I've lately been experiencing completely random items flashing pink (or is it magenta I really don't know). It started a while ago at a certain lot and usually began when night fell on my game. Random parts of furniture would start flashing, or even sim clothes or heads or hair, or a part of some surrounding fence - not the whole fence anyway. Most often they began to bug when moving from one light source to other, e.g. from one room to another.

Recently the flashing has spread to all of my main 'hood. When I enter the hood, there might be decorative trees or parts of some lots flashing. The flashing might vanish when I load up a lot, but happens again soon after I start playing, especially on the sims themselves. The stuff flashing can be Maxis original stuff or custom content, it doesn't seem to matter what type it is.

I used to play with low graphics setting to reduce lag, but I lately set them to highest except for smooth edges, thinking it'd possibly fix the flashing, but it didn't. I also downloaded the Radiance lighting system pretty recently. I have a boatload of downloads (29,000+ files) and I recently used The Compressorizer to see if the game load time would get faster (right now my game takes about 1 hour to load up to the hood selection screen) but it only reduced the space needed for the files. I'm not sure if the flashing could be caused by my massive downloads folder (the first flashes appeared long before using The Compressorizer or installing the Radiance lighting system) because I don't think it's caused by my graphics card because the game has run smoothly and without problems earlier. I don't really look forward to reinstalling the whole game, so any help is welcome.

Oh, and I'm playing The Ultimate Collection game set. I attached some example pictures of the flashing while playing a lot.



Technical stuff (copied what seemed appropriate?)

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System Information
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Time of this report: 11/11/2014, 22:42:52

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144)
Language: Finnish (Regional Setting: Finnish)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
System Model: K52Dr
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/03/10 19:12:09 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II P960 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 3921MB used, 4264MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode


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Display Devices
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Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68E0)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68E0&SUBSYS_1BF21043&REV_00
Display Memory: 2805 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1014 MB
Shared Memory: 1790 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: AUO26EC
Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (60.014Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1047 (English)
Driver Version: 8.781.0.0
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/22/2010 03:53:53, 628224 bytes

I used to play with low graphics setting to reduce lag, but I lately set them to highest except for smooth edges

I'm going with this as the likely cultprit.

That video card, as far as I can see, is a low entry level card (it says on the net) and is getting on a bit (released 2010). I think you need to go back to low graphic settings.

Checked that from the userprops XML file if that's the correct location and I understood the game should be using my installed card:

<AnyString key="activeDeviceList" type="0x0b8bea18">1;0;ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470;1002;68e0;1047;8.17.10.1047, GUID: D7B71EE2-2BA0-11CF-E477-F83BBEC2C535;</AnyString>

Ah I'll try that the next time I start up the game. I checked it today after removing some stuff and the neighborhood was flashless... until I entered a lot and played there and returned back to the hood view. Attached a picture of it just in case.

Even if your game is using the installed card it may still not be good enough on high settings. I would turn off shadows, reelections and smooth edges and see what happens then.

Do you have a lot of downloaded objects? My game does that sometimes when I'm playing with a lot of CC (My game's limit is somewhere around 25-35 gb of CC, but that can vary from computer to computer), particularly if I'm playing with very heavy lots, or let it snow. It usually happens because of a memory overload. The game can't handle as much as you throw at it, so it tries to compensate by dumping some of the load, and it does so very randomly. It starts with one or two objects (often sims or high-poly objects), and continues to spread until most objects except the ground, walls and foors are flashing.

From one of the snowfalls in my game:
Flying, pink penguin - http://i45.tinypic.com/s4mgw5.jpg
And random flashing that spreads - http://i46.tinypic.com/91jb4w.jpg and http://i50.tinypic.com/2jdgqqs.jpg

Once the pink flashing has started, the only thing you can do is to quit the game. Try moving out some downloads, and take note of which lots cause the pink flashing. Try not to use those lots too much. That's what I've done, anyway. I mostly get the flashing on one lot now, and I try to only use that lot when I absolutely need to. I've also turned off shadows (mostly because lots of objects have the wrong shadows, and I found that annoying). If you can, go lower on other settings as well. If you can play without reflections, do so. It's very heavy on the rendering, maybe even more so than shadows. Also turn off weather unless you absolutely need it. There are a few mods, like this: http://www.modthesims.info/d/452412 or the weather controller at Simwardrobe (green vase).

