I've a little problem: when I start the game (i've Nightlife) there is a black screen. the game is running correctly, I can enter the neighbourhoods (if I find the button on the black screen), etc. When I minimize the game, for a moment shows up the picture (just before the minimise animation) but when restore black screen again. :gonemad:
I have the same problem with SimCity 4. I didn't play these games about a month and I hadn't problem before. I tryed update the graphics drivers, but didn't help. I have Ati Randeon 9550 with 128MB. (before this I used radeon9200, it worked too)
Please help!

Try using some older drivers.

I tryed but didn't help. I tested the DirectX with the Dxdiag.exe and the result: directdraw doesn't work fullscreen mode (and direct3d doesn't work too). So in fullscreen there is a black screen, but in windowed mode works. I think it's just a temporary solution, because in windowed mode the screen is much smaller
Any guess how to restore the directdraw to work in fullscreen mode?

Try reinstalling Directx, also you could run through the windows help wizard on directx problems.