Beta 195 drivers available now on Nvidia site if anyone needs them. TS3 problem fixed, game will work again.

Oh FFS, that's why Sims 3 suddenly stopped working! I hadn't played for a while and when I tried yesterday I was just getting 3 seconds of a black screen and then getting kicked back to my desktop.
I'd jumped on the lasest drivers when they came out because the 190 series drivers were being funky with Fallout 3 and I'd been waiting for those issues to be fixed. So these latest drivers are working perfectly with Fallout but fucking up Sims 3. Typical huh. Will have to decide whether to wait for the next drivers and hope they play nice with both or roll right back to 184 or 187 series drivers.
Well at least finding this out has meant I don't have to reinstall Sims 3, which I was on the verge of doing.
I have a 9800GTX+ and windows xp 32 bit for reference.

In typical EA stupid logic you have to 'Invite Inside' the opponent first to make them play a ranked match with you at home. Took me a few tries to work this out  

ETA: Reading comprehension FTW. Just realised that it's kids you're having trouble with. If Invite Inside doesn't help then yes, it's borked and yes they shouldn't be getting those wishes if they can't fulfil them

I'm having no issues and no crashes with this version.
A quick suggestion for those that are would be to try this method of installation that someone mentioned either in this thread or in the main Awesome mod thread.

Take the mod and the config file, if present, out.
Delete all 4 caches.
Load the game. Load a family.
Play, just for a few seconds. Just let some time elapse.
Save and quit.
Put mod and config back in.
Delete caches again.
Now your game *should* load hassle free.

I bear no responsibility or liability if this doesn't work for you. It's worked for me for the last 2 versions and loaded every time.

Only thing that works now for me is to remove Awesome mod. No crashes on loading or in game.

I think my crashes in game were occuring at around 1 am also. I wasn't paying that close attention to the time but I'd saved at just before midnight and was crashing after only a few minutes into playing, so 1am rollover crash seems reasonable.

Ok, like Redwards I'm now getting CTD's about a minute into playing and that's after about 10 attempts to get it load. Voodoo jiggling not working any more. Trying a defrag now to see if that helps even though I defragged yesterday and the drive doesn't look fragmented. We'll see if this bit of voodoo magic has any effect. Might try standing on one leg and swearing at the thing next 

Awesome mod truly is awesome. Love the configurability, an elegant solution to the Highlander style of modding TS3 forces on us.

The slider option makes me say: Thanks, this is geat!

I've just tested for crashing and was getting 50/50 on crashing vs loading. I left in the enablescripterror.package and didn't clear any caches between attempts. Crashing was random and out of 6 tries I got 3 loads and 3 crashes. Damned if I know what's causing it to choke.

There are no reviews at all for Spore now on Amazon.co.uk. However the tags for the game are quite interesting.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Spore-Mac-DVD/dp/B000FN7K2S/ref=pd_ts_vg_h__1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames

Subversion FTW

Here's a few culled from where I work (a children's centre in a deprived area with a high chav count):

Brooklyn (male and female), Tyler, Logan, Harley, Taneysha, Talisha, Skye, Kianna, Taylor, Brandon-Lee, Denium (pronounced like the fabric, wtf his mother was thinking I don't know), Kyra, Bailey, Macauley, Malakai, Kai, Kyle, Destiny, Bonnie, Danielle, Mackenzie, Lorna, Shelbie and my all time favourite - Indigo Tosca 

Thanks KatEnigma. Points noted about XP vs Vista. I'm going to do some more research on this over the weekend. News about the Vista sp1 borking even more stuff doesn't really inspire confidence or make me want to buy it. With XP at least I know exactly what I'm getting and I'm familiar with how it all works. So sticking with XP is nosing ahead.

I'm thinking that you're recommending upping the PSU to help future-proof the PC, right? Which seems sensible in that case. I know very little about this area and don't want to shell out loads for a huge PSU I might not utilise fully nor get one too small that it'll need replacing in 6 months. More research needed 

The time has come for me to buy a completely new computer. I've been searching all over the net for something suitable and think I may have found the winner. I'd appreciate advice and any opinions on whether to go for it. The only game I'll be running will be Sims 2 with all the EP's and perhaps Sims 3 when it comes out, other than that just usual stuff like watching vids, internet, music etc.

Here is your chosen specification...

Processor (CPU)
 Intel® Core™2 Duo E6750 (2 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
 2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard
 ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1
Operating System
 WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options
 8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
 250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
 NONE
1st CD/DVD Drive
 20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd CD/DVD Drive
 NONE
Graphics Card
 512MB RADEON X1950 PRO PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
Sound Card
 8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE)
Network Facilities
 ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Memory Card Reader
 INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Case
 Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£25)
Processor Cooling
 SUPER QUIET 19 dBA INTEL CPU COOLER (£14)

All this with monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers for £742 inc. tax and shipping.

So what do the experts think? Anything you would recommend changing? I'm dithering over whether to get vista or stick to XP and I'm also wondering whether to increase the power supply to 600 watt (adds £35 to the price).

Ideally I'd like the new PC to last for 3+ years with perhaps some upgrading in the future if I really need it.
 
 
 

It's the 4 Yorkshiremen sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

I'm stuck with only a PCI slot too. Choices are pretty limited I'm afraid. I asked around and I think it was Cwykes who recommended an ATI Radeon 9250 with 256 mb for PCI. I upgraded last summer so hopefully they are still around. I have had no issues with the card at all and can put most settings on high. I upped my ram to 2gb as well which probably helps. I get a little lag on very large lots and snow and rain do slow it down very slightly.
If anyone can recommend a better card for our antiquated PCI slot machines I'd be interested to hear about it too.

Ditto, and my ground covers still aren't showing in neighbourhood view. Bah, still got green beaches happening here *sigh*