I have recently re-installed the Sims 2 and expansion packs. I used WinRAR beta and put everything in the downloads folder. For some reason only the Buy and Build mode stuff is showing up. Nothing on the CAS screen...Sims, hair, nails, watches, eyebrows, clothes, etc,. I have tried turning off cc, exiting, turning back on and exiting to start game again. Didn't work. I have sent copy of my dxdiag to ea and they have not responded in days. Someone please help.

In order to better solve your problem, please go through the following as listed below:

• General - Installing Custom Content
  You appear to not have read our great guides to downloading and installing custom content.
  
  Downloading for Fracking Idiots explains the entire downloading process from start to finish in language designed for people who aren't computer geniuses. Please go through the whole guide before asking any further questions on downloading and installing custom content as pretty much everything you could possibly want to know is explained there - including info for Mac and Vista users.
  
  Getting Custom Content to Show Up explains what to do if you've followed all the instructions in Downloading for Fracking Idiots and your content still isn't showing up, or if content that was showing up fine before suddenly won't show up.
  

On occasion you might be asked to do a long FAQ - please make sure you do all the steps and don't just skip over them. You'll often find that these long FAQs have all the details you need. If nothing in the above FAQs fixes your problem you may post again detailing exactly which you have done and which steps failed.

The package files in my downloads folder have sims 2 pack icons. But the say package files. Does that make a difference. I have done everything on this list. Still nothing.

I am ready to give up. I have tried everything that is in your FAQ and still no pet or Sim. While I was waiting for your response to the first post I went onto thesimsresource.com and used the sims2pack button to automatically install content so I wouldn't have to even go into the downloads folder. The houses showed up, but not any of the makeup. That's what's so weird. Everything was done the same from the sites, to how and where they were extracted, just not there. Do you think the best option is to trash everything in the dowloads folder?

It sounds like you're not installing things the right way - sims and pets don't go in the Downloads folder, and makeup doesn't come as sims2packs.

Did the test files in the FAQ work?