I reckon this is a driver issue- I'd recommend trying some different drivers to those you have already tried. Take a gander at these pages:
http://members.home.nl/marf/Infinite%20Loop.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Har...Q_21724797.html

There is just one problem with that, which I think I mentioned. No matter what drivers I try to install, it tells me "The NVIDIA setup program could not find any drivers compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit." So it doesn't matter what i do, I can only install the drivers found on dell's website.

Are you downloading the correct drivers? These are the drivers for your chip:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/partner_...ed_drivers.html
You need the Current NVIDIA Quadro NVS 84.26 driver.

Yes, I tried those drivers. It always tells me it can't find drivers compatible with my current hardware, no matter which ones I download.

Alright, i've found out there IS some money. I have one question: Should I invest in more RAM, or should I invest in an ATI graphics card for my laptop? I've never looked for a laptop graphics card, so if thats the better option ANY help in finding the best one would be very much appreciated.

Can anyone give me some advice here please? I'm going to the store tomorrow to at least look around.

I'd go for the graphics card, but you'd need to make sure that your laptop is upgradable and that you get the correct hardware for it.

i'm trying to find out right now if my laptop is upgradeable, i'm just not sure where to look to find out lol. I'm on Dell's website looking around to see if it says anything there..

Ah, I just found out Dell tweaks their laptop cards so that only THEIR drivers work. That explains a lot. So i'm going to buy as much ram as I can afford. I'm upset about what they do with their graphics cards, however if I can fix it in any way, i'll be happy.

Well, I just reinstalled Glamour Life after doing an update that was *supposed* to fix my problem. I moved my neighborhood because I know it messes with the saved games. However, when I went to put the neighborhood back, I found my downloads folder GONE. So now I have MUCH bigger problems that it occasionally crashing. Every single sim of mine has at least one custom object in their house or one custom thing on them. All I did was reinstall Glamour Life and now everything but that neighborhood I moved is gone. This is really upsetting since some content is no longer online and others I haven't the first idea of where to look. I'm currently going through the clothing here to get back what I had downloaded here since Sims2 first came out. This is so depressing...at least i'm finding some nice things I overlooked before...

Wow, I didn't know that- thanks for the information!
For your deleted items, yes- uninstalling an EP or SP deletes the entire contents of the Sims2 folder in My Documents. This is not really warned correctly, as the installer just informs you that savegames will no longer be compatible... however, I have written this into several FAQs which I hope others will read before they uninstall.
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=139059
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?p=1105148
Unfortunately there is no way of recovering your downloads, but you do have a good excuse to go on a downloading spree! Also, the Where Can I find forum over on S2C is a good place to look for tracking down items:
http://forums.sims2community.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58
http://forums.sims2community.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37

Thanks. I know I probably shouldn't ask this here, but since I AM already on a downloading spree lol, do you know where I can find the 3 swimsuits that were on the sims2 website at some point. Before the ALoha Bunny ones. I had them and can't find them anywhere.

Since you've been so helpful, I thought i'd keep you updated on my download recovery and game progress. I'm currently running a program that recovers deleted files. What i'm trying to get back IS an older version of my downloads folder from around August I think. However, I didn't download much between then and now except for some featured downloads, all of which I have already re-downloaded. So, if all goes well, i'll have all my downloads back by the end of the day! At least I hope so. Then i'll be able to test my new idea on not having the infinite loop problem. Once I know how that turned out, I will let you know. I'm just hoping that dell messing with the card doesn't ruin my ability to play the game. If it does, I will most definately be having some chats with them. It bothers me that they make it so if a problem occurs, there can be no fix except from them, which is unlikely to happen unless it is bigger than this.

Not sure which swimsuits you mean, these are the only Maxoid sims I can find:
Maxoid Monkey
Maxoid moon Belly
Good luck with your file recovery, keep us posted!

I'm sad to say that, even though all the files are back in my downloads folder, they aren't working! The ones I redownlaoded are, and a very select few others. I spent 7 hours in this restoration process and i'm sad to say it didn't seem work.

