I have pets and I have the phonehack (dated 17-11-2006 and talk module dated 20-11-2006) pets version. And I have the option. Maybe you have something stopping that from appearing?

I have it just a sec, can't remember the name I'll go look.

*edit: I just used a feature of that half an hour ago, it asks whether sim A will be going as well and does that for every sim, right?
Well I looked through all my mods neatly categorised, but couldn't find it by name. I can recall it was a side-feature of another mod. Maybe the phonehack or autoyak? Just a wild guess though. Sorry. (I got so excited I could help for once)

That happens to me with some beds- some custom beds are always very dark at night, no matter how many lights I put in. Do you think maybe it has to do with the lot placement (sunlight comes from only 2 sides) and window placement. That's all, I know, just random ideas but maybe it'll be of some use.
*edit: I recall something similar happening before, my some of the objects would go almost pitch black, and picking them up and putting them back only worked temporarily. It was the first of the many graphics glitches I had. I solved them (the other way-more irritating glitches) by changing my drivers and cleaning out my downloads folder. Dunno which one did it but it was annoying. Maybe it's a lot-specific glitch.

I just put it in a toilet stall. I make sure it's still clickable though. And don't forget that the owner can only do one job on his own without you controlling him, so assign a couple of idiot townies to the other jobs. That's what I do. And I have BRY.

katenigma, thank you again for the very helpful information. I guess I did compare a laptop to a desktop, in standard features, and missed the whole point that a laptop is a computer you can carry around! So while it has some disadvantages to a desktop pc, it doesn't really matter coz I'll have both, and I'll be able to take one wherever I go). What one can't do, the other will, basically.

I assumed crappy graphics because my previous video card wasn't too good (pc), and I did get lots of game glitches and none of the top-end effects. But now that you say it's not the same thing in laptops, I get it, and anyway, that graphics card 7200 and 256memory, it's wayyy better than my old card, maybe even better than the one I have now (I have a Geforce 6600GT).

Anyway, more RAM is more important for me, as I tend to hog the game with downloads, and I've had a great experience since I upped the pc from 512MB to 1.5GB. So 2 is even better!

And Vista, well I'll try it for a while if my laptop comes with it. (but it says Windows XP media center installed. I'll ask about it)

I see, anyway, I was just explaining my own Sims experience. And I would also like some more RAM to go with my downloads No fries with that please. (just fooling around)

@Craigsters, I also have 10Gb of downloads, and it takes me 35 minutes for the game to load,I have an old 2.4GHZ processor  and I only have 1,5GB RAM (I say only, cos' I'm comparing to yours) I think 1,5 gigs is quite enough for any pc, and almost enough for a 10gig-loaded sims game. I don't know a lot about this, so I'm just guessing-maybe you won't get quite so much out of the new pc than you did with your other. But it's just my opinion.

@ katenigma: Thanks for your comments, I'm being more drawn to this laptop than I was before. But having never owned a notebook, and not too computer savvy, so I apologise if this sounds too dumb.(I've been reading a lot on computer stupidities)

 I still don't quite understand; when I said onboard, I meant; does it share the memory (the RAM), because that reduces my memory, right? And that's not so great, right?

Because when I built my own pc, I did most of the stuff myself. I wandered in forums, took advice from friends, etc. Bought the parts and knew that a pc with an onboard standard card gives crappy graphics, so I got  a good nvidia card I could afford and attached it myself. Not being a very musical person I didn't bother with the sound card.

So I'm just having trouble expressing myself here, hope it's clear.
And about vista, can't I uninstall that and install it again later? Because I need more than a week to make a decision Hehe. I guess I'm scared by the muck-ups of XP (Same with the sims ) too much to trust something the week it comes out. I have to adjust mentally.

