I brought my current computer back in 2013 with one goal in mind - make sure it could play Sims 2 better than my old, laggy setup. And for a while, it did. But there were problems. It suffered from the dreaded pink flashing on occasion. It crashed often upon visiting community lots. And it was slow. Soooooo slow. If I didn't double-click that game icon by 9pm, I wasn't playing that night. If it crashed, that was it for the day. Then I started having other general problems with random rebooting and freezing until finally the hard drive failed and I brought a new one.

I didn't install the game straight away though. I'd decided to treat myself to an SSD purely for Sims 2, to try and cut down on the slow load times. Then I figured if that was my goal, I should also sort out my CC. I deleted a lot of stuff. I merged a lot of stuff. I tinkered with hair to get it to all show up together. At the same time, my computer was chugging along, behaving perfectly nicely until the beginning of this week when I decided I was all done with my great CC cleanup and ready to play the game.

And I did. For several days, all was well. My game loaded from desktop to family in less than ten minutes. It was wonderful. I was so happy. And then. Two days ago, it suddenly restarted and went into a boot loop until I switched it off. It was late, so I left it for the night and hoped it wass just a random glitch. But yesterday it started randomly rebooting again. There was never any warnings and it'd usually fail to actually reboot so I'd have to switch it off and wait a few minutes before trying to switch it back on again. Well damn, I thought. Is it the game? Is it stressing my system too much? True, on one occasiona I'd quit the game half an hour earlier, but I had been playing it. I gave the inside of the case a clean and started running diagnostics, which was when it decided it'd had enough, threw an epic wobbly and died. And so I have spent all day trying to bring it back to life and now I've got it to a point where it's reinstalling Windows 7. But I don't trust it. I don't know if reinstalling Windows will magically fix whatever went wrong, I don't know if my hardware's failing. I don't even know any more if my hard drive really did fail last year or if my computer just hates the game. I just know, deep down, that very soon I'm either going to have to buy new parts for it or I'm going to have to buy a new computer.

The problem is - buying new parts might not work. I don't actually know what the problem is. It could be the PSU. It could be the motherboard. It could be the RAM. I can't really afford to buy multiple replacement parts just to test them out. Buying a whole new computer should, in theory, solve all those issues at once... but it would come with Windows 10 and a graphics card that probably won't recognise the game. It might not have an optical drive, forcing me to use the UC on Origin rather than my nice, safe, trusty disks. The game might not even work at all. That's my biggest fear, spending hundreds of pounds on a new machine that doesn't do the one thing I want it to. But then right now, my current machine doesn't do the one thing I wanted it to either.

So I guess I'm looking for advice. And commiserations. Let's be honest, this post is 75% rant. If I buy a new computer, what are my options for playing? Can I just take off Windows 10 and install 7? I do have a disk for it. Or can I use a VM? I don't actually know how they work though. What graphics cards are known to be safe and which ones should I avoid at all costs? How shiny and new is too shiny and new? Or do you have any advice about what to do with my current machine (other than dropping it off the top of the local multi story car park)? Because I'd really prefer not to have to spend any money for as long as possible. That said, right now it's been sitting at Completing installation for a good half an hour, so I'm not hopeful. At least it hasn't frozen or shut down this time.

I know you're ranting (and I'm sorry to hear what happened to your system!). But it's also possible that as you mention, your hardware had issues---which I just mention in fairness because it might very well be that TS2 isn't what broke it, only what happened to be in use at the time this happened.

Still sucks though! Wish you luck with it all, for sure.

Among your questions, I can say that yes, you can format the drive on a new machine, even one that comes preinstalled with some other OS (Mac or Linux included, really), and install Windows 7. This may or may not work as well as the Windows version that the system was sold with; for example, some of the components may have been optimized to work with Windows 10, so you may have to deal with finding drivers and such for Windows 7.

If it turns out not to be a useful idea to fix your current system, although I haven't donated machines in a long time, I'm sure there are always places that will take them, like to recycle for schools and such. Just, of course, first format the drive so that your personal information isn't at risk. (Not sure if it's also necessary to overwrite it further with a utility like Eraser, run from a flash drive, but there it is if you'd like.)

Playing games causes wear and tear on a computer, and 6 years isn't that bad if there's been daily gaming going on. My ancient laptop failed after 6 or so years (not sure what was wrong), my stationary from 2009 started failing a couple years back (possible motherboard/RAM slot problem, it freezes at startup 9 out of 10 times), and my old laptop still works but has some issues and a dead battery so I've done backups of all files I want to keep - I still use it for downloading and internet because it's cluttered already, and I want to keep my new laptop nice and clean as long as possible).

