Troubleshooting Graphical corruption: Vista, Sims 2, 8600 GT

Graphical corruption: Vista, Sims 2, 8600 GT

Hello again, It's been a couple of months and the Sims are still not working.
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']1. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']2. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']2046 MB[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']3. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Vista 32 bit[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']4. [/FONT]Free Hard Disk Space: 175GB
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']5. [/FONT]Total Hard Disk Space: 222GB
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']6. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']DirectX 10[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']7. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']8. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'] nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll 7.15.0011.6375 (English) 10/4/2007 17:14:00, 4993024 bytes[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']9. [/FONT]Approx. Total Memory: 617 MB
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']10. [/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Sims 2 CD, University expansion pack [/FONT]
The problem is that when the neighborhood loads, the trees are corrupted. When I try to click a house or design a character, the application crashes and is terminated. I have the latest drivers, a rather nice card, plenty of space, and no Sims! I have tried to change the affinity to run on just on CPU, but it is denied. Any ideas?

 

system specs

1. Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
2. 2046 MB
3. Vista 32 bit
4. Free Hard Disk Space: 175GB
5. Total Hard Disk Space: 222GB
6. DirectX 10
7. NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
8. nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll 7.15.0011.6375 (English) 10/4/2007 17:14:00, 4993024 bytes
9. Approx. Total Memory: 617 MB
10. Sims 2 CD, University expansion pack

Sorry that was annoying!

 

The application has crashed. The application will now terminate.
I installed the new driver and the same thing happened.

 

There is no option to click for further details.

 

I've read about those incidents and what has helped in most cases, was for some reason to delete the cache files in
c:\users\<your Username here>\Documents\EA Games\Sims 2\
I run Sims 2 on a Dualcore Athlon and Vista just fine (after downloading EA's Patch that is..no idea if there is one for Intel CPUs).
So if deleting the cache doesn't help, check EA for the Patch. (that should take care of any Dualcore issues)
As well you could try to run Sims 2 in XP Compatibility Mode (that should help with VISTA issues)
(Right-click on the Icon, go to Properties/Compatibility and click the first check box.)
Don't worry about the other check boxes..just leave them alone

-le