I don't think I'll be using vista soon, and I'm sad that the prices are high here. This is the best I could find in my price range, and not DELL as I have no trust in that company due to horrors lived by my dad and my sister.
Here's the specs:

HP Pavilion DV6189EA AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz, 2GB DDR, 120GB SATA HDD, 15.4'', XP Media Center Notebook (RP957EA)

Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 Technology TL-56 (1.8 Ghz)
Memory: 2 GB (2*1024 MB DDR-2 SDRAM-how is it DDR2 AND SD, I dunno)
Hard Disc: 120 GB SATA 5400rpm
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce Go 7200 sp. TurboCache 256 MB
Monitor?: 15,4'' WXGA HD BrightView (1280*800)
 *DVD-RW (+/-) LightScribe
*Entegre 10/100 Ethernet
*Modem: Entegre 56K modem
*Sound: Onboard / Altec Lansing speakers
*Mouse: TouchPad
*Wireless 802,11b/g, /Bluetooth/HP Mobile remote, WebCam

Guarantee : 2 Years

I'm not sure about the graphics card, is this on board or something, I'm not sure. I don't want an onboard card or if that's what it's called. Oh! And it's 1.650USD

I'm thinking of buying a laptop. I'm going to start writing my thesis for Uni and my ass hurts from prolonged sitting. Plus I have to be able to take my words to school (where I also work) and continue working. While I'm getting one I want to get a good one to last me at least a few years. I also do a little photoshop and probably will end up installing the sims on that system as well as my desktop.
If I don't play the sims on that computer, maybe the model I found is a bit excessive. But would it hurt too much? I found it for 1,600USD-(HP). With those specs, all the other good brands are way too expensive. I'd like some comments on it, can I post the specs here?

Hmm, interesting. I'll try that now. Never thought of that. But my phonebooth was definately deleted, and the lot zoning wasn't changed either. Anyway, I'm off to try that.

**Edit: It worked! I had a sim visit it, go back home and it didn't work. Then I had the sim purchase the lot from home and made him go to the bad lot again, changed the position of the phone booth and trash can to their -almost-original positions (before, I had moved them against the wall of the park)and took the sim home. Now it show up perfectly in the neighborhood!

@Nec: Thanks for sharing your solution, I would have never thought of that. Hooray!

I really like these faces, and I'm using your old replacements at the moment. My newly-generated townies are soo much prettier. I'm assuming there will be wider noses coming up as well like before? I especially like the bridge of the nose in all 5 faces. Good job, can't wait!

@ cwykes: Okay, I might try to use the crowbar, after reading some more on it. But the point of taking out my downloads was mainly because it was really full and I suspected I had reached the limit- I haven't. Now I know. But I also thought the lot may be too crowded, but I found lots more lots with gazzillions of stuff in it, mine is only one story and sparsely decorated. So I guess the game just errored in saving the lot when I was exiting to the neighborhood. Maybe I'll make the lot again if the crowbar doesn't work Thanks for your suggestions though
@giggy: what alt tab thingy? I tab in and out of my game all the time, but I'm sure this was the one time I never actually did. I made the lot in one sitting, only saved once while I was building it, and once when I was done.

*edit: Now I've read a few threads on this, it appears I have to enter the lot first to be able to use the crowbar. But it's completely unclickable. It's like the lot doesn't exist (except for the obvious black-mirror area) but I can't place an empty lot in it's place either. I'm okay with taking the lot out this once (I've accepted my bad luck) but I'm so afraid it will happen again!

Okay, so I fubared again. I spent 3 hours making an immaculate park with only maxis terrains, a few floors and at the most 10 types of plants in various colors I've tried and tested before and huge swimming pools. Oh and 2 dozen lamps and some maxis fences. I made it on a large lot (but not the largest- 5x3 I suppose). Saved and exited to neighborhood. Now there's a big black lot right in the middle of my neighborhood, and I can't click on it even to bulldoze it.

So I moved the neighborhood to my test game with no downloads, and the lot is still there, still black. When I change my viewing angle, it turns bright view, like a mirror held to the sky. (I remember that color from when I put in a lot with a hill on the back-side on a flat neighborhood, and the terrain ripped to show me what was underneath. But it was maybe 5 neighborhoods ago) Anyway, I tried changing the terrain with the terrain surgery tutorial, accomplished with no problems (I'm an expert on this now) and the big gaping black hole is still there. So I looked at the lot in Simpe, didn't see much difference compared to the other lots, and removed it from my game manually afterwards. Now I check the neighborhood looks just fine- no gaping hole!