If you donate or throw away the computer, you can take out the harddrive, which you can use as a backup or move your files over to another harddrive. Even wiped there may be a chance someone can get info off it, depending on wiping method. The other parts don't matter much in regards to personal information. That is, if you have any sensitive information (log-in data, pictures, personal information, etc.).

If you get Windows 7 you may not want to connect it to internet after support ends (so you don't get any viral attacks etc.) - but if you have other ways to access internet, that may not be a problem. You can probably get older versions of graphic cards that work better with TS2, too. For Nvidia it seems the 1000+ and 2000+ series are a bit hit-and-miss (particularly if combined with Win10, 2000+ seems to be more difficult to get working) and may cause graphic issues, but the lower versions tend to work better.

What you're describing doesn't sound like Windows issues to me, so reinstalling Windows might not fix anything. The stuff you're experiencing sounds more like hardware issues to me, possibly motherboard, since you've had issues with two different drives now. As simmer22 said, 6 years is a good run on a machine, especially if it's a laptop, as those are more fragile than desktops. Entropy is just a thing. If hardware is in a fragile state but nominally working, then doing something more strenuous on it (like playing a game, any game beyond ones that come with Windows) might tip it over the edge. Gaming in general does cause wear and tear, of course, but a particular game itself isn't going to hurt a stable, functioning machine, so long as you're not playing on a seriously underpowered one for the game in question. It's kind of hard to find a machine that would be seriously underpowered for TS2 these days.

My recommendation: If it's a desktop, you can salvage parts from it, which you might be able to use in a replacement machine. Like its optical drive, its video card, and that SSD. Even if a machine doesn't come with an optical drive, it might have a bay for one, and you can just pop your old one in and off you go, assuming that whatever issues your current system is having didn't damage it. Also, if you're comfortable with opening up cases and popping components in and out (and I'm guessing you are, since you put in that SSD...unless you didn't install it yourself), look into a refurbished machine. These are usually machines that were returned for some reason but were perfectly functional and most of the time not even used but still can't be sold as new. So they're cheap. The machine I use for Simming is a refurb that I bought from Newegg for $100 about two years ago and then upgraded a couple things. (A video card plus some extra RAM because, luckily, the machine used the same kind as the one that it replaced.) You might still be able to find one with Win 7 installed or, yes, you can reformat and install 7 plus appropriate drivers for the machine's bits. I would stay away from any new builds, personally, but that's partly because I'm an old curmudgeon. The Simming-dedicated machine I use has 64-bit Win7 Pro, a 3.0GHz Core2Duo processor, 8GB of RAM (its max), and a 4GB NVIDIA 1050Ti video card (which is overkill but I wanted the texture memory to avoid pink flashing). Runs TS2 like a dream -- no pink flashing (even though I use high-res stuff) and no crashing even if I leave the game running for days in a row -- and it runs TS3 adequately enough for my purposes. So, yeah, I recommend going retro for cheap and then upgrading the important things, like RAM and GPU.

Yes, I know people get freaky because OMG! Microsoft isn't going to support 7 anymore! Meh. If you've got a good firewall and good anti-virus/anti-malware, odds are you'll be fine even if you connect to the internet. Just don't do anything sensitive on the machine -- like your banking or buying stuff using credit cards -- if you're really paranoid about security. But in the end...Well, many of the business/government machines in the world are still using XP, after all, so....yeah.

I agree with ICad. Six years is a long life for a computer. It just might be time to treat yourself to a new one.

Well Windows reinstalled eventually and I decided the first thing to do was install the graphics drivers (the ones that shipped with it) and install the game. I'd rather know if it works sooner than later. And it froze just after I popped in the University CD. Never even got a chance to run the game. So I installed Ubuntu to see if I could squeeze any life out of it and it's now frozen on the login screen. I think it's officially dead.
Anyway! It is a desktop and I did pop in the new hard drives myself so I'm happy to whip them out and pop them in another machine... and I have to admit it never occurred to me that I could do the same thing with the optical drive haha. I am a little wary of refurbished machines as I've had a lot of bad luck with them in the past, but I'll try and keep an open mind.

ETA: OK, I'm looking at refurbished computers and my biggest problem by far is that there's far too many and I don't have any idea which ones are any good! I'm gonna have to go to an actual computer store and ask questions, I think.