I just don't undertstand why the downlaods aren't working when I can see the files in there. It doesn't make any sense...

If new files that you download are working then there is probably some sort of corruption on the old files; I'd suggest redownloading the files.

Well, I got an older version of my downloads folder from my computer where sims2 used to be installed. That's how I got them all back. I'd redownload them, but it seems quite a few of them are no longer online. That includes some of my most favorite outfits. A lot of my sims are now walking around in dull outfits and with messed up hair. The files that I already redownloaded are the exact same size as the ones that were coming over from my computer. Of course, I didn't replace the new ones, but they were the same. I'm about to use a program I downloaded...can't remember the name at the moment. Anyway, i'm going to see if it can recognize the downloads and what they are. If it can, i'm going to start looking for ways to get them to show up in game.

Sorry to hear about your problem and sorry I didn't see this thread sooner. I too have been battling the exact same blue screen error you are having trouble with. My laptop's graphics are NVIDA 7600 with 256 meg of dedicated memory and 1 gig of system RAM. I have been unable to find old drivers for my card so was not able to explore that option and so I have been experimenting with it.

I have discovered when I took all my custom content out and started with a clean neighborhood I could play as long as I wanted and as soon as I put the cc back in the problem reappeared so I am now slowly and painfully adding a huge amount of content in little by little. So far I've had the game up and running for 2 weeks now without a problem but still have a lot of content to add. It may be as simple as a bad piece of custom content. If I discover anything to be the cause I will certainly let you know.

Alright...well...it seems that in restoring them I erased their data. Every single one is an "Empty Package". None of them contains whatever it is to make the custom content work. I really don't understand this at all...but that's what it says. I'm becoming less and less motivated to even continue playing this game anymore. There are so many problems and now I see that they don't even properly warn you of what happens when you uninstall or reinstall. I've been downloading custom content since it was first available. I had sims that were made here on this website before the rules for self-sims were changed. When they were, those sims were erased from the site, so I can't get them or the outfits back. Or the hair, or anything. I had also gotten content from places like TSR when they did special days where a lot more stuff was free. I'll never get that back because I don't have the money to throw into subscriptions. This whole experience is really ruining this game for me. Especially since I know that if I do play, i'm going to have to go into nearly every house to change their outfits. I've actually gotten a lot of the outfits for my male sims back. Not all, but a lot. I had a lot for females, and a lot is still missing. I posted on that "Where can I find..." board, and the only reply I recieved was asking if I checked the thing to show custom content. I have so many female outfits and hairs, it's going to take a long time to fix. And I will have to track down the earrings I had downloaded, as well as handbags that I used for a few sims. I also have to redownload from sites that make you download one single hair color at a time for every style. So, right now, i'm not so sure i'm motivated at all to do that knowing I probably wont get my favorite outfits back.

I'm sorry you have lost all of your old stuff, I'm not sure why they would all be empty packages but these are often seen if the files are put into a sims2pack file, so if you packaged them to store them that may be why. What I would recommend is to post some pictures over on the where can I find forum, or if you don't have pictures just post a description of the clothes and hair you seek. Perhaps people thought you were asking for help on your last post there? It's worth another try, and it's also worth looking around the many sims2 sites that exist now, as there is a lot of fine content available that maybe you'll like just as much as the items you lost. The hair especially will be better now that creators are animating it.

I posted 4 pictures. The only outfit I got back I was able to find because it was a childs outfit hosted here. If I could at least find those three outfits, it would be a lot easier to build back. I used them and recolors of them that were found on the same place. With those, I would feel a lot better starting over.

Well, i'm happy to say of the five, i've been able to retrieve 2. Still missing my favorite and recieving no help from that board.

And another problem I just realizes, I can't get my car back from when I preordered NL!!! I can't find it anywhere.

If you want some laughs, i've got them for you. After ALL that i've been through, the game still freezes. I'm about to contact Dell about their WONDERFUL gesture of tweaking the graphics cards. I intend for this problem to be fixed, one way or the other!