Thumbnails not showing up after Nightlife install.

[sumpsychochic]

ok, so i just bought nightlife, and i intalled it.

I cleaned out my downloads folder and deleted all hacks before i installed. I open up to play the game, and everything seems to be fine. I left the custom content disabled on the first screen that has where things can mess with game files.

The problem comes when I go into CAS. I do not have any thumbnails for custom hair, clothing, eyeglasses, or full face makeup. thumbnails for makeup and genetics show. the rest show up as just black. I closed the game and deleted the files in EA Games>Sims 2>thumbnails and started the game back, and not only did i not have thumbnails for custom content, but now everything, even maxis clothing showed up as blank boxes. when you click on them, the content shows up on the sims, but when you try and scroll to another page(as in to see more clothing/hair/or such) the game starts flashing and goes crazy and freezes. I then tried removing all of the downloads and opening body shop with no downloads folder, and body shop flashes/ and doesnt show up unless you scroll over it and it blinks.

Does anyone know what could cause this, or how i could fix it? i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling 3 times, both Sims 2 and Nightlife, and nothing has helped.

[simsample]

Firstly, try deleting the cigen and groups.cache files from your sims2 folder. If this doesn't work, you could try doing a complete clean install- that means manually deleting all registry entries. There are details here:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=112846

[sumpsychochic]

ok. i have now tried deleting those files, and my content still will not show up correctly. I uninstalled Nightlife so I could play my game again, and it isn't working now either. I saved my EA Games folder to a safe location before installing Nightlife, and reput the files back in after uninstalling Nightlife.

I also took a screenshot of what it is doing now. When Nightlife was installed, the boxes were blank, without that green streak in the middle.

Is there anything I can do about this. Everything was working fine before the install.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/tiffany-kinky/sims2help.jpg

[simsample]

Try the complete reinstall, including removing the old registry keys. Don't forget the patch.

[sumpsychochic]

I followed the instructions there, and when i go to regedit to delete those registry keys, there is no EA games under Local Computer>Software. I do not know if this is a problem or not.
Could the problem be with the graphics card? I really wouldn't understand how or where to fix this, but I read elsewhere that some people have had to reconfigure to have nightlife work. If this is so, then why does the reg not work after uninstall?

[simsample]

Firsly, try to re-reinstall the base game. See if it works before installing any of the EPs.

[sumpsychochic]

ok, i tried to just install the base game and this is what happens. The game loaded fine, until I tried to go to a Neighborhood. I opened up Veronaville and this is what it looked like.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/tiffany-kinky/helpmeplease.jpg

This really does not show everything that was going on. The screen flashed and came up blue in some parts.

I went ahead and got my system info. Maybe something is wrong there?

==System==
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition(5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 352MB used, 2109MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Dell Model Number: Deminsion 4600

==Display==
Name: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X (Dell)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
Approx. Total Memory: 64.0 MB

Main Driver: nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.13.0010.4238 (English)

==Sound==
Name in Sound 1: Creative SB Live! Series
Name in Sound 2: SoundMAX Digital Audio

[jaxad0127]

Try updating your graphics drivers.

[simsample]

I would suggest trying some different graphics drivers. This is the link to get the latest drivers for your card:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html
However, many people have reported problems with the later Nxidia drivers and the sims2; this may be what your problem is. Read this thread:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=117748
As you can see, Angel f has linked to some older drivers which you can try:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_78.01.html
If you need advice on how to install drivers, try this:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=86755

Edit: Oops, Jax got there before me! He's a clever guy...