The problem with going to a computer store is if you say you want a machine that'll run TS2, they'll look at you funny and say something like, "Any machine will work for that." Which is probably true for the basegame or for a casual TS2 player who hasn't souped up the game with the sort of CC that's currently being made, like us maniacs have. Really, you're probably better off posting some specs or links to machines and seeing what the techie people here have to say.

My advice...I don't think the processor matters all that much, though I think older is better for TS2 in everything, including processors. But what I think is most important for TS2:

OS: I'd go with Win7 if you can get it. (Or do the reformat thing.) Win10 works fine for some people, not so fine for others, but I've never seen anyone have issues with Win7 and the game. The really important thing is that you want a 64-Bit version of whatever OS because otherwise you can't make the game Large Address Aware. (Meaning, you can't do the "4GB patch.")

RAM: The game can only use 4GB (if you patch it for that, only 2GB otherwise), but in my playing, I've never seen it commit, much less use, more than 2.5GB. But if you run other stuff while you play -- especially a web browser -- you will need more, particularly if you end up with a machine with Win10, which eats a bunch of RAM all by itself. Otherwise, everything will run slow. These days, I'd say that you want a minimum of 8GB on a machine. A refurb machine is not necessarily going to come with that much (Mine came with 4GB), but if it doesn't, average-grade RAM is fairly cheap, so you'll want to make sure that the machine you get is upgradeable to at least 8GB.

Video: Most refurb machines are only going to have integrated graphics. Modern chips will run the game, but if you cram your hoods full of high-res CC and whatnot, then that's going to be pulling from your system RAM and slowing down the whole machine. So, I'd get a dedicated card. If you've got a good one in your current machine, pull it out and, if it hasn't been damaged by whatever's going on in your current one, you can use it in whatever machine you get to replace it. If that doesn't work, you'll probably need to get a new card, too.

I've found two that look promising, from Dell's official refurbished stock, this one, and this one. I'm leaning more towards the first one, it has a smaller hard drive than the second one, but I have a 1TB one anyway. It's the graphics cards that are the biggest difference. First one has AMD Radeon HD 6350 (512 MB) and the second one has AMD Radeon HD 8570 (1 GB). No idea if they'll work and which one would be better. I could fall back on my current one, a Radeon HD 7750, but I don't entirely trust it. I've had pink flashing in the past and I don't know if it's fixed because I never really got to play the game long enough to find out.

With a 32-bit system, the 4GB patch may not be needed since the computer has other ways to deal with memory.

I realized earlier this year that on my old Win7 64-bit laptop I've played without the 4GB patch with no pink-flash issues or anything of the sort, so it's not certain you absolutely need it for 7. XP 32-bit switched to virtual memory. Vista 64-bit on the other hand gave me headless sims without the patch, and Win10 wouldn't even get me past the lot loading screen without it.

You really only need the 4GB patch if you play large, heavily populated, heavily decorated neighborhoods with multiple subhoods. I always play with hardware monitoring software running as well as the task manager's resource monitor because it's interesting to me to see what resources are used when. When I play my one gigantic neighborhood (And I am on Win7), my machine will commit about 2.5GB of RAM for the game's use, and it usually hovers around 2GB of actual usage. If the patch is not working, it will crash particularly when moving between lots which aside from the game initially loading is the most RAM-intensive activity, because the game would try to access more than 2GB of RAM which it cannot do without that patch. I know this because for a while my patch wasn't working when I thought that it was and I had constant problems with that neighborhood. I thought it was corrupted, but it turned out that it was fine, just needed more RAM than the game can access if not made Large Address Aware. Once I fixed the patch, I could play that hood without problems. On the other hand, for my more "normal" neighborhoods, which are not so large and RAM-eating, my machine usually commits between 1 and about 1.8(ish)GB of RAM to the game, depending on what's happening in the game, so the game won't draw more than that, so it wouldn't crash without the patch.

So, whether or not you need a 64-bit OS depends on whether or not you really need to make the game Large Address Aware, and that's purely an individual thing and depends on how one plays and what kind of neighborhoods one likes to play. Personally, I would rather patch than not, since you never know when you might want to play a gigantic hood with a population of 10000 Sims. And in order to patch, you need a 64-bit OS. Doesn't work otherwise. Also, the 4GB patch doesn't affect pink flashing, unless you are playing with integrated graphics so that you don't have a separation of system and video memory. The patch is about system RAM. Pink flashing (aside from the game not liking newer hardware and drivers and whatnot) is about video memory, specifically texture memory. In a system with a dedicated video card, the texture memory on the card is used. System RAM isn't touched and the LAA patch only affects system RAM, unless you have a card that can't handle what you're asking of it and it has to resort to VM.

