If what you recently added to your game includes new lots, well, those sometimes come with hacks and stuff that can glork your game (using Clean Installer and choosing 'lot only' for installation helps to avoid that).

Anyway, first thing to do is to temporarily move what you most recently added to your Downloads folder to someplace else on your computer, then run the game and see if the problem has been resolved.

If it has, then put back in the stuff you removed a chunk at a time until  you re-create the problem, then remove smaller chunks of the files you put back in that re-create the problem until the problem is resolved, and so on.

Repeat with smaller and smaller chunks of files until you can narrow it down to the actual culprit, and delete that offending file.

Should you find it of help as a process, I generally create a new sub-folder in Downloads named with the date when I add new custom content, as that makes it easier to find when these problems occur.  After checking that all is hunky-dory with that new custom content, then I move the files in that new sub-folder to the sub-folders I've previously created where I feel they belong and delete the empty date-named file.

Also, to help with slow load time, make sure that nothing but .package files are in your Downloads folder (and, if you've used Clean Isntalller to disable them, .off files). No zip files, no rar files, no Sims2pack files, no txt files, no jpg files, no bmp files, etc. Those just take up space in Downloads and do nothing but cause game bloat by sitting there.

Whether the chaneLotZoning works or not may well be dependent on whether or not certain later EPs are installed.

Works fine in my game (have cars, trucks, even usable helicopters on community lots just through using changeLotZoning), but then again I do not have or use any EPs more recent than OFB.

That being said, wintermute at Simslice has some vehicles "Enabled for use at-home and on all away-from-home lots" at:

http://www.simslice.com/thesims2/guests/wintermuteai1-pg1.htm

They're scattered throughout wintermute's pages there.

Many of those are also listed at the booty:

http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/booty/simslice/wintermuteail-guest_artist/

One other thing you might consider is plucking just the files you want from the 'Residential items on Community lots' collection here:

http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=30854&c=1

A number of different ways to do this.

One is to seek out "ownable cars"  or "decorative cars" on sites - some of those will show up in the community lot catalog as well as the residential lot catalog.  For example:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=11731

Another is to get a 'Use residential items in community lots' hack.

Easiest is probably just to temporarily change the lot zoning, as follows:

Enter the community lot as you would for regular building/buying (be sure first that none of your Sims happen to be visitng that lot at the time).

Open the cheat box:

Control-Shift-C

Type this:

changeLotZoning residential

into the cheat box and press your Enter key.

Exit the lot.

Ten enter the lot again and the cars you already have in your catalog should be available for purchase and placement on the lot. You may have to use the moveObjects on cheat to place them where you want them.

When finished, change the lot zoning back again by opening the cheat box and putting in:

changeLotZoning community

and press your Enter key.

Then exit the lot.

It is now back to being a community lot for gameplay purposes.

Try this procedure:

Start up your game, then click the options button (the one with the three dots).

Then click Game Options (the choice which looks like gears).

Set 'Catalogs Display Custom Content' to ON.

Set 'Display Custom Content Dialog at Startup' to OFF.

Click the big asterisk (which will bring up the custom interim screen) and set that screen to 'Enable'

Quit (exit) the game.

Then start the game up anew and double-check that those settings are still as you just made them.

See if your custom content is now showing up.

If it is, you can set the 'Display Custom Content Dialog at Startup' to ON (which will restore the custom interim screen showing up when you start the game up), but that is optional.

You can kind of, sort of sort them by age using Delphy's Download Organizer, but only if that snippet of data is included by the creator of the clothing file. Some creators include it, others don't or else just generically label it as Clothing, with no particular age delineated. You also could check in DDO for broken files and move them out, but DDO may also list false positives, so bear  that in mind.

The best option is the tried and true 50/50 method -- temporarily move 50% of your downloads out and see if the offending file is still in  the game. If so, then temporarily move out 50% of what is left and check again. If the offending file is not in the 50% you kept in Downloads, put in 50% of the files you temporarily moved out and check again.

Eventually you'll be able to narrow it down to just which file is the culprit and remove it.

Time consuming, yes. But also often necessary.

If by any chance you have organized your Downloads into some sort of system or grouping, you may be able to run through the process faster, temporarily removing only those sub-folders pertinent to the item.

Or if you can pinpoint or guess when the problem started, you can try temporarily 50/50 moving just the files you added to Downloads from that date onward.

Try this (only needs to be done once):

Right-click on the icon you click on to launch the game.

Then left-click Properties from the menu.

There will be an entry box with the address the shortcut icon points to.

