Clearing the gossip from memory doesn't actually seem to stop them gossiping, any more than deleting trash (ie the met x memories) clears the met sim from the sim's phone book - they still know them, but the only memory of them that they keep is the best friend one as that's needed for counting up how many best friends they have.

If you got rid of that many memories, I'm sure your game will be a lot better for it, rather like going through the plumbing in your house with caustic soda!

Zazazu, why not try out the new jv16 Power Tools, you get a month's free use and unlike most trial programs, it cleans up just the same as if you'd bought it - none of that "you can clean up 4 registry errors (which turn out to be those Windows files that simply reappear) and to clean up the other 9,999,996 you need to buy the program!"

I think it may have something to do with attraction markers.....

Hey, it wasn't me that thought it was an ACR problem - if I'd thought that, I'd have contacted TJ instead of posting here - I honestly thought it was something to do with their genetics.

One reason I haven't tried!  I've just about worked out how to use the color-binning tool, although sometimes they don't show up correctly in game, which is annoying, but as for deleting all those grey hairs for a hair which I downloaded that claimed to be color-binned already, that is doubly frustrating!

Think it was just a random thing, I didn't uninstall ACR, but I did get Sanjay to take a dose of elixir so he was the same age as Priya again.....The only other thing I can think of is I did check the try for baby dialogue option again, and for some reason, although I KNOW I had set it to show the dialogue, for some reason it was set to NOT show the dialogue, whether it was part of the dynamics thing I don't know.  I hadn't run Set Up Hood since I first installed the version I have running now, so it wasn't that which changed the dialogue option, so random dynamics seems to be the only possibility - and it's odd that it should matter so much as most of my sims get pregnant while that is set to off anyway!

Just posted again to let you know, I played them again and this time before I even had a chance to use the traditional method they'd taken themselves off to the sofa, and this time everything was fine, and Priya is now in the throes of morning sickness!

Sounds like there could be a broken portal on the lot.  Is the lot one you built yourself, a download or an original Maxis lot?  If it's a download, you could try getting it again, if it's original Maxis then find an unused copy if you have one in another set of game files and just replace the file in the LotCatalog.  If it's one you made yourself, did you keep a copy of the original lot before it got glitched?

Those grey hairs are such a nuisance!!!

You might also try shutting down any services that you don't need and never use - just be careful which ones.  Also, you could try clearing all the trash from your PC as well as from the game.  I use Desktop Maestro which, when I've been on the net or moving files around etc., will find and remove as many as 300 useless shortcuts and other stuff, after which there is a noticeable improvement in my PC's performance.  However, as Nec has already said, the overloaded memories in every sim in your hood can definitely be a problem.  I also check out all the NPCs and townies in SimPE, since not all their trash can be removed with the debugger unless you make them selectable, and remove all their Mystery Sim memories as well as all the met so and so memories that accumulate in their files.  The debugger will remove their gossip memories when you select the Clear Gossip from All option.  Since probably well over 50% of sims in a game can be NPCs and townies, they hoard an awful lot of useless trash once they have been initialised.  You would need to check periodically for memories of met sims creeping back, and also for newly initialised sims getting the mystery sim memories.  While you are cleaning them up, it's worth removing all their furious tokens and attraction markers - the furious tokens of an NPC such as the maid can really slow down your lot.

Joke, Joyce!  I meant that sometimes if you reinstall it, then sims it didn't recognise before will be recognised by the new install - I've had it happen.

What expansions exactly are you running?  It might also help to know how many character files you have, whether they have been checked in SimPE, whether you have a zillion bartenders, stuff like that......

If you built it in a non-uni hood, that probably explains it, but resetting it should, hopefully, work.  It sounds like it's the reverse of the problem you get trying to use a uni lot in the main hood, where you get the frozen time situation which is solved, I think, by entering the lot in build mode and saving it before you move any sims in.  So, you may need to move your students out and then reset the lot in the same way, and then move your students back in.

Well, I have the same graphics card as you, plus the same amount of RAM, and I'm not getting these problems, although there are others, but this is a new PC and therefore a completely new install.  Out of interest, what AV and Firewall are you running?  When I got this PC it had AVG and Zone Alarm installed, but I couldn't stand them, I kept being brought back to the desktop every time AVG decided to update, and since it was the free version of both programs I couldn't configure either of them.  So, I removed them and went back to using Avast! which never gives me these sort of problems, plus Windows Firewall - nothing nasty ever got through when I was using these before, so I shall just keep my fingers crossed that this is still going to be the case!

