More Awesome Than You!

Finally OFB arrived - on 14th - even Pescado got his faster than mine. Anyway playing tonight and got some weird graphical glitches...

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/nz_witch/weird.jpg)


I've turned textures down to medium and dropped the anti-aliasing a notch, now I'll try reloading the game and see what happens. Shadows are off.

I solved this problem by upgrading my video driver (nvidia 81.98).  :)

Did you try to change her appearance in the mirror? Might work. But shifting out your vid driver like Azureale suggested works probably better.

Woooo...that seems like polygon spikes! What card do you have? Is it overclocked? Does it have a fan? If yes, is the fan working? Are you getting any weird graphic glitches in any other games? Have I asked one too many a question?!

@ Witch there have been some problems reported with nVidia cards (do you have one?) & OFB.  81.98 seems to solve most of the problems but on mod the sims 2 they are saying you need to update drivers, uninstall the lastest expansion pack & re-install it as the game is not able to recognise the new drivers. [shrugs - not techie enough to know if this is true]

Here is a link to Nvidia where it explains the "artefacts" problem.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_sid=3x1Ctj2i&p_lva=&p_li=&p_faqid=181&p_created=1102011824&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTYzJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXBvd2VyIHN1cHBseSB1bml0

Am I the only one getting a "Page cannot be displayed" message?

Edit: strange, I get the same message trying to access bookmarked pages too. Something's fishy with my browser. Disregard please.

I have a GeForce 5700 Q-something, 256Mb RAM on the card. I've just upgraded my driver to the latest nvidia one. I played for about an hour and have had no more anomalies. I'm pleased because the driver prior to the current one, crapped my sims game completely, so I've been using the version before that. i.e. two versions ago.

@ Dr Beast, No my card isn't overclocked & I don't have fan problems that I'm aware of. (Fingers crossed). No other games are misbehaving and no, there weren't too many questions.  :D

Ta for the link simlover, but my card isn't up to that level, though I'm currently debating about whether it would be better to upgrade my video card or my motherboard.

Edit: PS I didn't have to re-install the expansion, it didn't seem to have any problems with the new driver, quite the reverse in fact!

Well, your videocard is hanging on by the skin of its teeth, so to speak. What m/b do you have, and why would you want to upgrade it? Ah, glad it was just a driver issue btw!

I guess a nVidia 5200 is even worse then...[sigh]  How close to falling into the abyss am I? Or am I already falling? ???

@ Witch - I'm glad the problems seem to have stopped for you :)

I have an nVidia 6600 with the latest graphic drivers, and started getting those artifacts with OFB too.  I found that in my case, they were resolved by removing Gunmod's Radiance mod -- it seemed to mostly cause the graphic corruption just after the change from twilight to dark.  After I took it out, the graphic corruption problems stopped.  I also had a problem with the game going to a blue screen during some animations when using Gunmod's Camera Mod 'A'.  Dropping down to version 'C' seems to have solved this one (so far).

To quote from a song by Anathema:
"Yes I am falling...
How much longer till I hit the ground?"

Sorry, you'll be needing a new video card pretty soon. Maybe not for TS2, but this particulal card IS growing quite old for gaming in general.

The babies head as'ploded!  :'(

I noticed in the 'Readme' that came with OFB that Maxis suggests you turn off forced antialiasing and set it to 'application control' with nVidia cards, as this could lead to graphic corruption. That also seems to help, but I still periodically get the blue screen, and sometimes it crashes completed to a BSOD with a video driver error. Maxis definitely has a bug in their nVidia drivers in OFB.

I thought it was a graphical representation of the scream that child is emitting.

WoW.  A week after I figured it out for myself that it was a driver issue, I finally hear that others are having the same problem.  I am using  Ge Force FX 5700LE, and I updated my drivers before installing OFB.  I have never had such problems before.  My computer would shut down and reboot while simming.  Maybe I have been looking in the wrong places, but today is the first I have heard of Nvidia driver issues.

It just pisses me off that the official BBS preaches about updating drivers, but don't tell us when there may be a conflict. (At least not that I saw, I generally avoid the BBS, unless it is a dire emergency.)

Thank God I have at least half a brain and was able to figure it out for myself.