Why did this happen? What can I do to prevent this from happening again? Is there any way I can save this lot?

I'll try anything to save it, or stop it from happening again. I don't want 3 hours of my life gone towards nothing (I mean, I do waste lots of time playing the sims, but I have fun dammit!) 

edit:(changed title)

I did as instructed in the whole tutorial. But now I just read Pescado's response:

And now I'm okay with the young adults, if it's only them, I've accepted. I did everything else and now have a perfect neighborhood

I realised a few weeks ago that the terrain paints don't show in the neighborhood view, but they used to show just fine before. I have tried a maxis and a custom created neighborhood template, one lush, one desert.

And no matter how many different terrain paints I use when I'm in build mode, when I save and exit to the neighborhood view, it's like I haven't done anything. So I go back into the lot, and everything seems fine. I tried with both maxis terrain paints and custom ones.
 
Anybody had this? I work a lot on lot-terrains and I really miss them being visible.
Maybe it's a pets bug, as I didn't have this before.

A quick question: I made a custom hood following the tutorial, and I'm on step 3. I checked after creating the base hood, I had no character files. So I added a uni lot. And now I have 98 character files. Is this supposed to happen?
*I chose to delete the template folders where it says in the tutorial, rather than rename them, by the way.

Yep, they are kebabs Called "dürüm" if wrapped in pide bread. I got them from the booty, tsr's- simaddict99's greek cuisine.

Thanks, but it cd drive started working normally now, and I got the exe and I'm doing my testing without the cd now. But you never know, the  damned thing IS 4 years old, so it should  kick the bucket soon enough.

Well I was able to cook Gyros with the cornucopia on the lot, so that's my problem solved.

Oh, okay I'll search for a mini-image then. Because I just installed 2 image creators, fiddled around with nero with no luck and mounted the image (with daemontools and safedisk) and it didn't work without the cd. I guess I'm not going to easily learn this in the next 20 minutes so I'll be better of with something someone who knows what they're doing has put up.
I don't like no-cd cracks because I can't trust those exe's  (I remember when I had just the original game, not being able to use the build mode sucked. So I stuck to playing with the cd until it got fixed properly a few months later)

Edit: Changed my mind. The nocd exe is sooo much more foolproof. Much easier, just have to remember to use my original backup exe when I install the patch. So was this a useless thread? No I don't think so, I read up a lot on different forums after Gamecopyworld's info and Daemon's main site Thanks!

My CD drive is making funny noises after firing up the sims for 20 times in an hour.
 I have no clue how to do this, not even sure what it's called, but can anybody direct me to some easy instructions on how to create an image of my game cd so I don't have to use it to play. I don't even know what program I need to accomplish this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I had this. I had a custom replacement cellphone in my downloads folder, and the creator hadn't updated it for PetzEP. I took it out, my sims could make phone-calls again.

I have all expansion packs and none of the stuff packs, and I used Numenor's fix for a loong time and it didn't make too much difference, as I understand now. I played with fix/without, with CC/without and it still happened occasionally, but I couldn't trace any pattern. It's completely random I think. And I don't remember getting an error log for this. It's strange that with no CC and/or hacks at all, original items still disappear from shelves and signs end up in the wierdest places.

I got that message for the first time yesterday, with the custom food Gyros. The fridge was restocked immediately, but still, nothing changed: my sim could cook any other dish except that one. Maybe it's also linked to the cornucopia, I'll give it a try.

I had the same problem with the same door, but I think it was because of custom content. Because I remember testing it in many lots on many walls, but nothing would fix it. I decided I didn't care for that door so much, and played with others. The problem disappeared after a while, but I suspect it was me just deleting some old recolors and other meshes. But if you have no cc and it still happens, I just don't know why.