These are very cool....

Thanks!

Thanks! These are great!

This sim bares an uncanny resemblance to a girl I dated for some time back in High School. Seeing this sim gave me pause to sit back and reflect on some truly wonderful times, when life was much more simple and innocent. I learned alot about love from that girl. She was the proverbial "one that got away."

Thank you for this exquisite sim, and for the unwitting joy you have given me this night.

Beautiful lot!

You have suddenly made me VERY HAPPY that I do not yet have 'Bon Voyage.'

Thanks for the warning.

I was just curious as to how much of the material in your "Downloads" folder you actually use 'in game.'

Naturally there is no precise way to know, but in your best estimate, how much of the stuff in your folder is actually used in your game?

Also, how big is your "Downloads" folder, either in files or memory size?

My "Downloads" folder is 2.85GB, 5232 files, and I would guess I actually use about 10% of it, if that.

Awesome work!

Thanks!

I'm usually preferential to Radeon cards, but my current PC (which is a slightly older HP a1220n) is having some serious issues with installing my Radeon 9250. I figured to try a different card altogether, and I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with the card, and has any opinions.

The card is a:

Visiontek Radeon 7000 / 64MB DDR / PCI / DVI / VGA / TV Out / Low Profile / Video Card.

Also, if anyone has some success stories to share in regards to nVidia cards, I'd like to hear them.

My system is currently running a 2.93GHz Intel processor, 512Mb RAM, 200GB hard drive. I can't even install the Sims 2 or any of it's expansions until I get another card to put in.

Thanks

After I jumped into a Huge BodyBuilder skintone so I would at least look decent, I would then go hunting for an Insimenator to bring my aging to a halt. and pad my money.

I would then stand in the middle of a lot and keep waving and screaming until Corinne and Monica made me some decent clothes.

While I completely agree with your post, it unfortunately doesn't apply to what happened here.

First, this happened eighteen DAYS after I put the card in, not eighteen MINUTES after I put the card in. The card was functioning properly, running the Sims 2 daily for more than two weeks before this happened.

Secondly, it also happened to my wife's computer at the same time, and while I do appreciate the power of a hardware/software conflict and the impact it can have on a computer, I'm not entirely convinced that it's an "airborne" problem that can carry across the room on a breeze and screw up an entirely different computer as well.:sign1:  Of course, with Windows, anything's possible LOL.

The only thing that our two computers share is a cable modem, split by a router, which leaves me to question whether or not something with the ISP managed to mess up the computers.

Thank you, though, for the help. I do appreciate all offers of assistance and advice.

A few tips that I learned while fighting with both my own and my wife's computers when they were doing the same thing.

1) Your 'Virtual Memory' should be set to about three or four times that of your RAM (i.e. 1GB of RAM should equal 4096MB of 'Virtual Memory').

2) Make sure you have the latest drivers and software for your graphics adapter (card). It's advisable to check back with the manufacturer's website every so often, maybe once a month, to see if they've updated the drivers or software (ATI has done this a few times with their Catalyst Control Panel software).

3) Make sure that your display (monitor) has the appropriate driver installed, and not the default 'Plug & Play Monitor' driver. You may need to locate the manufacturer and model number of your display and then download the monitor driver.

4) Remember that excessive trees and mirrors can slow a lot down considerably as they are graphics hogs. Experience has also taught me that lots with 'playable basements' can sometimes cause glitches or delays.


Just a few tips, and hopefully my bad experiences can help you to eliminate yours.

Good luck.

I have a couple of suggestions that may or may not help, but I'll pass them along anyways.

First, I would suggest making sure that you have the most recent CEP (Colour Enabler Package), which can be found HERE.

Also, you should check to make sure that you have the necessary EP's/SP's that the creator is using. If the creator cloned a wall from Seasons to make their custom content and you don't have Seasons, the custom wall may not show up (which is why it's always advisable to use base game walls and floors when recolouring them for custom content).

Your card should be using the standard 6-Series drivers found HERE.

You should also make sure that your display (monitor) has the correct driver, and is not using a standard "Plug & Play" display driver. Find the brand and model number of your display and then download and install the proper driver for your monitor. Believe me, it does make a difference.

This is going to sound very odd, and, from my perspective, it is very odd.

Saturday night I was playing my Sims 2 game. Everything was working fine; no issues, glitches, blue screens, hang-ups, nothing. The game, and computer itself, were behaving properly.

Sunday morning I boot my computer up, and the monitor is telling me it's not getting a signal and going into 'sleep mode.' I check the cable, figure it's a glitch, and try again. And again. And again. And again twelve more times (yes, I am that persistant).

Convinced that my graphics card, my precious little Radeon X550, has expired at the young age of EIGHTEEN DAYS, I remove the card and reconnect my monitor cable to the onboard graphics and, Voila!, I have a functional monitor again. True, the onboard nVidia graphics suck and will not run the Sims 2 without more delays and hesitations than a stutterer operating a jackhammer, but at least my computer is usable for other things.

After a quick review of the receipt from my EIGHTEEN DAY OLD graphics card, I discover that the store will only accept returns within FOURTEEN days of purchase (which, of course, I suspect is a conspiracy to sell graphics adapters with an eighteen day survival rate). That leaves me to try to deal with the manufacturer's warranty, which has all the appeal of removing a rectal pimple with a chainsaw. By my estimation, if I follow through with the warranty service, I should actually have a working graphics card back from the manufacturer just in time for the Sims 4 to be released.

While I'm cursing my misfortune at having my graphics card die, the store warranty having been expired, and the manufacturer's warranty looking about as promising as the Green Party's chances of winning a Presidential election, my wife's computer, which is also experiencing problems with the Sims 2 game, and after an hour or so of playing, the computer crashes and cites a "graphics adapter failure" as the reason. Of course, I completely fail to recognize that her graphics problems occur at virtually the same time as mine, because I couldn't possibly begin to imagine what could happen to two separate computers that would affect both of their graphics adapters.

After reviewing all that I would have to do to get my graphics card repaired or replaced under manufacturer warranty, and also noticing that a few background applications that I had disabled had suddenly enabled themselves again, I decide that it's possible that maybe, just maybe, it was a software problem, and I reinstall my precious little Radeon X550 and reinstall the Catalyst software and Voila!, it's working like it did before it didn't. Somehow, and I have absolutely no idea how, something changed the settings on my computer back to a 'Restore Point' (which I am absolutely POSITIVE I did NOT do).

I'm not complaining, because I'm pretty damn happy that my graphics card is working again without me having to file a dozen 'trouble tickets' in triplicate.

Finally, my brain starts to put two and two together, and after I came up with seven, my wife advised me that two and two actually add up to four and then asked if it was possible that what happened to my computer graphics could also be the problem with her computer graphics. Lo and behold, after reinstalling her monitor driver and updating her chipset drivers again, Voila!, she is no longer having graphics card failures.

Now I have to ask: what are the chances of two separate computers being kicked back to a restore point at the same time and with neither computer being directed to do so?

Has anyone else had this problem?