Very Strange CAS Problem

[SimGirl20]

Well hello Insim! long time no see.. I have been MIA for a while due to real life lol. I am here today to see if I can see about fixing my little sisters game for her. I'm not sure whats going on but she has been experiencing some very wacky graphical issues in her game. #1 all sims in and out of CAS have no face! When she enters a family and you look at the sims thumbnail they have no face. In CAS if you spin the sim toward the mirror..no face and further they are naked from behind.(very weird) now not all sims have no face its kind of bizzare. Some families she has already created have faces but then some dont but all sims created in CAS have no face when faced toward the mirror, but faced toward the player they have a face. I HAVE updated her graphics card drivers and removed her downloads folder and distingused it was not anything conflicting in her downloads. My question is this..What could be wrong internally that would cause these issues? She recentley installed the FWP expansion pack (Fun With Pets) which has the Pets EP the mansion&garden SP and the family fun SP. Could that be what the problem is? I doubt it. nevertheless here is my sisters specs


Windows XP System Pack 3
Intel Premium 4 CPU 2.40 GHZ
512 MB RAM
nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
Direct X 9.0
System Model Dimension 4550


Thanks for all help as usual!

[caffeinated.joy]

Well, the first potential problem I can see is, as far as I can tell via the research I've done, is the card. Officially, this card is supported to run the game, but it's not suitable for playing Sims 2 and can give her problems. One other note is the Sims 2 requires a card that supports DirectX 9, I believe, and hers supports 8, (according to the documentation I've read). It's also worth mentioning, according to this list here, her card is no longer being supported or updated by nVidia, which means it can be considered obsolete.

I would suggest, if it's in her budget, to consider an upgrade. This is a good article to refer to and, you'll notice, her card isn't even listed there. Reading further down the article, where they talk about the individual requirements for each EP, they confirm what I have said above about the suitability of the card for running the game. For Pets, the minimum video required is a 32mb card, true, but that number is really far too low to run the game adequately. I would recommend nothing below a 256 mb card be used.

It would also not hurt at all to upgrade her RAM, if possible, to at least 2 gb, if her motherboard supports it. 

[SimGirl20]

Hi Joy thank you for your help. We figured out that it was indeed the FWP EP and since removing it, sims have faces and everything is back to normal. I guess her computer just wasnt up to par. Well thanks for all advice and help. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone.