Hey guys! Something very weird has been happening in my game... It's The Sims 2 Ultimate Edition, the one EA put on Origin for free with all the expansion packs and everything.Well, once I was playing (this year) and everytime one of the residents of the house (or guests) went to the outside area of my residential lot they started to BURN! Fire suddenly showed up. Those townies that just walk by didn't, but everyone invited by the phone got on fire once they showed up and got greeded by one of my Sims. I found it funny, and since I stopped playing on that neighborhood, I ignored it.
Now I started this new neighborhood, and on this house I've been playing for a while, this one Sim of mine gets on instant spontaneous human combustion everytime she gets out of the house. Coincidentally - or not - it started on the second summer of this house (the second 'year'). Ok, once again I ignored it, it wasn't bothering me, since I have this MOD that I can click on the ground and extinguish fire on the lot. But then, I noticed my Sims started getting too hot during sleep time! While they were asleep, their thermometers got red and one of my Sims fainted. Only one cat died in this lot and I transferred her grave to the cemetery, but this fire thing started before her death. I did nothing wrong that could corrupt the neighborhood. I have CC but since I downloaded everything at the same time, it's hard for me to find out what is causing the problem, but my cousing plays her game with the same CC I have and it has never happened on her game. Is this normal during summer or is my game being influenced by my country's temperature (Brazil)? Haha jokes aside, please help mee I really like this house and this neighborhood. And sorry for my bad english, I hope you can understand my problem anyway. As you can see I own the game for a long time, and this burning situation has never happened before.

Instant combustion fix was part of the Season's patch, but the UC is supposed to be fully patched. Does your house have a roof? Make a full back up, go into origin, right click on the game and see if repair is an option.

I did it, but they are still getting hot my house has a roof and it's 11pm. My child was taken by Social Service - well, not really because I didn't save. Do I have to delete everything and reinstall my game??

Fixing in Origin is the same as reinstalling, so no. Do you have mods? Have you tried pulling them out? Also you can use the Bat box or other modded items to adjust the child's temperature. After you pull your mod test in a test hood.

I do have mods, but only those basic ones "everyone" has, like ACR, Pescado's, Simlogical's, Sim Blender, InSIMenator. And so few of them! I'll try pulling them out, though, see if it helps. I believe I'll have to move my family to another house anyway, though.

There's a shrub in the vanilla game, the one trained on a trellis so it can go flat against a wall, which apparently sometimes, for reasons unknown, causes fire on the lot and was never patched. If you have this shrub on the lot, try deleting it and see if it helps.

Just because the house has a roof doesn't mean it's weatherproof. The roof might be missing a square, or you may not have been finicky enough when building and got a wall somewhere that's a shade too short, or missing entirely where two roof overlap. A lot of the houses in the lot bin and original three neighborhoods are not weatherproof as shipped because they were created pre-Seasons and it wasn't an issue. The Cape Cod Classic and Craftsman's Pride do not have weatherproof top floors, and the A-frame house, whatever that's called, is not weatherproof in any part of it without extensive remodeling.

Also, not everyone has those mods, and those who do, do not have your system! Every game configuration is unique, because the code for the game is so complex and because it's possible to use so many different mods from so many different creators. Chaos theory applies and code problems do not have to make sense at the human level. A small handful of people who try to use Cyjon's Slower LTA Gain, an excellent mod that works perfectly for most people, find that if it's in when they send a sim on vacation, the vacation clock freezes after an hour. When Cyjon was first informed of this he likened it to the toilets overflowing when you turn the lights on - the code he modded to slow down LTA gain should have had nothing whatever to do with the vacation clock! But the result was a real one and he made a special version just for those of us having the problem, though we weren't in position to track down what similarity of our systems created the perfect storm of conditions that made it a problem. So "it doesn't make any sense" is not a viable argument.

The only way to be sure something in your downloads folder is not at fault is to pull your downloads folder and test. (Back up your game first!) It won't take as long as you think it will. There's a reason you were referred to the FAQ before you were allowed to create a thread here - following the steps in it really does fix most problems with the game.

