why, why, why? see picture inside.

[Rue]

Can anyone explain do me, why do things like this keep happening in my game?

[Tenshii~Akari]

Good Lord!  I've only had something similar to your problem happen to me once, but only during Live mode in one of my houses.  The game quickly refreshed itself afterwards, though, and it hasn't reoccured yet since I updated the DirectX file.

What type of video chip do you have?

And did you update your video drivers, along with DirectX?

EDIT:  Also, do you have any of the Holiday stuff packs installed?  I've heard of people having problems with that too.

[Rue]

I don´t have holiday pack...
I have Nvidia....will check which ones..anyways I have the right drivers.
When this happens I have to close the game because whatever I try to do, it freezes itself. It never happens when I start playing but always after some time (one hour or so).

[Tenshii~Akari]

You do have the latest drivers downloaded from the Nvidia site, right?  

It could also possibly be the amount of memory used during gameplay... I know that sometimes, when running my game for over a few hours my shadows and any neighborhood decorations start "flashing" on and off.  Then the game will start to run a lot slower.  

And I apologize in advance if I'm not enough help... I'll keep trying to think of any possible solutions, though. Hopefully someone else that knows what it is can also lend a hand soon!

[Rue]

Maybe there might be a memory problem too, yes...although its weird, the pc has a lot of memory, but I know that sometimes when ive been playing for a longer time, some other program like paint shop will tell me it doesnt have enough memory. Not very often, but it has happened... but this pc has plenty of RAM so its weird.

[Dinki]

I`ve learned following on this site: it`s better to have at leats 25% of free space on the drive.

I did some cleaning and I don`t get these memory messages any more.

[Tenshii~Akari]

Also, if you have any paging files set, it's best not to put them on your main hardrive that stores the majority of your files, that is if you have more than one.  There's a tutoriol on http://www.simwardrobe.com explaining how to maximize paging files, hardrive space and memory to get the best possible performance.

[nova-storm]

I don´t have holiday pack...
I have Nvidia....will check which ones..anyways I have the right drivers.
When this happens I have to close the game because whatever I try to do, it freezes itself. It never happens when I start playing but always after some time (one hour or so).

 
I wounder if you Proc is getting to hot as well as your card. this looks to me like a heat issuse more then anything. I could be wronf. we need Super BBB!
 
Till then Open up the side if your PC and see how dusty it is in there. Dust will keep the fan's from keeping things cool, that in turn makes them not work right.
 
Then make sure your PC is in a good Air flow space. rember that aire come in from the frount and goes out the back on a Pc so leave room in the back for the hot air to get out.
 
Hope this helps :blob6:

[BeosBoxBoy]

that my child is a the mother of all video artefacts!  Your video card is being pushed to the very wall!  Try lowering the game settings!  and remove any suspicious new items you downloaded.  Also check to make sure your video card's fan is working, because it looks like it is at death's door in that screen cap.

[tribillio]

This same thing happened to my sims game. I had to uninstall everything, buy a crapload of DVD's and backup my objects and so forth... and reinstall it on a new computer. I had to do this because for some reason, it wouldnt let me reinstall it afterwards..... *sad face*

[Rue]

So. News on this crap.

I had my pc checked, and apparently, my fans are allright, and so is my graphic card - or at least, no problems have been found, except the fan was cleaned, but there wasn´t as much to clean either.

As to air flow space, my pc has room in the front and in the back, and it is currently standing with its back towards the window, where there´s cold all day long, so it shouldn´t be complaining.

Next, I would like to assure you this has nothing to do with any new downloads, because it kept occasionally happening since the very start when I bought this game in the summer.

I am kind of angry and sad that this pc´s graphic should be exploding like this, because honestly I paid a fortune for the pc, it´s new since August, and I had chosen it especially because it was a gaming pc and should not be kicking my butt like the old one was, while dealing with graphically difficult programs. I know that "should" doesn´t always mean it won´t, but it is still strange.

As to the last person who wrote here. I did try reinstalling the game, I was able to do it without problems. However it didn´t influence these issues.

If anyone else here has an opinion, please say it!!!

Other info
1) This always happens ONLY in the neighbourhood view. The graphics never go bad in any way while playing a house or while in CAS.
2) Occasionally, a milder variant of this happens, that is, either only some houses are flashing red, or, when I run a mouse over a house, the info about the house appears, and then when I run it over another house, the info pops out but the previous one is still there, so I cannot enter the house because the two (or more) infos are there at the same time. Or, I cannot scroll over the neighbourhood with a mouse because it freezes itself.
3) This doesn´t happen everytime I play, and when I close the game and restart it, it is allright again.

I agree with everyone that it sounds like overheating of graphic card, especially since it always happens only after I´ve been playing for some time but how can I prevent it from happening when it actually should not be overheating?

[billyd1000]

Rue, Your problem definitely sounds like a graphics issue, but it could be lack of ram also. You have not specified your computer specs, but just a couple of opinions; 1) if you are running NVIDIA gpu you may need to roll back to an older version driver. I had this problem on my desktop, and many people have posted along this same train of thought. It is not always the latest, but the best for your system  2) RAM, in the early days of playing this game I would have said 1 Gb would rock. As the game keeps getting bigger and hacks and mods get more advanced I feel that 1 Gb mark is over. I now play on a notebook computer with 2 Gb's RAM, I have simple GPU, ATI 200m with 128Mb dedicated memory and another 128 Mb of system ram for a total of 256 Mb's. I can play with all settings at max\med with no problems. My desktop has a faster processor and an Nvidia Fx5500 with 256Mb memory and 1 Gb of RAM. The quality of game play is far better on the Notebook. I mention all of this because there are so many configurations of computers, and they all have good and bad points, so it is important to find what works for your computer. It may be as simple as an older driver, or a basic upgrade to more ram.

I wish you good luck and do hope you find a solution that woks for you. It is frustrating to have problems that take away from the fun of this game. Good Simming!

[Sam the T-man]

You say you have Nvidia - are you using the newest drivers?

Time to undermine everyone else's advice and say if you are, try downgrading. In my experience, the newer Nvidia drivers are crap!

[billyd1000]

You say you have Nvidia - are you using the newest drivers?

Time to undermine everyone else's advice and say if you are, try downgrading. In my experience, the newer Nvidia drivers are crap!

Hey Sadie79, you agreed with me!! That don't happen very often that someone agrees wiyh my advice. I had major problems on my desktop and rolled back to an older Nvidia driver and it was the fix for me. From now until Nvidia makes a more sims 2 friendly card I will use ATI. Much better for sims 2, in my opinion.

[Rue]

So I have 1024 MB RAM.
And, in the moment nvidia GeForce 6600

does that help?