Hi Mimi,
If you haven't tried yet - you should install the sims2pack Clean Installer and have it scan your downloads folder - you are looking for custom careers. Removing them from your game may help resolve this issue. I am expecting that your sims will be unemployed when you restart. However, you should back up your game data files first. Also, before starting this process, do a search in this forum for custom careers - they have been causing serious problems. I do hope this helps or leads you to help.

Well, I hated the idea of the EP. I hated how my Sims2 was running. I was very unhappy with all of it.

My son went out and bought me the EP anyway. I installed it, ready to loose all DLs, but stubborn enough to try and keep them.

I ran everything thru SimPE's batch updater. I removed all hacks (didn't have many anyway.) I used Clean Installer to identify and group into subfolders those things I could: objects, meshes, recolors.

First I had a problem with my custom content clothing not showing up and it drove me crazy. So I moaned and groaned and daysies held my hand and helped me find the pproblem. I had 'batch converted' all my files and THAT was the problem:

DO NOT update any items made with a Maxis tool! Leave all colthing, makeup, eyes, skins, brows, floors, walls alone. (I learned the hard way....I'm blonde.)

Next problem, after fixing all those files, I couldn't get into a lot--just like lots of you have described. I knew by now it had to be a bad file, so I paintakingly went thru all files to find the bad one. After five hours I found two career files (that had downloaded with a lot so I didn't know they were even there.) (If I wasn't blonde I would have tried the Clean Installer to identify them again before going thru them one at a time--but I didn't think there was anyway they weren't all maxis tool made stuff...I'm blonde what can I say....)

Got them out of there and my game is working better than it ever has. For the first time in months I am actually enjoying it.

Hope you get to enjoy it too.

One tip i do recommend is that if you are going throuhg Clean Installer... Place everything you have into thier own folders.. Not just Objects - Game hacks - Walls etc.... But 'Clothes, Make up skins etc....' you can always place them back into the main Download folder once you have finished.. I did this with my 10,000 files and when Clean Installer had finished I went back into the Downloads folder and found about 20 files that it had not picked up for some reason.. Including 3 Careers, so it just goes to show, If i hadn't have seen them I would not have been able to play...
Just a thought if it helps anyone well wayhay

i have a problem where when a sim comes back from the final exam, it still shows as 'final exam in progress' and then i get a popup saying she missed her final exam. Then she magically gets to skip the semester (having taken 1 exam and missed 1 at the same time). ughh!

I have a question. I don't know if this is a tech question, but I installed uni and it worked fine, except for the fact that I get the spawn option by clicking on a sim instead of the uni option.
I know this is a hack related problem, so I deleted all the hacks that were not compatible with the EP (I got some EP ready ones here) and scanned my downloads folder. All those I deleted too. In the game I deleted all the recoulered objects that were flashing blue.
Now everything should be working fine. I reinstalled uni but it still comes up. Is there a specific hack or file that could cause this to happen?

I'm really annoyed by it.

LifeJunkie, I'd suggest temporarily disabling every hack you have that modifies pie menus at all. InSIMinator, etc., have been known to cause some quirky problems- the infamous "dying when going to class" bug, for instance- and I'm assuming this is what you're getting.
Edit: I just remembered that the actual ingame cheats also have a "Spawn" menu. Try turning cheats off (press Ctrl-Shift-c, then enter "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled false", no quotes) if you have them on, see if that makes a difference.)

I am getting a bizarre bug by which adult sims can't seem to get jobs from newspapers. They pick up the paper, sit down on whatever's handy, flip it open, and then stand up through the seating object with an image of an armchair in a thought bubble, and put the paper down.
Teens can still get jobs fine, just not adults. I didn't check with a computer, because A. the sims in question are broke and B. I forgot.

I'm guessing this is some self inflicted bug, though... time to clean out the ol' downloads folder. :p

would any one know about a problem occuring when u go to SimPE to recolor sims 2 exp objects , see i get an error messege i dont under stand it , see it will let me recolor the sims 2 objects but not the exp object can some one help because to be honest i am ready to throw up both hands and quit fulling with sims 2 any more, thanks from simfreakman,

simfreakman, I suspect you'd get more answers if you put that question in one of the modding forums. Try General Modding or Sims2 Tools (as it's a SimPE question).

Just my experience with the Clean Installer - might help someone else so I thought I'd share. If you've just installed it and get an error message - reboot your computer and try again. Even though it takes you straight to using the program, I think it sometimes likes a reboot after install. Also, moving some of my files into folders and moving them out of the downloads folder (it acted like it was still reading the entire downloads folder, including subfolders) and then scanning the rest made sure everything showed up and suddenly all worked really well I don't know if there's a limit to what it can see - but it seems to prefer not to do the whole batch all at once.

This appears to be a new problem, I have tried to read all the various FAQ's and forums and I did not see this addressed. But I could have missed it, so go easy.

I installed University after removing all downloads and backing up neighborhood files. I got in just fine, so I started putting back all my downloads. When I started to load up a house after this, the computer locked up in loading and I had to restart. I knew it was a problem with something I added, so I re-removed some hacks that snuck in. Presto, it worked. Yay! Then I went to open up my other family in the same neighborhood, only to notice the whole house, family and everything were missing....gone! I panicked and closed down and opened up SimPE to check on my neighborhood. SimPE says all the people and houses are there. I re-open University...empty spaces where the houses should be. Not empty houses, or empty lots, just grassland.

Any help?