I installed the december drivers when I did a fresh install. That caused wierd graphical problems (in sims only). I had to fall back to a september driver.

After I installed the patch (prior to OFB), I started getting odd graphical problems again, mostly gray splotches in my neighborhood screen. Upgrading to the newest Nvidia drivers fixed it for me, and I've seen no problems, so far, with OFB.

@ Dr Beast - K8X800 mainboad, Via chipset, socket 754 (I think) with an AMD 64 bit chip. She benchmarks around 3Ghz for performance. 1Gb DDR RAM. I was leaning toward a socket 954 board, am now thinking maybe gruntier video card. Can't have both, sigh.

@ Jelendra, yes sorry, the baby's head did explode. My apologies.  :P

@ jsalemi - I'll try letting the app control the antialiasing, ta for the tip - even if you're a girly swot for reading the readme.   ;)

@ gethane - that's almost exactly what happened with me. One of the recent nvidia drivers was completely useless for simming.

Anyway, must go, got simbusinesses to run, doncha know.

witch: your system is pretty fine as is. I'd wait before I did any upgrades and save up some money in the process. Situation's pretty fluid right now as both Intel and AMD will be churning out new processors in the near future (or so I've heard), and the GPU front is a no-win situation too. If The Sims is your only concern, don't spend any money right now on new stuff. Yours is a borderline case I'd say, as a) AMD seems to have abandoned the socket 754 layout but your CPU is still pretty adequate (worst-case scenario, you can always overclock, AMD chipsets just cry out "overclock me!"), and b) your 5700 is getting old but can still cope, as long as you are willing to sacrifice looks for performance or vice versa (though I'd trade it with a Radeon X800GTO here and now if I had the money, but that's just me and I'm a compulsive fool so don't listen to me!).


Yes, yes. Move along now...

Well, thanks for breaking it to me gently  ;D I took my baby in to be repaired today and asked my friend to start looking for a good video card for her.  I'll start trying to save some money and try and get a decent one. Seriously though, I appreciate your feedback.

Cheers for the advice Dr Beast. Now I just have to look up 'GPU'. ;)

I thought nvidia were the best but people seem to be having less trouble with radeons by all accounts. Seems like you think any performance gains would be through the video card, I might start looking round to see if there're any specials going. If I got a new card I could keep the PC for another 12-18 months hopefully.

Well, Anathema have some songs that will make Marvin the manic-depressed robot seem like a jeering optimist!


GPU = Graphics Processing Unit. Your graphics card, in short.
Like I said in my previous post, the GPU front is a no-win situation. Some games perform better with a Radeon card, others with NVidia. It seems The Sims favors Radeons from what I've been picking up from various threads. I used to be an owner of both brands. I was thrilled with NVidias back in the early '00s, getting a GeForce2 was a HUGE step ahead of the Intel 740 I had on my rig back then, but when I went from that one to the FX5200 about three years ago I was majorly bummed. At the same time my g/f got a new computer with a Radeon 9200, and it made me hate my 5200 even more! My computer is history now, and so is my g/f's 9200. I bought her a Radeon 9600 Pro six months ago and I'm pretty happy with it. Were I to buy a new computer now I honestly don't know what graphics card I'd get.

Edited to add: if you HAVE to get something now, may I suggest two options?
Option 1: Geforce 6600GT. A pretty decent budget card, I'd go for a 256MB version BUT!!! there are two 256ers out there, one is using DDR2 memory, the other GDDR3. DO NOT get the DDR2 version!
Option2: Radeon X800GTO. A newcomer compared to the 6600GT. Its price has dropped significally too, making it a strong candidate. Again, go for the 256MB GDDR3 version.
Option 3 (bonus!): with the advent of the 7800 series, NVidia is getting rid of its stock of 6800 cards for pretty low prices. Not a card NVidia is very proud of, but it's got some caliber. But, it's a power-hungry, heat-spewing beast, so it needs a GOOD power supply unit and proper ventilation. Now that I think of it, it's still not worth it.

I realize you don't have a Radeon but it sounds like you are having a similar problem.  I imagine you screen shot is what they mean by an exploded polygon.  I am not very GPU literate, so this is more a shot in the dark than anything.  You can check the settings in you "Graphics Rules.sgr" to see what your setting are.

Oh boy. Had a good night playing last night, then tonight the lift breaking was merely the start of my problems.

Suddenly my screen went a pretty blue complete with spinning hourglass. Tha game recovered after I pressed F5 - amongst a few other keys. I saved. It happened again about 10 minutes later. I saved, exited and re-booted PC and game. Loaded a tiny Maxis made lot, not my ginormous vampire castle. 30 minutes later it blue screened, then crashed my PC.

It said: the nv4_disp file had caused the problem. Nvidia display perhaps?!? Ya reckon? Then it told me the device driver had got stuck in an infinite loop. Then it dumped it's physical memory. GRRRR.

So, Dr Beast, I'm going to write down your suggestion, thank you, and start bargain hunting for a new video card - possibly though one that doesn't use Nvidia. :(

Yes, it seems The Sims hate nVidia! I *think* you'll find a 256MB X800GTO at around 160-180 Euros. Hmm. Less than that actually. I just checked some prices and that's the cost here in Greece, so you'd get it cheaper I guess.

Oh no I bloody won't, I live in New Zealand. I think it's all the extra water they have to cross.  ::)

Google tells me I'll be paying around $350 for a Radeon X800GTO.

Looks like it benchmarks round the Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2656&p=6

Now I don't know if I have a PCI Express slot. I thinks mine's AGP. Well enough research for now, it's bedtime.
And all I want to do is play the damn game.  :'(

Yah, 210 Euros is a bit steep. Bugger! Lots of water to cross, heh!
Oh, You have an AGP slot. Your 5700 is an AGP card.
OK, scrap the X800 (pity...), get a Radeon 9600XT 256 MB. It's slightly better than my graphics card, and I have no complains graphics-wise (but the game lags down when there are lots of sims around, especially when I'm not on ground level). Now, go to bed!  ;D

Edit: actually, it's around 190 Euros. I checked AUD at first. Hmm...well, it's your wallet...

I had that problem with my nVidia 6600 until I followed a suggestion I found on the BBS and got the 78.01 drivers from the archives on the nVidia site. I haven't had this problem since I removed the latest drivers and backed down to the 78.01 (Sept 5, 05) version.  Give that a try before you spend the money on a new card.

Also, I've heard nVidia has newer drivers coming out that fix this problem.

I have this exact problem over and over again (6600GT), I tried like 4 drivers to fix it, the latest one causes more problems, believe me. Now I'm using the oldest drivers that came with the card's installer. The problems have decreased by a great number. I'm still going to try the 78.01 and the one on the page simlover linked to, maybe I'll get rid of this problem once and for all. I hate nvidia. (I also heard there was a compatibility issue with nvidia-geforce graphics cards and asus mainboards, could be wrong though) I hate computer problems too, and strangely, my old pc was messed up when I had thesims1, now it's getting more messed up as new expansions are added, hmmmm...

Thanks for that, I found two files named Graphics Rules.sgr - one in ...\the sims 2\tsdata\res\csconfig and one in ...\the sims 2\tsdata\res\config
Both files had the true value set for the boolean property displayed in your code.
Thanks though. :)

Next I'll try rolling back my video drivers to the one recommended by someone on the bbs, Goddess help me!
I've also followed this method before, I got it off the net and it gives a very clean driver install. Fingers crossed.


I'll also do some google homework on the new card you recommend Dr Beast, cheers for your advice, it's much appreciated.

Oh, do I have to worry about DDR's or GDDR3's or any other arcane combo of letters and numbers?  8)

I was just thinking how much money we all fork out so we can play the sims 2. 

Game: AUS$40
Prima Guide: AUS$30
Graphics card: AUS$350
Finding out it still won't work: priceless  :P

Oh mate!

Do you have those priceless ads too?

Hee hee! (I really love those commercials too)
Story of my life: Your computer is fairly new (but bought before sims2 came out), you get nothing out of the game, decide to buy a new graphics card, realise you need more ram too, discover you don't have a good power supply, look for a new one, secretly know you'd be better off with a new cpu, but the motherboard has been replaced by a stupid repair company recently, so can't afford a new one yet, so go with a little ram, a card which fixes a lot of stuff, but causes more problems than before, and a supposedly good power supply which breaks down every 2 months, a generator.... Heck, what I do to play a computer game!