Add this to the very end of what is already there:

 -rwidthxheight

Change width and height to the actual numbers of your screen resolution.

The end of the line will then look like this example (only use your actual numbers, of course):

.exe" -r1600x1200

Don't forget the space after the existing closing quote mark.

Click OK and try launching the game.

No, it will NOT:

• alter your neighborhoods files

• alter your Downloads files

• alter your Saved Sims files

• alter anything you already have

• harm, damage or negatively impact your game in any way whatsoever

It WILL:

• possibly noticeably increase the loading time for the game the first time you start the game up after deleting the cache file

• remove any niggling little buggy bits and/or conflicting information that have built up over time within the cache file, probably most of which a player wouldn't notice on screen but which are related to some non-static data provided to the innards of the game program)

• allow the game to run more smoothly and efficiently (whether noticeably on screen, within the innards of the game you never see, or both)

If you still have trepidations about deleting the groups.cache file, then just move it temporarily to someplace else on your computer. Should you then somehow feel the need (though one can't see the necessity ever, ever coming up) to then delete the game-created new groups.cache file and return the old one to where it was, you will be able to.

The order in which you install EPs is up to your own needs or tastes or budget and should have no particular effect on the game (provided your system is capable of running the more system intensive (that is, generally speaking, post-OFB) EPs and your custom content is compatible with any newly installed EPs.

However, installing any patches for EPs in the same order in which you install the EPs themselves is highly recommended.

Basically saying the same thing, but what you have to do is extract the contents of any zip or rar files.

Those contents are what go into your Downloads folder:

My Documents--EA Games--The Sims 2--Downloads

You can either delete or move to storage elsewhere the zip  or rar files once you have extracted the contents - the zip or rar files themselves do not have to go into Downloads folder.

If part of the extracted content is a Sims2Pack file, that file has to be installed separately, either with Clean Installer or with the comes-with-game installer.

If there are additional zip or rar files in the extracted files (sometimes that is the case, sometimes not), those also have to have their content extracted an placed into Downloads.

General exceptions:

Lots do not go into Downloads, but are usually placed where they do belong automatically by the Sims2Pack install process.

Collection files (along with their accompanying image files) go into:

My Documents--EA Games--Sims 2-- Collections

Neighborhood terrains and their accompanying pictures (if any) go into:

My Documents--EA Games--Sims 2-- sc4 Terrains

Other exceptions which do not go into the Downloads folder include .avi or .mp3 files for custom audio or custom TV video. See any readme files which accompany such custom for installation instructions.

Yes, it is 100 per cent safe to delete the groups.cache file from your My Documents--EA Games--The Sims 2 folder. Deleting it periodically can solve a myriad of problems, as the file can become bloated or even corrupted over time.

The game will create a new groups.cache file automatically.

Short explanation of what it is and does here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=75565

The problem you describe has nothing to do with custom content.

It is occurring because there is some other program on your machine which uses the same keymix as does opening the cheat box.

I have no way of knowing what programs you may or may not have installed on your computer -- you'll just have to see if yo can track down the culprit.

From the Wiki:

"Don't Have Cursor XP?
Then you have another program that uses that same key combination. Try thinking of what you've installed recently, since the cheat console stopped working. If you can't remember, or if it's never worked, check your running programs (the list of icons showing beside your computer clock). Open them and look at their settings or preferences to see if there's an area where you can set keyboard shortcuts. One of them has CTRL-SHIFT-C as its shortcut and you should change it to something else, or shut it down, before running The Sims 2."

I don't use Vista, but seem to recall hearing that it comes installed with some program with the word Health in its name which also uses the Control-Shift-C key combo.

You can try this as a workaround - it may or may not work in any individual situation:

Instead of just Control-Shift-C, press Control-Shift-Windows Key-C

Please see this thread:

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=91130

Clean Installer :

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/

will let you choose where to install items, or use the 'Move To' function to move items to a particular folder.

Delphy's Download Organizer :

http://nene.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p&t=227925

will let you group or put groups of items into folders of your choosing.

Additiional DDO info here:

http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Delphy%27s_Download_Organiser

There's also Paladin's Categorizer:

http://208.109.175.73/Sims_2_Categorizer.htm

but read the Vista notes linked from there first.

Strictly a stab-in-the-dark guess, but you might check as to whether you have the newest version of DirectX and if not, install the newest version.

Info here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179113

The skintone meshes you do have may not include shower-proof versions.

See here:

http://www.insimenator.org/showpost.php?p=597584&postcount=7

There are many different shower-proof skintones for both the HBB and the SBB.

Some basic ones are here:

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=19759


http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=41146