The one problem I do seem to have is that if I save a lot and then try to exit the game, it occasionally crashes on exit, but so far it hasn't caused any problems with my sims' files so I shall just wait and see if something hits me between the eyes and tells me what's causing it - it seems to be a memory problem of some kind, and I think probably I just try to exit before everything is properly saved.

I've also occasionally had a freeze, but I think that's due to the mouse that came with the PC, I've had to install it in the USB slot, so maybe it's something to do with that, but it won't work in the normal mouse connection, whereas my old mouse works fine from there, so I think I'll just put the old mouse back if it keeps happening.

If you are still having problems with just the base game running, then I think there may still be stuff left over somewhere from either your original install, or from SecuRom.  I'd suggest you check yourself to make sure, just in case something has been left in. 

Can you enter the lot in Build mode?  If so, you could try removing the custom podium and stove.  If you can't enter in Build mode, then try removing those custom objects from your Downloads folder.

Well, I've cleaned up hoods with just these kind of problems and they play fine.  Did you move your back-up in, or copy it over?  If you copied it over, try removing all the files for that neighbourhood and copying the complete folder in again, and then defrag and reboot.  If the characters are still not showing in SimPE, try uninstalling, reinstalling SimPE to force it to look harder. 

If, as I understand it, you have two copies of the same sim, then when you check in the Sim Browser you will probably find that only one is a normal size, the other being only about 35 kb, the same as unlinked ghosts, and will also be flagged with no character data.  However, it will probably be the larger file which shows as unlinked, so you need to relink the larger file - which will have lost all it's relationships etc.  However, that information is probably contained in the smaller ncd file, so you can open that file, make a note of all the missing information and then open the "person" sim's file and restore all those details, memories and relationships.  After you have done that, there are safe ways of deleting the "game object" file, which is covered by JM in the Deleted 2:Electric Boogaloo! instructions. 

Do you mean that you have also built your dorm in the main hood, or is it a normal Uni-related problem?  I remember this from back when Uni first came out and my original install not only had this problem, but I couldn't even click on a sim and get the proper menus appearing and it was only solved by uninstalling and reinstalling Uni - back in those far off days I think about the only hacks I used were Gnomon's flamingoes and an always abduct hack.  It was the problems with Uni that initially sent me looking for solutions, and now I hate playing a game without hacks! 

To get back to your problem, it may be that the lot simply has not reset itself to dorm properly, and you might be able to solve this with the Move or Rotate Lot tool - pick it up and put it down somewhere else and let it set itself again!

Oh, and if you are running Seasons, watch out for those dorm bills - the Repoman will again sometimes appear after they've been paid and using the debugger to nuke stuck bills doesn't seem to work, so make sure your sims pay the bills as soon as they are delivered!

Guess I must have!

Because I didn't have this PC up and running and was playing on my laptop while I saved up for it, and I didn't bother for ages with the internet since I had to turn just about everything off in msconfig in order to play, and just couldn't be bothered to keep enabling everything and then disabling everything yet again!  And I only started playing Strangetown after the laptop decided Veronaville was getting too big to handle.....

If it's only one comm lot, it doesn't sound to me that it can be caused by a global mod.  I think I'd be looking for either a hacked object that is on that lot and no other, or, which I think is more likely, a portal problem with that lot.  Have you tried moving the lot in order to reset it?  Also, delete your groups.cache file from the game folders and let the game generate a new, clean one.

I'm pretty old, and I understood exactly what you meant!  But maybe us ex-teachers are just good guessers?

Oops, I'd forgotten about that!  You'd have to have your sim buy the cemetery first!

Hope you find the problem, it certainly seems like a hack causing it to me.  And, if you don't do so already, once you've sorted all your hacks out, put them together in a subfolder so it's easier to see what you have got.

Have you tried putting graves into a sim's inventory and then going to Gothier Green Lawns or whatever cemetery you are using  and then, using the necessary cheats etc. tried placing the grave there manually to see whether it still disappears?

We know!  And some of us care about the kittens!

Have you checked in SimPE to see if they have, by some mischance, become unlinked?