ANYWAY! Sushigal, if I had to pick one of those two machines, I'd pick the less expensive one. The reason: The other one is a small form factor, which can be a gigantic pain in the butt to upgrade and add components to because of limited space in the case. Video cards, especially, can be hard/impossible to cram in them unless you have/get one specifically designed for SFF cases, and those usually do not have fans on them. Fans can be important if you're going to demand any kind of graphics performance beyond word processing or internet browsing. Anyway, SFF machines are designed more for office environments where space can be more at a premium and where the machine will probably not require an upgrade or at the very least the user of the machine is not likely to be the person to perform any upgrades. They also have heat issues, like laptops do, and for the same reason that laptops have heat issues: improper ventilation, especially if you're going to play games on it. So, I would definitely go with the mini tower for those reasons alone. Assuming, of course, that you have the space for it. It does have the smaller hard drive, but like you said you have the 1TB one to stick in there, plus the SSD (unless the 1TB one IS the SSD). If I were you, I'd install the game on that larger drive and move your Documents folder including all your CC to that drive as well and keep the small one just for Windows and other small things. That's what I did recently because this machine came with a 500GB HDD, but I put in the 1TB one I salvaged from its predecessor, too. So, I moved my game install over to that larger drive.

I would say you're probably going to want a different video card regardless. The mini tower comes with a 512MB card, and if you're going to use a lot of CC, you're probably going to want more than that. So, use the 50 pounds you'll save buying the cheaper machine to invest in a better video card.

Thank you for the advice! I play two uberhoods so I will be needing that extra RAM trick. The 1TB drive isn't the SSD, I wish it were, but they shot up in price quite alarmingly so it's a small one purely for Sims. I was thinking of just swapping over the hard drives and giving my old computer to my niece with a warning that it might not last long, but then I switched in on this morning and it froze when I opened Firefox in Ubuntu so that's probably not an option.
I'll have a browse around for video cards before I make any decisions, but if that one's not good and will need replacing anyway, I'll look at the machines they have without them.
ETA: Turns out that's the cheapest mini tower machine they have, the others are all small form or ultra small.
ETA: Oh God there's too many graphics cards and too many manufacturers.

OK I've been having another look around because I really didn't fancy having to buy a new card when that PC already came with one (half-terrified I'll get something too big and powerful by mistake and destroy the PSU) and found this or this. The processor looks a little slow on the first one, but they both say they come with GeForce 710, plus they're pretty. :D
ETA: Or I could splurge and get this one. Might be a little overkill though. Comes with two more hard drives I don't really need.

it's Win7 machine? And what about hardware? IDK how much you're determined to find a problem and fixing it, so it's up to you. It does not seem like there's a problem related specifically to the game. And your description is - sorry to say - rather vague (I do understand, sometimes one need to just vent).

Determining a problem goes usually in a mixed way, but I'd start with:
- checking if some of the RAM modules did not get loose and all connectors inside are properly sitting where they belong (yes, sometimes they gets loose), id the cooling system is starting properly etc., stupid little thing, saves a lot of nerve, it's probably cheapest "hardware fix" existing and I cannot count how many times I "magically" repaired dead or stuck in weird system loops machines that way;
- if hardware seems to be in orderly shape, start the system in emergency mode, even severely damaged system should run at last in the CLI mode 'till i's really borked beyond any hope; if that does not work:
- start the diagnostic system (there is plenty of them, from micro Windows tools to specific linux based sets) and do a hardware test, disk integrity etc.

At this point it should be clear what to do next. If it is hardware problem or system one.
In any modern system you can try to repair it before you nuke everything by clean reinstall, assuming that is not a hardware problem.

I think by this point I have ruled out software. Today it will not function for more than five minutes without freezing up entirely, whether that's in the fresh install on Windows, Ubuntu or scandisk, which makes running diagnostic tools very difficult. And as I've had problems with it in the past (plus I have a stinker of a cold so I'm grumpy and frustrated anyway) and it's six years old, I'm 100% not in the mood to go fiddling around with bits of new hardware that may or may not solve the issue. I'm just blaming the game because the computer went belly up mere days after I started playing the game seriously after not touching it for more than a year.

