Thank goodness! - I had a link to the old site in my favourites folder.  There's a note says the site moved over the summer. 
The non-tech savvy ones are safer downloading from TSR off the official site.  TSR don't have lots with families in that create "grey sims" and they do check the lots out for hacks and you don't find pirated content in them.  EA are going to have to take more resposibility for their stuff if they want you to pay for it.  If I were their lawyer I'd be worried about the pirated content they are already hosting....

This is the post I was trying to refer back to  - sorry I wasn't clear...  the whole thread is interesting, but the bit where they talked me through "grey" sims starts is about post 60 -76

I thought it meant - delete all their friendships and relationships.  That way you could delete them without messing up your sims know knew them.  But whether that's what maxis meant is another matter.  Also, I don't think just killing off the NPC end of a relationship would clean up the memories of your sims who knew them - unless maxis were more thorough than I can imagine!

That'll teach me tol read the dates before I post!   

Hardly dare post here...  but
Kitiara - for clarity's sake are your sims frozen completely or just frozen trying to use the phone?  I ask because I lost free will completely this week as the side effect of a misnamed file (aka a stupidity problem) - JMs nme fix was enabled but named nme.off    I just swore when I pinned that down and disabled it....

A few people on MTS2 reported phone problems - mostly sims missing from the phone book who turned out to be invisibly stuck on the lot.  Inge's shrub fixes that of course.  Clearly not your problem, but might help someone else - unless they are all invisible stuck on the lot from last time you called them!

   OK, so it's not stuck NPCs.  NB - I'll be editing my last post as I got an update on the portal info.. 

I mentioned grey sims in post 3 - did you check for them?   Mind you, unless that new 'hood has imported sims it doesn't sound likely that's the problem.

Have you tried running without any custom content in the game?  I've never tried that health scanner so I don't know what it picks up.  But if there is a problem in the downloads like a conflict with something in NL, taking them all out will solve the problem.   IF the problem is there without any custom content it points firmly at "not a download problem".

I know it sounds stupid, but I did find my game did strange things when I had downloads in the wrong folders or named wrong  especially clothing etc.  I move them around a lot to speed up things and don't always put them back quite right.  Worth a good hard look at folder names and content.  I also found my sims lost all free will because I had somehow enabled a hack filename nme.off  Interesting side effect that had me puzzled for days.  I nailed that by moving the custom content.

One simmer told me her game slowed right down when she put a fence on the lot... go figure...
Closing everything running in the background and making sure scheduled tasks don't kick in is another "must check".

Hey guys - Please remember that this problem goes back to the base game.  It's not an NL or even a Uni problem.  Those of us with older PCs who haven't moved out of the stone age yet would dearly like fixes that work in the base game.  Whatever you do will be great JM, just if you have a choice about how you do it, a version that works for everyone would be even more awesome!   

Climbing on hobby horse..........I'm still peeved Maxis didn't add a 3rd patch to the last set for base game only.  A lot of problems weren't actually Uni problems!...  Climbs off hobby horse...  I guess editing the patch for the base game would be too hard....

Maxis definitely put Crammyboys' portal fix in the Uni & NL patches - Crammyboy says uninstall his fix before you patch.
From reading Crammyboys MTS2 thread I believe that:

1. the patch stops new portal bug happening
2. the patch EDIT does not fix missing portals on existing lots
3. the patch doesn't clean up the 999 NPCs stuck on an existing lot.

No personal guarantee on this info.  If you think this is wrong, please post on MTS2  at http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=83684. 

Inges teleporter plus shrub from http://www.simlogical.com/  is good for spotting and evicting NPCs stuck on the lot. 
Crammyboy has a download to detect a missing portal on the thread above.  If there is a missing portal he links you here for the fix http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79045

Have you put sims in houses into the lot bin or moved sims between 'hoods either in a package or via the lot bin?  If so, you will have lots of duplicate sim files in your game just like I did.  Motoki and ZZ explained this to me a couple of days ago.  See if you have far more sims in your character than you think there should be and/or you have lots of small files.  If so that's the problem (or at least A problem).  You need to delete them, but you also need to clean up the memories.     Ghosts also have small file sizes and you "need" them, so be careful!  Here's the link.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=158.0

Don't you mean do TO your sims. -  Well perhaps you don't, but some people enjoy making sims suffer.