Doesn't really matter much how much memory/RAM you have on the computer, because the game's default settings can only access 2 gb (Vista and above - not entirely sure about XP), so adding more memory won't help much (but if you also get frequent and random crashes, read here). It is also possible that the graphic card has something to do with it. I've got one that is/was quite good a few years back, and my game seems compatible with it, so I have a feeling that's not the main cause of my problems, since my game works without any troubles when I play with less CC. Might be different for you.

I remember there was also something about quad-core processors not working very well with the game, but I'm not entirely sure what it was. Maybe someone else knows.

You're right, Simmer 22, about the RAM and cores stuff but plenty of people do not have these problems (I do not) and the reason would seem to be that they have whacking great video cards with lots of dedicated memory of its own. At least, I have a whacking great video card with lots of dedicated memory of its own and I have never had this problem.

Actually, I do have a good video card with dedicated memory on that particular computer. And the troubles only appear when I've taken things a bit too far with too much CC on heavy lots (here we're talking wall limit, biggest lot, and 4-5 floors with a bunch of mostly CC objects), sometimes combined with heavy snowfalls. If you have a good computer, but don't use a lot of CC or don't use very heavy lots, the problems aren't likely to appear. Never seen it on my two laptops, and the first one was rather crappy without a dedicated graphic card.

Only sharing experience, that's all. These particular problems can even be caused by a combo of various things.

I had my game (terrain and objects on lots) flash magenta / pink once when I moved my game over to another PC without checking if the other PC specs would work with sims 2. After installing all games with patches--started up game, only to see pink flashing almost everywhere. promptly googled problem---suggestions were to switch out video card. investigated type of card on pc--sure enough not good enough for sims 2 with all expansions....purchased new card---no more flashing pink. card maybe going bad and needs to be switched out if it was working fine with your game and you made no changes to it and just started flashing pink.

on the multi core issue--I have a dual core pc--if i don't set affinity to just single core when I start up the game I randomly experience community lot crashes--no flashing pinks. since I started setting game affinity to 1 core--no more crashes---yeah. to do this just start up game as normal----when main menu is up hit ctl + alt + del-----start task manager----on your game .exe file that is running right click and select set affinity. uncheck all but first core so that the game will only see that core and not try to run off multi cores which it can't do and seems to flip out.
no more crashes--no lag (loads between lots in less than a minute)

hope your game is up and running soon

I'm not saying you're wrong that the load has an effect but I do play with a lot of CC and huge lots and lots of (modded) visitors on those lots too. I guess it might be something to do with particular configurations but I've never had trouble of that sort with this game and I've played it on three machines now. Actually, only once and that was when a video card crapped out on me and I had to replace it but before I did I ran the game using the on board video card - then I got the hay terrain, red walls and so on but I was sort of expecting that. There does seem to be an element of mystery and alchemy to it but I do think it's primarily related to the video card you have.

Yeah, I did that alteration to settings too Ms Muggles - it's made the game very stable and is, in my opinion, a good thing to do (touching wood here because I say that and I bet it crashes the next time I run it).

Thanks for all the replies!

I have been doubting it's my absurdly huge downloads folder causing the issue like simmer22 suggested, as I didn't experience the flashing when my folder was about half the size, but I just feel helpless when it comes to reducing the size of it. I'm a hoarder by nature and apparently it will be the end of me or my precious game. The dumbest thing I've not done is sorting the downloads folder, everything is thrown in one big heap except for some name lists and face templates which have their own subfolders.
I've tried using Delphy's Downloads organizer and Clean Installer and pretty much everything possible, but I'm a rather visual person and I really like most of the stuff I have and would like to preview the things easily before deleting them, the Clean Installer only seems to show the .tga bases of objects if even them. Deleting in-game is slow especially with clothes and hair, as well as with the Body Shop plus deleting that way always throws me to the start of the selection of clothes or hair once I've removed something mid-list. And deleting everything from the folder at once seems too brutal to me.