Maaaaaaaate (can you tell I'm from Queensland?).  Some of those ads are clever but after seeing them so many times they get very irritating.

Aussieone - unsurprisingly from Aussie - is from Queensland too, I think. I know she was very hot this summer.

With you both on the computer front - I upgraded about 15 months ago, to something quite grunty at the time, thought I'd be OK for a couple of years.

BTW - on the weird graphic front, check this out. Child did the spin, then left her body behind when she got into bed.  :D

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/nz_witch/headless.jpg)

Hehe, no! It's a PITA, ain't it? No no, no worries about different versions with newer and flashier memory or connection interface! This is a good old-fashioned AGP card that works wonders with The Sims 2! Only problem is finding one, actually. They've been discontinued for some time now. It's actually of the same caliber as your 5700 but performs much better, it's from the generation of ATi cards that kicked nVidia cards in the butt and asked no quarter!

Cool, my card needs a kick in the ass!

For all those who have offered advice - I installed 78.01 nvidia driver as suggested - going great so far, played several hours, no blue screens, no misbehaviour except for the girl who left her body behind - and I think that may have something to do wih the lower refresh rate I have currently. Thanks - I'm open for business.  :-*

PS I found a Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP for sale for $NZ190.97. Looking good so far.

PPS Dr Beast, is a 9600 XT the same as a 9600 Pro?

Nice price. I got my 9600 Pro (reminder: the XT is better than the Pro) for 100 Euros four months ago, that is roughly $NZ200. Told ya, you WOULD get it cheaper over there! If you've got the cash, go for it. Then get ATi Tuner and overclock the sucker!

I think the order they go with it is Regular < Pro < XT < XT Platinum Edition.

Witch, this is the same issue that I was having with my graphics. It seemed to be affecting just the lots with home businesses. All the Sims were sliding or floating around with their arms out just like the pic above. The lots were not playable. After reading this post yesterday, I updated my drivers to the newer 81.98. I had 78.01 installed. Oh, and my graphics card is a Geforce FX 5700LE. It worked so far. I played one of the affected lots and all is working well. Keeping fingers crossed! :)

I wonder if simmers could sue EA for the arthritis in all the crossed fingers!  ;D

My Radeon X700 Pro arrived back from warranty repair today (they actually just replaced it), so I'm thinking I'm going to put it back in the machine over the weekend and put the nVidia back on the shelf as a spare -- the ATI card was just better with the game.

Yep, I'm going to get me a new card - by hook or by crook. I'm even going to the extent of paying as many bills as possible this pay - so maybe I can swing it next payday.

Good. Which one are you getting then?

FYI, nvidia released their 84.21 drivers yesterday -- these supposedly fix the problems with the 81.98 version.  I'm going to download them and give them a try before swapping video cards to see if they help.

Good, should d/l them too for my work computer (not that the crappy MX440 would benefit from them, heh!). BTW, do you have the plain 6600 or the GT version?

Actually, I tried the 84.21 drivers, and the blue screen problem still occurs.  Took longer than it did with the 81.98 drivers, but it's still there.  So the 78.01 drivers are still the last stable ones for TS2.  :-[ 

I just have the plain 6600 (PNY version) -- I used it in my since replaced computer, and kept it around as a 'backup'.  I'm about to pull it out and put the ATI X700   Pro back in -- I had a lot less problems with that one.

Where do you go to roll back the drivers? Control Panel? Somewhere else? My new drivers that I d/led have been acting up, and I need to roll back. I have an ATI card, btw.

Yes; you uninstall the current drivers through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and then reboot the system.  It'll usually come up in default VGA mode (and maybe complain it can't find drivers, but that's not a problem).  Then install the older version, and reboot.

But my old drivers I installed ages ago, and I don't have the d/l package anymore. I don't even know which driver it was. Isn't there a roll-back option somewhere?

Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP if I can find it for sale. I need to do some more hunting. idtaminger reckons there's a platinum version too.

My game crapped out again last night, with 78.01 installed, at a commercial lot, when the servos are there, my sims start walking round with their arms stretched out to the sides, then their heads keep leaving their bodies behind.