So right now, it's new computer time and I need help choosing one that'll run the game.

Let me make a graphics card recommendation: The NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti. I, too, had PSU concerns because this machine I'm using for the game is a Hewlett-Packard prebuild and it has a proprietary PSU that has an odd shape. Meaning, I can't easily upgrade the PSU just by buying a more powerful standard cube-shaped one. It is only 300W, which is pretty standard for these types of machines, and most higher-end GPUs will want more than that. So, when I decided I wanted more texture memory (I had been using a 2GB GTX 750 card) I did a LOT of reading around and discovered that the 1050Ti, an entry-level gaming card, is actually designed for low-power systems, so it's a good card to use in systems where you want to play games on but where the machine isn't really "meant" for gaming. They're still readily available, so I would grab one of those and get one with as much memory as your budget allows.

As for the other machines you're looking at...They're all Win10. Which might be perfectly OK...or might not be. If I had to pick one of those, I'd probably go with the Dell Precision workstation, especially because it has the same graphics card that I had until I got the 1050, and it served me well; I just ended up wanting more texture memory, as I said, because I started getting pink flashing in my one big, really high-res neighborhood. My previous Simming machine was one of those (not that model, but the same type) and that thing was a workhorse. I had it for MANY years, and it only died because there was a massive power surge in the area I was living in at the time, the result of a car accident close by that took out multiple transformers, and it fried the PSU and in turn damaged the motherboard, so totally not its fault. It just would've cost more to fix than it would have to just buy a new cheap refurb. So, I salvaged the bits I could and got the machine I have currently, which has been working fine for about 2.5 years now.

I didn't really think it mattered what version of Windows they shipped with as I have a Windows 7 Home Premium CD anyway, although I suppose I would prefer not to have to muck around replacing the OS if I can. I'll check out that graphics card, but oof, it looks like it's going to cost at least £130. Also a friend of mine suggested I contact out local scrapstore because they get a lot of tech donations, so eh, it's worth a shot, I suppose.

Yeah, if you're going to wipe and install Win7 instead, it doesn't matter, so long as you don't have issues finding drivers for the machine's components.

And yeah, the 1050 can be expensive. I got mine on sale for $140. But, that Precision comes with a 750Ti, and that card will serve you very well for TS2 (though not if you play other, more intense games, as the 750 isn't really a "gaming" card), but I think 2GB is the most memory you can get with that model. So, if you feel you need more than that (like if you get pink flashing often), you can keep an eye on prices and grab a 1050 when the price decreases in the future and use the 750 in the meantime. I used a 2GB 750 for many years, and it served me perfectly well. I only had issues with the one neighborhood where I deliberately went more high-res that I normally would, so I decided to look for something with more memory. So, you might still get some pink flashing IF you cram large hoods full of high-res CC, but if you're not nutty in that regard and you're aware of the kind of CC you have, you'll probably be just fine.

Thank you for all the help. I'll see what the scrapstore say tomorrow, I don't know exactly how they work but apparently they do do custom builds so idk, maybe they'll be able to put together a setup with space to install that card (found one on Amazon for £125) or maybe I'll get super lucky and they'll have one. But if they can't help me, I'll get that Dell and get myself the card later down the line.

You are very welcome. Good luck! The scrapstore sounds like a good idea, if they can piece together something for you to your specs.

The Scrapstore came through for me. They emailed me back and said any of their machines would work with Sims 2 and started at £70, but they all came with Windows 10, so I went in and chatted with them about graphics cards and OSs and we all agreed the stuff I already had would probably be better for my needs, if only we could figure out which bit wasn't working. So they tested my hard drives and PSU (all fine), admired my shiny RAM (it really is very nice-looking RAM), then put all that and my graphics card into a new case with an Intel i5 3470 CPU. At that point, Windows threw a hairy tantrum and point-blank refused to work at all, which they couldn't fix because all they had was Win 10, so I've brought it home and reinstalled it from my CD. Everything seems to be working so far, no freezes or mystery reboots, System Restore is restoring my documents and music, I'm about to start reinstalling the game, and they said if I still have problems, to take it back and they'll see how it behaves with a different graphics card. But so far, so good!

Sweet! :D

I will continue to keep my fingers crossed for you. Since all your other stuff appears to be working, I'm guessing it was your motherboard that was fritzing, so as long as it didn't damage any of the other components with it, you should be good to go!