This has been going on for a while, I don't even know if it's possible that the game can corrupt my drivers, so here goes the story.  Before I got this pc (hubby built me this one about a yr ago or so) I noticed the same issues so we thought it was the pc's fault and I got a whole new one (yaaay!).  After I play the Sims, images on any websites I visit will be distorted or the color faded.  Video, also, chooses to either not play at all or will only partially load.  This is IF I can get past Firefox's "Message Authentication Code" error or "Content Encoding Error".  If I get that, I have to just keep reloading the page until it's workable.  Sometimes that works or sometimes all the text will be either jumbles or I'll see some sort of code sprinkled about the page or the page will only partially load.

So I contact EA and they say, basically, "The Sims 2 will not corrupt your graphics card."..... OK then!  It only happens after I start up and play the game.  I never have any in game issues though.  No problem with the graphics at all!  So EA says it's not them and to go to NVIDIA for help.  I do and the guy tells me:

"Hello Amanda, go to WWW.NVIDIA.COM download and install the updated drivers. When installing the drivers make sure you do not have any anti-virus programs running. Make sure before you install the latest video card drivers you uninstall the old one. To remove the old drivers you right click my computer, manage, and then go into device manager. Click on the + sign next to display adapters, right click on the Geforce card and choose uninstall. Do not restart the computer yet, instead go into your C drive and if you see a NVIDIA folder right click on it and delete it (make sure you empty the recycle bin). Now restart the computer and install the latest drivers. If still having issues boot into you BIOS (setup utility) usually it is F1, F2, or delete and make sure the primary video adapter or initial display first is set to PCI-E."

So of course, I follow this to the exact, but alas  I am still having this issue.  I uninstalled and reinstalled and have NO custom content of any sort at the moment, thinking that maybe that could be the issue.  Maybe it was custom hair or something because I didn't have many mods except Inteen (which was updated to Free Time and I removed after I got AL) an maybe 2-3 others.  I ran a Hack Conflict scan and it came back A-OK!  But, tonight, I just reinstalled everything minus anything other than the games.

Same issue no matter what.  Now, all this time, being the simmy addict that I am, I would simply play anyway and afterward I'd reinstall my drivers and that would be fine... of course until the next time I played.  It was just a tedious cycle and I know there just HAS to be an answer (well at least I'm hoping lol)  Any ideas at all?  I apologize for the length of the post, just wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out.

Here are my specs:

-Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 3
-Intel(R) Celeron(R) D CPU 3.33GHz
2.0GB RAM
-Graphics Card: NVIDIA e-GEFORCE 9600GT (512 MB DDR3, PCI-E 1.0/2.0, DX10
-MSI mainboard

-DirectX diagnostic says it found no problems there as well. All features (Direct Draw Accel, Direct 3D Accel, and AGP Texture Acceleration) are enabled if that means anything lol

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!!

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Everytime I try to click on the car in buy mode my game crashes.  I can't even get to the selection of cars, it just terminates once I click on the car icon.  I've run the hack conflict thingy and nada.  I turned off my inteen and any recent CC I added but still nada.  Everything else runs fine.  The game runs great so far.  I haven't had any other issues only that I can't buy cars lol  Any ideas?  I'm going to test other goodies out as well but so far all of my CC shows up and is working with the tinkering and whatnot so I'm not sure what it can be!  I haven't downloaded any patches either. Except for BV.  I have the updated version of Inteen and the Aspiration fix that was recommended (highly) along with it.  Any help is greatly appreciated  Thanks!:blob6:

Has anyone else noticed that when they installed any of the sims games (I have all minus the stuff packs) that their computer acts up a little.  For example.  Without the games, I didn't have many issues with videos or pictures.  When I downloaded it again, I noticed these problems popped up again.  If I go to a website like YouTube, the videos never load properly.  If I got to something like Myspace, some of the pictures show up distorted and discolored if that makes sense.  Anyone else witness anything similar.  I don't have any hack conflicts...the game runs fine when I play, but when it's not running and I'm just surfing the net or something, I come across these problems.  Also, websites start to give me "error codes" like Message Authentication Code etc. etc.


Any help?  Greatly appreciated

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It's weird, my sims were doing fine on their vacation, and we move to a new hotel, and after they came back from the parasailing trip, they're all stuck on the 2nd floor.  They can go up to the 3rd floor, but no one can go down to the first floor!  They keep whining like there is something in the way, but the stairs are clear.  I don't have any mods in and they were working just fine when I installed and started playing.  Any ideas or anybody else witness anything similar?  Thanks guys

I hope this topic isn't TOO dead but I have further questioning about the mysterious Mrs. Goth. Before my long parting with Sims,I played the ST neighborhood and had the "real/fake/I don't even know anymore" Bella visit, and I some how made her a member of someone's family, moved her out, and started a new family with her and a nice young townie lady AFTER she had a baby by the Nervous Subject, who someone got turned into a vampire lol  Anyway, off topic!  That was months ago, when I started playing again (reformatted my pc 8 times unfortunately!) and started all the towns over again, I went to Pleasantview and decided I wanted Bella back in the Goth family.

 So I used the Tombstone of L&D and brought her back and had the same problem as Ferdrya747 in another thread, but the question or problem wasn't answered. Anyway, I got her pregnant, took her shopping, her health and everything was perfectly fine.  Then is says she died on another lot yada yada.  I tried and tried to keep bringing her back AT LEAST until she had the baby, and after 3 tries I used Inteen to rush her pregnancy and got her to have the baby, then she died lol

 Nobody in the house can call the grim reaper and get her back because it acts as if they don't know any dead people!  But in their memories, Bella's death is there.  And she was perfectly alive before then, just missing!  Anyway, can anyone tell me why this happened and what I can do to successful get her back in Goth Manor?  I have no hacks conflicting at the moment and everything seems to be working fine other than this annoying thingy!  Thanks in advance for all help