I'll try the newest nvidia driver today. 81.98 was no good, neither is the 78.01. I started out on the 84.21 driver, it was the worst of all for me.

Edit - strikethrough that comment - I don't know what driver I started with... I think it's the latest anyway so I couldn't have started with it.

The transcripts for the chat reckon a patch should be out in the next week or so.  Fingers crossed that might help solve some of the problems - or at least provide us with some amusing new ones  :P

You can download older drivers from the archives at nvidia - these are the archives for windows 2000/XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

78.01 is what some people are having success with
? ? ? ?   whatever I started with is what gave me the pics at the top of this thread
81.98 gave me blue screens
84.21 is what I'll try next

Edit: except jsalemi says the blue screens still happen with 84.21 :(

 I  have a NVidea 6800 GS with beta driver 84.12 and haven't had any problems in my game, upgraded froma 5200 and also never had any problems with that.  Good Luck witch

Nah, go for the XT. Even the Pro I have is good enough, and I've overclocked it to XT speeds, so essentially I have an XT  8)
What could make a difference is different kind of memory or number of pipelines, but since all 9600 series cards have the same type of memory and number of pipelines, the difference is only in their core and memory frequencies, which is easily overcome by overclocking.


Yah, switch back to the X700. I installled the latest drivers yesterday and no problems whatsoever (not that I had with the older ones, but I got the new set just for the heck of it).

The X700 is back in the computer, and no problems.  However, I've had problems with some recent versions of the ATI Catalyst application -- my desktop locks up right after it finishes booting, so that I can move the mouse but not click on anything.  Taking Catalyst out but leaving the ATI drivers in solves the problem.  Don't know if it's a conflict with something loading at startup or not, but I have a message in to ATI to see if they have any suggestions.

Where do you find utilities to overclock the ATI cards?

Maybe .NET framework related? You do have .NET framework, right?

Get ATItool here: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Edit: try uninstalling your drivers first with CATALYST uninstaller (found here (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293) ), then reinstall. I'm lucky I guess, I just installed the newest CATALYST and drivers on top of the old and it works! Played yesterday for more than 8 hours non-stop with the new drivers (v6.3), not a hiccup!

I actually have an ATI card - Rad X850XT. Does anyone know the best Sims2 drivers for the ATI range?

Yea, I do have .NET installed.  I'll try that uninstaller and see if that solves the problem.  Other thing I plan to try is to take everything out of my startup folder and see if it still locks up, and then run the startup stuff one by one to find the culprit. The only downside is that if it's something else causing the lockup, it's such a pain to recover from.

Thanks for the link to the ATI Tool!

Well I've tried 67.03, 81.98, 77.72 and the original one that came on cd with the card, all of them cause similar problems. the "not digitally signed" seems to worry me, like it's more of a windows compatibility issue. I get so many problems since I got the 6600GT, blue screen, f***ed up images in game, shakey images (also known as the infinite loop) or the computer restarts itself, totally out of control. But the OFB has made stuff worse, I'm thinking of a full format, I don't know how else to fix this, I don't remember what other driver I could have installed to make this happen. I hate having to  grit my teeth every time I exit a lot or try to enter one, which causes most of these problems. Off to try the 78.01. (By the way, the problems stopped for a while because when they happened in game, I lowered the refresh rate or if it was low, I raised it. Now I know that's not a reasonable fix :D) 

I've had no problems whatsoever with the Nvidia 77.77 drivers on three different cards, if that helps anyone.

It may well help me. So far I have tried ...

66.93 (2004) - currently trying, on the theory that if my card is older, most of the driver changes tend to relate to newer cards, so I might get away with it by going right back. I was building last night, the driver worked fine for that, but I need to try it in play.

77.77 is next on the list to try, then I'll try 81.95

78.01 is what some people are having success with - I didn't
? ? ? ?   whatever I started with is what gave me the pics at the top of this thread
81.98 gave me blue screens
84.21 also gave me blue screens and gliding headless or bodyless sims (depends which way you look at them ;))

Last time I had driver problems was more than a year ago. I've updated my drivers everytime a new one was available and I never had any problems, both with my old 9200 and with the new 9600 Pro. So anything from 5.02 and up has worked fine for me.

