This is interesting.  I play on a notebook that gets freakishly hot, and I have had overheating problems, but as far as I can tell my particular problem is not overheating.  In my case overheating issues occur after hours of play and present slightly different symptoms (flashing blue, affects all lots and 'hoods once started), while the flashing black problem happens at the beginning of play and does not affect all neighborhoods or any lots.

There seem to be multiple causes, so if this issue occurs, the best course of action may be to: A) Determine if you have an overheating problem.  Probably the case if the problem only occurs after long gameplay or if your machine is noticeably hot.  If not,  B) Temporarily remove camera mod, and if that doesn't work: C) Remove all neighborhood decor.

Could work, depending on the proportion of visible to invisible trees.  Though I'm not sure the camera mod really makes any difference to how much of the neighborhood is actually drawn.  It's probably still there even though you can't see it, and the camera mods may be causing an unrelated problem with the same symptoms.

I forgot to add that I read somewhere that the type of trees in the 'hood vary every time you start a new one from the same map.  This seemed to be the case with the maps above; though I don't know if the included maps are different in this regard.  So part of the reason that I managed to load that stupid Bonito map on the eighth try might be that it finally picked a lower-poly tree (damn unclickable cacti).  If this is the case, simply deleting and retrying until you get a workable set of flora may also help.

I am pretty convinced now that it's the trees (or really all neighborhood decor and roads).

This happened to me a few weeks ago in a Uni subhood, using this lovely but ridiculous map: http://hideki.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=252232

Seeing Eleonora's tree theory, I checked the NHTR bit and there were fourteen thousand fucking trees on that map.  (It was also stupidly lumpy, but that's a story for another day.)  However, it was exactly the shape I was looking for, and so, after about eight attempts to get it loaded, I set out deleting trees.  It's actually not so bad if you do it in front of TV, and since they're so close together, you can just tape down the delete key and click randomly.

After the trees were obliterated, everything worked perfectly.

Then today, I finally got my shiny package of "Sims 2 Season Story."  Immediate borkage of the main hood.  Luckily I had backups, but even these did not work.

I tried everything else, because the memory of those 14,000 trees was still fresh.  "Please, not the trees again!"

I tried removing downloads, deleting *.cache files, swapping in the Seasons stealth suburb from a working hood, and even somehow managed to load up said suburb in game (it's boring, didn't even have the decency to be broken), but no fix.  The only thing that made a shred of difference was the "dontmergeNHflora" cheat, which, let me see my 'hood after I had brought up the Neighborhood switcher.  The problem was that it was so incredibly lagged that there was no way I would be able to nuke enough trees to make a difference.

*whew* Sob story over.  The fix, as I did it:

0. Get a camera mod so you can see the whole neighborhood.  I know some people have said these caused their problem, but trees lurk in the far corners of your 'hood.  Most of the 14,000 trees mentioned above would not be visible with the standard neighborhood camera.

1. Make a new neighborhood with the same map as the problem 'hood.

2. Obliterate all trees and whatever else you can.  It is helpful to use a contrasting terrain.

3. Open new neighborhood in SimPE.  Check NTHR bit to make sure treeicide is complete.  Extract NHTR.

4. Open affected neighborhood and replace NHTR with shiny bare version.

5. Load in game.  Trees gone!  If a road is floating or sunken, try placing a new lot along it and it should level out.

6. Keep bare NHTR file for future use of affected map.

I have blank NHTRs for maps "Bonito" (above) and "Rushburg Heights" (http://hideki.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=191484).  The Bonito one might be a little weird as I tried to use the SC4 Terraformer to flatten the map; not sure how that will affect use of the NHTR on an unflattened version.  Anyway I can send either of those to anyone who wants them,

Here is a Korean translation, I'm not sure it's 100% because I don't speak Korean and my Korean friend doesn't speak fluent English, but it was good practice for us.    I think it should be close enough.

Ask to Grow Up: 어른이되는것을 명령하다
Grow Up: 어른이되다
Say Goodbye Forever: 안녕 영원이 사라져라
Die of Old Age: 나이가 많아 죽음을 맞이하다

Yeah, that annoys me way more than it should, actually... 

Actually, I've been able to hand select dormies by teleporting in the desired dormie, making them selectable, and telling them to claim a door.  They behave like normal dormies after this.  The only problem I've noticed is that if you don't unselect them before they actually claim the door, the objects in their room won't be hidden.

I know, that was just my lame attempt at humor, sorry.     Though it's sad how many people don't get it.

No, that's the other Korea.    Seriously, while I'm sure that's part of it, it's actually amazingly difficult to get anything that's not a book/CD/DVD shipped here from anywhere, no matter how small or light.  I guess it's not worth the hassle for the store.  This registry patch sounds promising if English isn't automatically available.  Would it be a an actual downloadable patch or just a matter of manually changing a few values?

So apparently South Korea is the one place harder to ship to than a bunker... no retailer that I can find will ship Nightlife (or any game for that matter) to me, and I'm reluctant to befriend GIs for the sole purpose of shopping on the base.  Meanwhile, copies of "The Sims 2 화려한 외촐" are calling out to me!  Does anyone have any idea what will happen if I install that on top of my current setup (base game + Uni)?  Will my whole game turn Korean?  BFBVS? nothing?

Thanks!
Kitty