beard_ed - the problem you have is not an uncommon one. The Intel Graphics chips are not all prone to this problem, but many of them are. Unfortunately because all or much of the information for a Sim is not in the file you would access from SimPE, but spread across several different game files, you are doomed to not being able to share your Sims
If you could upgrade your graphics adapter to even a modest nVidia or ATI card in the US $100 range, then we would be in a different boat altogether.
The Body Shop portion of the extraction process is necessary because it will "reclaim" the information that is missing and allow you to share the Sims you have in game. So - as long as you have no access to Body Shop (or Booby-Trap as I often call it) you will be limited in what you can make and share with the community.
What I do recommend is perhaps making a story with the family, at least in this manner you can still share them with the community through screen captures.
Although you might also export the Sims on a small lot, I cannot recommend this. This method is unreliable and prone to many problems. Exporting Sims on a lot causes many broken memories that remain with the Sims and makes them have a high chance of getting the "too many memories" jump bug, which would mean more help requests -- and I am not in the business of making more work for myself :lol:
