I'm guessing Nepheris was using the allmenus cheat, which requires activating debug in the globalprops. This article describes how you do this:
http://www.jd-movies.com/allmenus.php

Sometimes deleting the groups.cache file and also defragging the hard drive can help with loading times.

That's quite amazing. Who would have thought those little dots could cause so much trouble?

I think what you are probably seeing is a template texture that is included with the mesh to aid recolouring. You can safely delete that in Bodyshop or CAS and the mesh will still be in your Downloads folder.

Have you tried the square pixels setting in the game options? This is meant to stop distortion in game due to differing monitor aspect ratios.

theisz, does it work if you cut and paste your sims2 folder from My Documents/ EA Games to the desktop? This will cause the game to generate a new set of 'clean' folders, so will tell you if your trouble is caused by your content/ user data, or if the game needs reinstalling.

You could try replacing the objects.package file (that's probably what you are remembering that you did before):
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=134921

Try replacing the objects.package file:
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=134921

There is a package editor/ backup utility for the Sims2 on Mac in development:
http://woohooformac.wordpress.com/
You need to email the creator for the download.

There have been a few indications that this could be a memory problem; a few people have reported that this happened with large/ complex lots that they had been working on for a long time without saving. Perhaps the game/ computer goofs out on saving, corrupting the lot?

giggy, those polygon artefacts look familiar- I would recommend trying some different drivers.
dewshine, yes- the antialiasing could cause the bluescreen problem as it is caused in part by memory problems, and smoother edges take more graphics memory to render.
Max, the Ancient Transport Urn is a good Maxis item to view the bumps on, the texture on the pattern area is quite visible with this mod.

Dewshine, do you have an NVidia card? In all of the cases I've seen where the Maxis bluescreen has been an issue, the graphics chipset has been NVidia. If it's any help, increasing my RAM and using the newer NVidia graphics drivers (84.21) has solved this for me, and many on the Help forum at MTS2 have reported this, too. I had the bluescreen issue before using this or GunMod's lighting scripts and in fact I've noticed better performance since using them.

How long is a piece of string? It would depend on your mainboard, your finances and where you buy the card from. Do you know what mainboard you have?

I'm using Chesspieceface's native shaders version, along with the RLS shader file from Chocolate Pi's version. I get the nice pool waves as well as bumpmapping, and it looks pretty good!

JM, is there any way of easily removing clothes from a sim's wardrobe using, say, SimPE?

Try putting the CAS items into the Saved Sims folder instead- no subfolders, except for meshes.

Try removing all of your older drivers, and also reinstalling Directx. Also, have you reinstalled the sims since you upgraded the card? Sometimes the user properties do not get updated correctly, so the game is 'detecting' the wrong card.

Hitch, I have an FX5200 but I can see the fish. Perhaps it's because I've altered my graphics rules to kid the game into thinking I have a much better video card, so that I can use the pixel shading and bumpmapping.

Wow, that may explain why I have the fish even though I have Chocolate pi/ gunmod's lighting mod. I put the shaders back on as I didn't like not having bumpmapping.

Also make sure you're looking in the right gender/ agegroup for the sim. Delething the thumbnail files will solve the problem of the incorrect sim showing up on the thumbnail picture.

Jysudo, I'm not sure whether this would help you or not...
http://www.joodiff.com/simgen02.htm

maxon, no- the signs remain invisible in stock mode, inventory or buy.
Renatus, someone else just told me they's had the same problem without using the moveobjects cheat. Maybe it's just a problem with deleting something that's in stock? Although, I haven't managed to get it to work without the moveobjects. Maybe I'm doing something differently, or maybe the actual objects used play a part.

Numenor explained his theories about this to me, and I was able to replicate it:
Put two objects on sale, both 'small' objects.

When one (the one on the right) gets sold, go into buy mode and delete the card. Replace it with a 'large' Maxis item, but it won't fit by normal means so you have to use Moveobjects on...

As you can see they are overlapping each other. When the large plant is sold, the stock card migrates to the edge of the lot every time, and the plant disappears, even when restocked. Numenor thinks that the moveobjects on bit is the key, as when I replaced this:

with this:

Which doesn't require moveobjects on, the restocking was normal. It could be that people using Numenor's hack are using moveobjects on to place the stock?

Thankyou Motoki!