I am totally shocked right now. How coul I ever imagine those inoccent shrubs would cause such trouble? The moment you mentioned them I realized: both my houses where fire starts suddenly have these plants! I deleted them and guess what? Both problems vanished. My Sims can now sleep in peace and walk in the backyard without getting too hot. My roof and my mods are fine, I guess - at least for now. Thank you for your help! I play The Sims 2 for ages and it's amazing how I discover things about it constantly.

Which shrub is that? Can you put up a picture? I don't recall ever having this happen in game except before the seasons patch sims in the hot tub could combust.

This one! Sorry for the bad picture, I had to use the camera of the game since my print screen was taking my desktop instead. That's a pitty, I really liked putting it on my houses!

I've played the game since it came out, use the shrub and have never had an issue, how odd.

You can enlarge your in game picture setting and turn it to daylight and use the swatch tool to keep it daylight while you take shots.
Here is an example from my game. In game camera on high and large settings.

To get larger shots for uploading I use Fraps free version. The trouble with the desktop screenshot is a later windows one, if you change your desktop to default Microsoft view your screenshot key probably will work again- or it does on my windows 7. I would rather have my nice wallpaper so I use Fraps.

I've used it, too, without a problem, but somebody told me they were having a fire problem with a house that had them at LGU, and that the problem - which she'd had before - was that shrub. Since I can't reproduce the problem and she was satisfied with removing them and not trying to source it, I have no idea what conditions cause the shrubs to behave like that.

You see why I'm always harping on each system being unique and chaos theory applying?

Chaos theory definitely applies to sims, when you have blouses that crash the game when a sim gets a job and shrubs that overheat children. I had a group of pine tress stop customers buying from a shop and an antivirus program that ate sim babies, so anything is possible.

I remember seeing in another thread that the problem with screenshots of desktop wallpaper has something to do with DirectX and full-screen games (can't remember the details and can't find the post now). Full-screen is prettier, but for screenshots, stability and various other reasons I almost always run my game in windowed mode.

I have never liked that University ivy anyway. I've always thought it ugly and pull it out whenever I find it on a premade lot. It's labeled as an "ivy trellis" and to me doesn't look remotely like actual ivy. I much prefer the ones in the attached screenshot.

Left: ivy by phoenix_phaerie - part of the Manor House garden collection.
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=302150

Center: Mansion & Garden ivy. You have the Ultimate Collection, so you should already have this. It comes in three pieces (top, middle and bottom) and if you want all three of them on the wall at the same time, you'll have to use the Ctrl + Alt cheat that came with Apartment Life. Each piece comes with one recolor that makes it look like a grapevine instead of ivy. Disadvantage - it requires two wall tiles where the others only need one.

Right: Creeping Ivy (TS3>TS2 Conversion) by mustluvcatz. Includes several recolors.
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=500423

M&G ivy actually looks like ivy, I use it often. The flammable one I have used on lots that I have uploaded, normally if I need a screen but don't want the game trimmed hedge which takes up too much room. With the flat one you can put flowers down under it. Now I'm going to wonder if that bursts into flames for somebody. :/ I figure people will change whatever they want anyways.

If you're uploading CC-free lots, this won't help, but for your own use Phoenix_phaerie's ivy makes a great replacement for the University one. It works just like you describe and can be placed anywhere. It doesn't require a wall to attach itself to, so can be used to make a screen across the middle of your lot. It doesn't need to be placed on bare ground either, so it can go along a paved sidewalk if necessary. It also doesn't interfere with placement of flowerbeds at its feet. There are 7 different meshes for it, including 2 rectangles which would make good privacy screens.

The one by Mustluvcatz is nice-looking and also has a variety of meshes, but is more fussy about placement and must go on a wall unless you're using moveobjects on.

Nice, I don't have that one.

@joandsarah77 - You might also be interested in this fence. It looks like a hedge, but doesn't take up as much room.

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=552504

Thanks No trimming either.