "tons" of CC items, to the game.