It's not really a disastrous problem since my Sims is loading and running fine, but it is very, very annoying! I just reinstalled my game a couple of nights ago after a year of non-use (though last year I didn't have this problem) as well as some expansion packs- High End Loft, Ambitions, World Adventures, and Light Night. When I first open the game, everything works beautiful and perfectly for about the first minute. Then, as the game progresses, I notice random lines, patches, and spots of black flickering on the game screen like what you'd get on a bad film reel. It happens more and more in larger areas as the game goes on. It is very distracting. The only content I have downloaded so far is hair from The Sims Resource (which I've never had trouble with before) and the core mod- Awesomemod- from Mod the Sims (which installed fine, and graphics clipping is not a mentioned bug of the download). I have to be honest and say I didn't play the game before downloading content because I knew I wouldn't get to make the sims I wanted without downloading some custom content. Is this an issue with my graphics card (again, when I played the game last year I did not have this problem, but I did not have expansion packs last year), an issue with needing to update my Sims game, or is it from the mod or the custom content? Anyone know? I tried to take a picture of the problem, but the clipping happens too quickly for me to get a screen shot.
What you're describing sounds like graphic card problems, as you may have guessed. It could be that adding on the extra loads from the new EPs has stressed your graphics card beyond what it can do. This could be because the graphics card is thinking of failing or, since you didn't post a dxdiag I can't tell, your card is too low for the game with the EPs on board. I doubt that the updates would make that much difference. You could certainly try the game without the mods, but that's not the kind of problems people see with mods. (Game play issues are more like what happens with mods.) However, with graphics cards they may (when cool because they're not stressed by more than surfing the web or using business applications) work fine at first, but overheat or malfunction as they get hot from use. Why don't you post your dxdiag and see if we can make some additional comments based on that.
What it sounds like to me especially considering the time of year is overheating. If it's a pc look into cleaning out the fans and vents and make sure there is plenty of room around the outside of the case for it to get to air in and out of the case. If it's a laptop check the vents and make sure they're not plugged up with lint and you might want to invest in a laptop cooling stand. But you also could have overloaded the content on the game to where it's struggling to keep up with everything.
