Need help with finding a possible conflicting file in my downloads, causing problems.

[CB2001]

Okay, here's the whole situation.  I recently am having problems with my Sims 2 game.  There's two major ones that I can tell: 1.  In one of my neighborhoods, I have a Servo by itself (a custom content install, in case your wondering) that isn't responding to any of my mouse click actions (when I click "Dig for Treasure", it doesn't act, it just stands there.  When I have my custom content disabled and try it, the Servo works).  2. In another one of my neighborhoods, my human Sims' animation is freaking out.  If I tell a Sim to walk from one spot to another, it walks past the spot I tell it to stop at and then when they go to stop, it jumps back to where I had told the Sim to stop and the animation jerks in the progress.

What I know: It's obviously one of the many custom content files I downloaded, but I cannot figure out which one.  Before this, I had to disable a couple of hacks using Delphy's Download Organizer, which fixed a problem where my Sims' control bar wasn't showing up (and the game wasn't responding to key commands) and the Servo in the different neighborhood wasn't showing up the way it was suppose to (after using Delphy's program, the Sim showed up the way it was suppose to, looking like a Cylon Centurion from "Battlestar Galactica").  So, whatever is causing the Servo in one neighborhood to not respond to mouse click commands and is causing the animation jerking must be one of the files underneath my downloads.  And Delphy's Download Organizer and the Sims 2 Content Manager (and even tried Paladin's Hack Confliction Detector, which didn't pull up any results).

So, has there anyone else that has had this problem?  And if so, how did you fix it?  And is there any other way for me to get this fixed without of having to delete all of my downloads and uninstall&reinstall my game and EPs?  And are there any other programs that might help shed light as to which file is causing these problems for the game?

[rwills]

There is no program which will absolutely pinpoint the file or files for you. Obviously there is either an item (or items) which are in conflict, or else an item (or items) which are either corrupted or not compatible.

The tried and true, but time consuming, method of delete and hunt will work, though.

If you can tell right off when the problem began, you can deal with only files installed since that date. If not, just deal with them all.

Move the contents of the Downloads folder (or else the contents since the date you suspect the problem began) to someplace else on  your comoputer. A new, temporarily created folder in My Documents will do.

Then run the game and see if the problem goes away.

If all is well, move back a goodly chunk of the files into the Downloads folder.

Run the game and see if the problems occur.

If not, repeat with another chunk of files. Continue until you re-create the problem. By then you have narrowed down a smaller amount of files which contain the culprit(s).

Take oiut 50% of just those files and check if the problem is there. If not, move back another 50%, and so on, until you have a smaller group of files to check.

Eventually you will have narrowed it down to specific file(s) which are causing the conflict or the problem. Then get rid of those.

It does take some time to do this, but it is really the only sure method.

[caffeinated.joy]

You could go here and downloads the Hack Conflict Utility. It doesn't necessarily tell you what mods are definitely conflictling, but it will let you know about the ones that can.