I downloaded the newest one right before OFB came out, b/c I was getting driver crashes sometimes when playing TS2. The newest ones work ok except for the fact that when I spend a long time placing large lots, it'll go weird on me, w/ white patches and invisible patches. I have to enter a house to fix it. I really dunno if its a driver issue, a card issue, or an OFB issue.

The really ironic thing is, right now Nvidia and Maxis are having a movie making contest right. Make a commercial for nvidia using the Sims and you can win a computer. Yet as this thread shows, nvidia cards, at least some of them (I also have the 6600 GT and have to use the 78.03 drivers) run the game very poorly or problematically.

Well, so far, the 66.93 nvidia driver is working for me. It's dated Sept. 2004.  :-\
I've played live lots as well as building, I haven't had any oddities for the last few days. Go figure.
I'm still buying a new video card.  :P

I'm glad it is finally working for you witch but I can't believe you have had to go back to 2004 just to get one that works - v. dodgy!

I was hoping that the patch would fix or at least limit some of the graphics problems but we may have to wait for the next one.

btw my computer was completely fireballed and rebuilt from the ground up and it is still crashing irregularly so it looks like it might be the motherboard.  Now I just have to convince Dell that there is a problem with it so they will fix it - thank goodness it is still within warranty.  My dreams of playing OFB are moving further and further into the future but I am keen to limit my problems once it is working.  I am investigating a new graphics card and if I eat two minute noodles and cereal for a few weeks, I might just be able to get a decent one.

Hmm...I was going to suggest a way to find out if it's your m/b or not, but it involves opening the case and removing hardware, and I guess that voids the warranty. Oh, and good luck with acquiring a new video card! If your main reason for getting one is The Sims 2 however, you might get it done with an older (and cheaper) one. Check out the ones I recommended to witch a few posts up.

i keep thinking i need a new laptop with better and upgradable graphics cards in
but
reading about all these problems here and elsewhere is beginning to make me think otherwise. i have a maxis unsupported radeon 7000, admittedly with omega drivers, and have had no problems whatsoever with it. ok maybe the quality isn't topnotch but it works.
the only graphcs anomoly i had occur after installing NL was solved when i installed OfB
if it ain't broke etc..... :-\

And I got to poking around further, and found that while I did have .NET installed, it wasn't set to automatically startup on the machine when it boots. Once I started it and set it to automatically startup, Catalyst runs fine. So now I'm happy as one of those flying pigs with my X700 Pro... :)

I don't want to void the warranty - it is Dell's problem so I want them to fix it.

I'm quite keen on getting a card that is not nvidia, given the problems I was having before the everything went kaputski so I will have a look at what you recommended and hopefully I can then be one of the smug individuals that has no graphics problems with the sims lol. 

Well, nvidia sent me a reply telling me to install the latest drivers (DUH) But I did that anyway, and tried something else. I loaded a fresh game with only recolors (22,000 files, I didn't sort out new mesh recolors, just all recolors and maxis items, so needless files) and the game ran smoothly for hours until I decided to quit. So I'm thinking, either the ram or the processor just isn't enough to run nvidia drivers with my normal game of 9GBs (almost 45,000 downloads), or something I've downloaded just f***s up the system (which makes no sense to me).
If anyone thinks the first option is totally ridiculous or irrelevant to the matter, please say so. If this can be fixed by buying more RAM than getting rid of my downloads, I'm prepared to go forward. By the way, here are my specs:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 Ghz
Memory: 1022 MB RAM
Page File: 270MB Used, 2654 MB Available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Motherboard: ASUS P4V8X-X
Hard Disk: Maxtor (80GB) + Western Digital (80 GB) = 160GB total

==Display==

Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6600 GT
Approx. Total Memory: 128 MB

Main Driver: nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.8421(English)

Power Unit: 450W

9GB of downloads is quite impressive.  Why don't you try running CleanInstaller through your downloads to make sure no nasties have crept in?  It will identify all suspect files i.e. those that change behaviour, rewrite code etc so expect Pescado's & TwoJeff's to show up in red - you might want to check for these types of files that you have the latest update.  It colours duplicate files in pink - with that many downloads you might find that you have quite a few duplicates so that would help.

Essentially this will help you eliminate at least one possible cause of your problems.

I'm not sure if you already have Clean Installer but it can be found here http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/



EDIT: I read the readme file (as mentioned on another thread) and it suggests trying to turn off the hyper-threading as this may cause graphics problems.  Has anyone tried this to see if it works?

I don't think blubug's processor is hyperthreaded, unless I'm mistaken processors at 2.4 GHz didn't have this technology. If I'm correct that means her processor is a Northwood, and she can easily overclock to 2.7GHz without a hitch. I know I did and I haven't regretted. Anyway, to answer to blubug in person, your specs seem fine, in fact your configuration is pretty similar to mine with the exception of the m/b and the video card, and my game is almost glitchless, Of course I have only close to 1 GB of custom content...you really should try and get rid of some stuff you know. 9 GB is a HUGE amount!

Footnote: to find out if you have hyperthreading, pay attention to the POST screen (when you boot up your computer). It lists processor type, amount of RAM, storage devices etc. If your processor has hyperthreading technology, you'll also see a line that says Hyperthreading technology enabled. If not, you're lucky, you have one of the last great Intel processors! Overclock without fear!

You caught me out DrBeast  :D - I was simply parroting what the readme file had to say if you were experiencing graphics card issues even after all drivers had been updated.

@ blubug - maybe you could try having themes of CC like other simmers on these boards do.  You remove all non hack CC from the game except for the theme for that neighbourhood e.g. if I had Victorian style clothing this would not need to be in the downloads folder while I am playing a futuristic style neighbourhood.  If you switch hoods then you can switch CC.  This would make your loading time much faster.

I know. I happened to read it yesterday just for the heck of it! And I'm 99% sure Blubug and I have the same processor.

Thank everyone for your advice and 'Yes' DrBeast, you're right! I don't have hyperthreading technology- now how is that a good thing, not having some new technology :D Well I'm chuffed to hear that my processor is a good one, it has had no problems whatsoever since I built my pc (with my dad) 3,5 years ago.
Now I'm not very computer-savvy, but I have learned from many other problems as I go along. I had problems with my pc stating that overclocking had failed, but I didn't even know what overclocking was then! I read a few forum entries on different sites, but it's a bit hard to understand if a)english isn't your first language, and b) if you don't already know a lot about computers. Then I realised it was because at the last repair at the shop, the idiots hadn't placed the cpu fan in correctly, so it was heating and shutting down.

 But as far as I understand, overclocking is something a bit risky. I don't exactly know how to do it, but I remember something about it in bios settings (By the way I haven't updated my bios at all, too afraid of the complications coming with the lack of knowledge). Is is true it makes your hardware work with more power, giving a better performance, but with the downside of overheating? I remember reading a lot about fans. Is there a dummy guide for overclocking, as in how to do it, how much overclocking can my power unit take, what's the desired temperature after overclocking, etc.

(If I just get 512MB more RAM and never download a single object, recolor or bodyshop item again, will it work?)---> Pathetic I know, but will it work?

And getting rid of my downloads is going to be so tough! I'm a very organised downloader, I keep everything in separate folders, run cleaninstaller everytime I put in downloads, I have no duplicates at all. I'm a bit anal about it I guess, but I don't have themed neighborhoods, I build & decorate every house in a different style. Maybe I should  control myself a bit more :D I just got rid of some old maxis recolors, one by one, and weeded out an unimpressive 4,000 out of 45,000. Sheesh. 5 hours wasted.

Wobbling off now, I'll be back :D

*Edited to show error log from the sims most recent crash:

System memory: 1024 Megabytes total, 76 Megabytes free.

This error log was generated with all my downloads, playing peacefully, when I got a sudden graphics corruption, all my grass turned sky-blue, I kept on playing that way for 5 minutes, then it crashed to my desktop, as the application was terminated. THAT's why I'm wondering if more RAM will fix my graphics problems, as all goes fine in clean games.

Please don't kick me if I love sim-shopping so much, I get them all the nice stuff I'll never have :D *crazy rant: I Love My Downloads!!!!!

Well the 84.21, 81.98 didn't work ether.  I get the blue screen of death. Still trying older drivers though.

AMD Athlon xp
1700+ 1.5gh
RAM 1025 gigs
Graphics Card: GeForce FX 5700 LE with 256mb
Direct X 9.0