I usually have wardrobes in the bathroom by the front door, so they can change out of PJs before greeting visitors. (my first romance sim had a bad experience once doing that)  The one tile dressers I got from somewhere were a pain - they still occupied the same space only invisibly - so you couldn't click on things behind them even though you could see them.  Thanks for the link to Merola's.  Cycling through clothes might by nice occasionally if you didn't have some awful things in there left over from uncle Kent and Great Uncle Billy......

Most of JM's hacks are tested on Uni.  Do You have Uni?   I only have the base game and some work fine for me, some don't. I only try the Uni ones with a back up and if I have nothing left to lose!  Today the build and buy icons greyed out after I chose an option on the FFSlotdebugger  - reset controllers or something.  That's the only time I've seen that apart from a Sim dying... (I think!)   (EDIT - ffsdebugger is one of the "tested on Uni ones")

I think Bangelnuts is on the right track though - check for a corrupt file. 

There's a thread on this board that explains what you normally need to edit in genetics.  It started about messed up DNA in strangetown - it explains exactly what you need to to and gives all the standard genetics codes and some others. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1423.0

There's an NPC maker on MTS2.  I haven't tried it and disclaime all responsibility, but have a search there.

and I still didn't get what I really wanted! I NEVER got the headmaster I wanted!   

we never got to the 112 invisible NPCs either! 

Doesn't the professional party guest have to listen to the boring whiners throwing the party who are paying him to be there?  how about holding the heads of the sims throwing up in the bushes? or checking what the teens are getting up to in the pool house?  or dancing with elderly ladies whose husbands won't or aren't there..... or calling? (Bingo, square dancing..)  or preventing damage to property from drunken louts?  or playing charades?  etc - sounds like an awful job to me!

Sounds familiar! I tend to prefer my sims crammed into a small space where I can see them and 1 level is much easier.  If you only have 1 or 2 sims, you don't lose track of them upstairs, but then you don't need the upstairs!

Glad you like them, sorry - I put up a couple of 2x2 and a community lot yesterday and thought I saw them on offer (Simpotence resulted in 3 new lots and a 'hood!) If you want to PM me with an e-mail address and a max file size, I'll zip over a lot or two.  They are 600-1200MB each as I remember unzipped. Or a 'hood with 40 lots in an 11MB RAR file (Not all different!).  I'd love a screenshot from NL about how it looks.  Had trouble with the latest lot where I was trying to hide a pool in the river.  The water level doesn't stay right!

At the risk of getting lynched - TSR has a good business model which means it's going to survive.  Profitable is not totally a bad thing, people.  Look at how many sims1 sites have closed down with content lost forever to those of us who didn't get it in time.   I tried to revisit Persimmon Grove the other day - account suspended.  Felt really sad.  TSR is still providing access to a huge amount of Sims1 stuff.   Wouldn't you rather people put their stuff on TSR than just quit?  Paying is your choice - Being a really penny-pinching individual, I've never paid for anything off TSR.   Bunny Waffles is/was another favourite of mine. Never did build the Victorian baths, got all the downloads though.

We had some links to sites with houses on the sims1 board - can't find them though.  Too busy at Holysimoly (Great link thanks)  EDIT - found a thread with links to houseplan sites - people said they used them for ideas
"Here are some more house plan sites:
http://www.globalhouseplans.com/index.htm
http://www.amazingplans.com/
http://www.stockplans.com/
http://www.coolhouseplans.com/
http://theplancollection.com/
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/houseplans/

And a very interesting one:
http://www.castlemagic.com/color.html

And this one has several links to other sites as well:
http://www.houseplanes.com/g-common2.php?ppid=1040&K=house%20plans

SimMasterAnubis (aka KatAnubis) "

Don't know - I've never tried a building challenge.  I searched lots for the word challenge and they weren't all free.
the current one is the add a room challenge.  Maybe it says somewhere - or might appeal to the other Simpotents   
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/forumdisplay.php?f=535
One thing that irritates me is they still call it a starter home in the exchange, but it costs about 60k by the time they've added rooms...

I know I've got 2 days free downloading because over 10,000 people downloaded my lots (that's chicken shit on TSR).  I posted them there because I've always been a download junkie and I figured I owed them.  I also know, cos I asked, that they are still mine to give away.

doesn't the genetics being in a different author cause a problem taking Uni sims to the base game?