EDIT: I checked again, SimPE says all the people are there, but the houses have been erased! I recognized that the houses were default ones that Maxis put in the bin for TS2. They all dissappeared. I went back to SimPe, picked a couple of empty houses and changed the references to say the families live in the new houses. This got the people to show up in the new house, but all their stuff is of course gone. Not a big problem, except one family had an avid painter who had done portraits of all the members of the family as they were growing up, and I feel like I've lost their childhood. Oh well, my sims live on anyway.

My game crashes when I try to enter any lot. My computer meets all the specs plus some. this sucks I can't take the game back.

ohh yeaa .I don't have any downloads. and I've reinstalled many many times

I have problems with my uni too =( I've just installed it, and I can't seem to send them to uni for lessons... I've tried to click on the sim (one hour before class) but no uni alternative comes up, only "meditate"... maybe i'm just doing somethong wrong.. I hope I don't have to reinstall it =/ And I can't seem to change a house into (what's the english word for it...student club/nation?) hope you know what I mean anyway...someone who know what to do?

I hope this is the right place for this. I installed university (removed all downloads) and have had no troubles until today. I moved a new teen to university and moved him into a dorm.. he transitions to young adult and then instantly transfers to adult and goes home, I cannot control him. I have tried putting some of my hacks back in, but took them out to see if they were the problem, taking them out has not fixed the problem, can anyone help?

every time I enter the build mode, then the shrub section....the game crashes. Did anyone else have this problem? i am so confused......

1. everytime i enter any lot or neighborhood, the screen is always whole black in like 2-3 seconds, then it's normal again..
2. My sims are unable to move out of their houses through computer or newspaper
3. My sims are unable to marry eachother
4. When a sim die, s/he still shows up in family picture

Butt3rfly - Do you have any hacks in your game? If yes, can you please list them? Have you inspected your custom content using Clean Installer?

butt3rfly.. I have the same 'problem' w/ the screen going black.. I think thats supposed to happen.. but I dunno.

Hi everybody! I've compiled most of the bugs reported here to my Bug list. I'm only taking Bugs for that list, those not generated due to a hack or a hack conflict. Thanks.

I ran into a quirk this morning while playing. I started University yesterday playing a Maxis character Marla Biggs, got her into a dorm and everything went pretty much normal...Today while playing, she's into the second semester of freshman, and on the 2nd night she just vanished. Funny thing that happened was at the time it happened, I had clicked the buy icon and I couldn't get back out.

Had to exit to neighborhood and go back and replay the last day and a half, get to the exact same place and she vanishes again...including the icon of her on the left, it was like I was looking at the game with no sim to control....After a few sims minutes the icon comes back and she is standing on the street by the crosswalk where they disappear to go to class...no longer wearing the clothes she had on, but what she started out the game with...purple blouse, off white skirt...Very weird.

I just installed Sims University today without uninstalling and reinstalling Sims 2 first, I've never patched Sims 2, and I didn't remove the Downloads folder which contains thousands of user-made stuff, the installation went very smoothly. But when I started to run University, it crashed to desktop every time when "Caffeinating Student Body" appears on the loading screen, I removed the Downloads folder but the same thing still happens. I suspect maybe even if the downloads are gone, the neighborhoods files still contain some user objects incompatible with the EP. I really hate the thought of having to spend an hour reinstalling Sims 2 itself and the EP..............

i dont really know where to post this.....but here goes. its about the simpack clean installer. i keep getting a weird message when im search through my downloads. it says "system argument out of range exception: specified argument was out of the range of normal values" then there is a bunch of other jargon i cant understand. the thing is...it wont let me see what item (or items) is causing the problem so i can delete it and or fix it. now my game takes forever to load......last time i "tried" to play, it was over 4 hours and i just gave up. i think that it is just the expansion pack that is causing me such headaches, but im not sure. all i DO know is that something in my downloads is preventing me from doing anything w/ Uni. i have my downloads in a seperate folder so i can go through them.....but i have NO idea what im looking for, and i was hoping the Clean Installer could help. i love the program, tho. i found lots of RED stuff! anyway, if anyone knows what the heck is that message means....please post! thanx :kami:

ace1369 - the FAQ for Clean Installer is here:

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com

the reflextion in the mirrors pop out and inlarge everything and float around both in the game and in the making a sim mode, even if i have them turned off.
and my cover blur for when their naked doesnt cover them, it floats around the edge of the screen.

I've been having the problem of elder sims dying with no tombstone or inheritance money being given out. Not only that, the dead sims still show up in the load up screen. Also sims in that same household can't use the computer/newspaper to move out. It's been driving me nuts! I hope there will be a fix for this soon. I only started having these problems since installing the EP.

EA habitually buys a company and drives it into the ground. That is their M.O. If a company exists that makes great games, EA buys it, destroys their work, pisses off their customers, and essentially shuts them down. That is exactly what is happening to the Sims.

I caved and bought University, then immediately regretted it. The same thing happened with several of the Sims EPs. Unfortunately, the person who said that the Sims games (Sims, Sim City, etc.) are "more addictive than a peanut butter and crack sandwich" hit the nail quite squarely on the head. My husband's computer can't run SC4, yet he spends hours downloading mods for it, so that he'll have them when he gets a new computer...... yikes!

I was getting that. It's a file that sce can't read. It isn't neccessarily one that'll cause problems with the game, either. I found that the things that add new meal items causes problems with sce.

You will have to just move everything, little by little, into a folder and check them until you find the problem files.