i am not positive as to whether this would be considered a gameplay or a technical issue......

i first removed all hacks and installed the expansion pack. the game installed with no problem, loaded, but froze almost immediately after entering a lot and playing a sim.

as it is entirely possible i have made odd changes in places i'd forgotten about, and as i am not opposed to starting completely over, i saved all my downloads, etc., uninstalled all expansion packs and the base game and re-installed everything. this has worked beautifully in the past.

between installations i did some reading and discovered that there was a patch for EP6, so that was installed immediately after re-installing the base game and all EP's, including bon voyage.

the problem remains the same. the game loads and all is well until i enter a lot and attempt to play a sim. not only does the game freeze, it locks up my entire computer. i'm having to cut the power to get out of the game at all. i have tried waiting up to 20 minutes in case the problem was ungodly lag, but it seems it isn't. either that or it's *really* ungodly. *sigh*

my computer specs are here:

System

OS: microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
System Model: Dell DXP051
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1,10 A04
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page file: 629MB used, 1828MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)


Display

NVIDIA GeForce 6800
Total Memory: 256.0 MB

Drivers

Main Driver: nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.14.0011.6218 (English)
Date: 6/29/07 02:43:00
WHQL logo'd: Yes
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
VDD: n/a
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

i am using the nvidia beta driver, which has improved the blue screen crash issue considerably, but not eliminated it. i don't know whether my card would be an issue here or not.

in any case, i apologize for the length of this post. i am trying to give you information that is as complete as possible in the hopes that somebody can help with this. odds are, i'm not the only one having this problem.

thanks for any insight you can provide.

The title is pretty much self explanatory. I shamelessly whacked and hacked Warlokk and Marvine's meshes to produce this hybrid and they have both graciously allowed me to post it.
 
Even a quick look at the skin file will tell you that i am no skinner. This should be taken as an open invitation to any of you talented skinners out there to re-color like crazy if you like the mesh. i am already tired of the maxis-blue bikini in my own game!
 
Thanks to: Marvine, Warlokk and, from MTS2, Tiggerypum and a whole bunch of Dr. Pixel's posts.
 
forgot to add the usual. please link back here for the mesh. don't upload to paysites. i have almost 3 gig in free downloads so would like to give something back for free as well.

 

 
ok, it appears to be fixed. finally. still don't know what happened in the first place......