Common Sims 2 Problems: Fixing a Broken Telephone

As an owner of all of the Sims expansion packs, one of the most common problems that has occurred to me while playing the game is with one particular object, the telephone. For some reason when I played on certain lots, the phone would stop working. My sims weren’t receiving any phone calls from their friends or families. When I tried to get one of my sims to call someone on the phone, they would simply walk over to the phone pick up the receiver, bring it to their ear before quickly placing the telephone back in its original position. They couldn’t call anyone, even if I replaced all of the telephones with new ones!

Now, I had read about this “broken telephone” problem happening in other sim player’s games and I knew that it was fixable. The problem was the only way to fix the “broken telephone” was to move my sims out of their lot and back into it. (Which doesn’t sound that bad, but I really didn’t want to have to go through all the hassle of picking up all of my sims belongings only to place them in their correct spots a few minutes later).

For awhile, I tried to live with it. My sim families that had the “broken phone” just made as many friends as they could to keep their promotions and looked for their friends online in hopes of seeing them before the “why didn’t you call me” pop-up came up. I tried to buy cell phones, but for some reason they always seemed to disappear after only a few uses (apparently that was a glitch in the Apartment Life expansion pack). I continued playing the game as I usually did, in the hopes of one day finding a new solution to the problem. I never knew that day would be today.

I was playing with one of my sim families that has a broken phone, when something unusual happened on the lot. I heard thunder and screams coming from outside. It turns out something on the lot caught on fire (all thanks to Seasons), causing the family butler to race into the house, pick up the telephone and call the fire department. After the fire department came and went, I heard an unfamiliar noise on that lot, it was the telephone ringing! Somehow, the butler calling the fire department caused the phone to fix itself! For the next few hours on the lot, the family received all of the calls that they missed when their phone was broken (including all of the checks that the father received for his various novels).

Intrigued after this strange situation, I decided to test it out on another family’s lot that has the “broken phone” problem. Sure enough, when I hired a butler, caught something on fire and the fire department came and went, the telephone worked good as new!

So there is a way to fix the “broken telephone” problem without having to move your sims out of the lot and here it is:

1) First, hire a butler. (To do so, you’ll have to buy a cell phone and call for one under “Service.” Cell phones are only available with the Sims 2 University expansion pack).

 2) Next, set something on fire when the butler is on the lot. (You can either wait for the weather to catch something on fire with the Sims 2 Seasons, or you can put something in front of the fireplace using “move_objects on.” But I find the easiest way to set something on fire is to just buy one of those fire jets that come with the Sims 2 Nightlife expansion pack and turn it on when another object is above or next to it).

3) Wait for the butler to call the fire department. The fire department will arrive and cease the fire (if you have one of those fire jets then just have your sim turn it off before they leave).

4) Prepare for the missed calls, your sim’s telephone is officially fixed!