Okay, I spent almost 300 dollars on a graphic card upgrade, which would have replaced my ATI Radeon x300 sapphire with an ATI Radeon x1650 pro.  I made sure that all system specs met or exceeded requirements, removed all old Radeon drivers/files, installed the latest driver for the new card, updated my sound driver, chipset and directx, and reseated my RAM.  

Regardless of all these steps, I cannot run ANY games with this new card.  I thought the card was faulty after doing everything possible on my end, so I sent it back and they replaced it with another of the same kind.  I'm still unable to run game applications with the new card.  The computer shuts down with no error message, or else it blue-screens with the "driver stuck in an infinite loop" message.  I've tried running TS2 (all ep's and stuff packs included), World of Warcraft and Horizons.

I'm at the end of my rope, here.  The only thing left that I can think of is that the card runs too hot and my case isn't airy enough or big enough to keep it cool, or I have bad RAM.  

The problem with the RAM theory is that when I put my old card back in, everything runs fine except for my sims2 problem with crashes and red flashing lots/white boxes sometimes in neighborhood view (which did not start until I installed Seasons and was why I bought the new card in the first place).  It shouldn't be the power supply, because it's brand new and 450w, which is what is recommended (but advertised as not required) to run the card.

Does anyone have any suggestions?  I have done everything I can think of except update my BIOS, because I'm terrified of doing that and destroying my computer, and the tech support for my system manufacturer said I shouldn't do it unless the bios is not recognizing hardware.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  I used to have "nobabyharassment", but it hasn't worked for me since Pets and the only option I've had is to turn off autonomy until babies grow into toddlers.

XXXOOO

A thousand thank-you's for this one, Squinge!  I've had two sims go into heatstroke since installing Seasons, thanks to hottubs overheating them in mere seconds!  Now I can put hottubs back on my lots without my sims killing themselves the moment I turn my back.

There's a stuck object remover available under JM Pescado's section of MATY.  Maybe you could try that and see if it will get rid of the butterflies for you.

Thanks for that info, Megativity.  Maybe I wasn't clicking in the right spot, then.

I have the same graphics card.  Seasons is too powerful for it, you'll need to upgrade.

I have the latest version of InSim, so that can't be the problem.  I can fish, build snow men and make snow angels fine...I just can't catch fireflies.  I haven't tried butterflies yet, though.

Nvidia cards evidently suck for Sims2, which is why I chose a Radeon for my upgrade.  There have been endless reports of people with Geforce and other Nvidia cards having issues, so I wouldn't recommend purchasing further cards from them unless you aren't big into TS2.  I tend to hop from one MMO to another and am consistent with Sims, so I've chosen the Radeon route, myself.

For the fish, you can try "boolprop UseShaders true" and you will see fish in the tanks and ponds, but from what I've read, outdated video cards aren't meant to see them and using that cheat has caused my computer to crash.  Until you can afford a graphics upgrade, you may have to live without seeing the fish in exchange for game stability.

Okay, I've accepted that until my new gcard comes in, I can't see fish without making my game crash, but I've got a couple of other issues that I'm not sure about.

One: Are there supposed to be sky features in this expansion, such as sun, moon, clouds, stars, etc?  I can tell when it's sunset because everything has a pretty orange light cast on it, but my skies remain an empty blue.  Graphics card issue, or something else?

Two: Are we supposed to have a "catch" interaction for fireflies?  I saw some on one of my lots at night and tried to click on them, but all I got was the "go here" interaction.  I thought I checked all hacks and removed everything that hadn't been tested or updated for Seasons.  Will the hack conflict utility tell you if you have a hack that's interfering with Maxis actions, or does it only detect hacks that conflict with each other?

I'm sorry if someone has already asked/answered these questions...I looked and didn't see another thread about this.  Thanks!

I discovered that my graphics card is to blame for my crashing problems.  Seasons added some resource heavy features, and some video cards that were previously able to handle TS2 are now incapable with Seasons.  I don't know what kind of card you've got, so I can't tell you if this is your problem or not.

Another thing you could do is clean your files.  You pick up a lot of temporary junk on the internet, even with spyware protection.  Some of it is even hidden.  This tool will clean out all those hidden, useless files that can clog your system:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

I love it, it's fast, simple and I use it each night before turning my machine off.  It has helped my performance a lot.

Good luck with your problem.

I was afraid of that.  Fortunately I have two hundred-fifty to spend, so I'v e ordered Hightech ATI Radeon X1650.  I was hoping to spend the money on more shelving units (moved into a new place), but shelves aren't that expensive and  I know my graphics card is getting into the age of the dinosaur.

Thanks for confirming what I was beginning to suspect.  At least I know I'm not doing a knee-jerk reaction by upgrading the card.  I guess I'm lucky that it took this long to run into any serious issues with it!

Now I'm crashing as well.  I was going through the neighborhood view, packaging lots I want to be sure and keep if I have to reinstall, when the computer restarted.

I never had any major issues like this until the g*damned seasons expansion came out, and I'm beginning to get very frustrated at the lack of feedback from Maxis on all of the errors people are having.

I forgot to mention, I'm using a Sapphire Radeon x300SE on Windows XP home edition.

I'm having some problems since installing Seasons, and I didn't find another topic like this so I assume it isn't common.  When in neighborhood view, sometimes some of my lots will flash red.  When they start doing that, I end up getting white boxes all over the screen and can't see what I'm doing to take any action.

Things that I have done:
Updated graphics drivers
Updated InSIM (object version)
Removed all hacks not tested or updated for Seasons
Deleted the groups.cache file

I haven't checked for an updated version of Numenor's CEP yet.
I haven't tried reinstalling the game yet (that would be a last resort).
At first, I thought the flashing might only be occurring on lots with custom terrain, but one of my maxis lots did it too when I investigated more closely.

Everything is fine once I actually get into a lot, barring a couple of custom items having their colors damaged.  This only seems to happen in neighborhood view, and it seems to occur when I click on the family or house bin to either place a family or house.

Any advise?

Thank ye kindly.  It's so nice that my muscular fellows now have a selection as well.  I read somewhere that we can easily convert regular clothes to outerwear by cloning it in bodyshop and setting the category.  I haven't tried this yet, is it true?

Thank you so much!  I have a couple of sims with the BB mesh in my game, and when I installed the latest EP I realized I had a problem with outerwear.  Now they don't have to convert back to skinny when they go out in cold weather...yay!