Know what you mean - you've probably seen me around a lot too.  If you want my little set of lots as place holders for your new 'hood challenge, they're downloadable free off TSR today.  Delete when you get something better.  I'd really love to know if the river looks good or bad with NL and and tips for improving that.  currently struggling to hide a pool in the river for another community lot.  cursing the random drops in water level when you deepen 1 extra bit....

Look forward to them.

They're on TheSimsResource not the exchange.  I know that's a pay site, but they come up free quite often. Actually they are all in the free section at the moment, so help yourself!  All maxis content, base game only required.
http://www.thesimsresource.com/profiles/view.php?mid=427711

Re extending, yeah I know what you mean.  You can add rooms, but it's expensive to make existing rooms bigger and turning a bungalow into two stories is always a problem - the stairs never fit.

I don't download many lots because they are nearly all too big to be playable and too expensive for Sims to buy without cheating.  Who moves rich sim families anyway?  If they run out of space, you extend.  Before NL you couldn't move without losing career objects or cheating to get them back and depreciation means they lost out moving.  OK, so the problem has gone with inventories - or it would if they weren't buggy.  But how often do you want to move an established family?  When the kids grow up and you move them out, you need Starter homes, just like for new sims.   

I look around occasionally out of curiousity.  I visit TSR regularly anyway and I've been to simestates2.  I take the odd lot from a site whose objects I like to see how they use them - 4eversimfantasy for example.   I built my own set of small starter homes and community lots with water and willows and cycle through those when I start a new family.  they have a distinctive unified look on the 'hood screen. They're on TSR.  I'm cwykes there too.  I'd love to know how they work in NL where you can see next door.  When I get fed up with water and willows, I'll do another themed set.

There aren't many small community lots around either.  That's what I built first, when my PC was really graphically challenged.  The maxis lots took for ever to load, so I didn't use them.

yeah - I began to suspect that when it crashed!  Still I'll keep it 'til I get Uni.  did you notice that Motoki got Maple valley and was fixing up some genetics?  Might be worth asking what was wrong and fixing your versions.

PS I didn't see many community lots - If you want the little set I have on TSR, you can have them. PM me there. They aren't millionaire lots, they're small, functional and look interesting as a set on the 'hood screen.  Basically they are good meeting places with some shopping thrown in.

I'd love that set of replacements, or even just a partial set.   Looks like a lot of work though. If you guys do some of this stuff, can you save us all grief and post a few each so we build up a set?  I should think it would be a more varied set if different people contribute sims.  Most of the templates aren't too bad, it's just you get bored with them.  But there are a few really awful ones.  I guess I couldn't use them myself until I get Uni or NL of course.  Wouldn't it be easier to delete some and add others?  I guess the answer is "yes it would, but you can't do it that way!"

I was trying to delete sims with SimPE and didn't see how to commit the changes.  when I exited it kept saying changes weren't saved.  I was so irritated, I was ready to buy simenhancer there and then!  I figured I'd better learn SimPE in a hood I don't care about, so I stuck copies of my sims in a Testbed 'hood to have a go at cleaning up files.

I haven't found any simPE tutorials for the sort of stuff I want to do.  They exist for easy stuff you can figure out yourself, but how about guides to harder problems or on how to spot harder problems e.g. cleaning out surplus files, corrupt memories, deleting townies completely, moving townies into the 'hood, replacing the kids in the adoption pool. 

I'd love a macro or whatever for common clean up jobs. one click to delete unlinked files that are duplicates" plus another to confirm the list or a few more to take someone out.

I'm thinking pre-patch aren't I....  I've read problems caused by playing pre-patch lots & hoods.   Anything pre-EP is OK in theory then.  Of course the base game hasn't got all the relevant fixes from the Uni patch, so it might still be an issue.

I downloaded Maple Valley last night to take my mind off my buggered Veronaville.  sounds fun.  Does it need Uni?  Thread was too long to read and I didn't notice anything on the pages I went to. (tired.. & cross)

goes for me too - thanks.

You can also fix genetics in simenhancer, you get a free trial period so try it for a big job like trawling all the genetics.  After that it's your choice about buying it.  It doesn't do half the stuff SimPE does, but what it does have is very easy to use.  I'm still thinking about it.