I'm pretty sure the my Computer is trying to die.

First it was the dead battery, Brought a new one to fix that problem.
then the charger/Charging port both broke, voided the long dead warranty and managed to fix the port, brought a new charger.

Now it is a dead disk drive, meaning Sims will be useless and unread by my computer. my DVD/CD drive fails to load the disks, this happens to any disk that is placed in it. It whirrs as if starting then fails and attempts again and again to load the disk.

it is a Toshiba Satellite C50D.
Processor AMD E1-2100 APu with Radeon (TM) HD Graphics 1.00 GHz, which has never been a problem,
3.45GB of RAM usable out of 4.00 GB

Sorry as I've never posted help here before, I feel that I'm missing out something.

Yeah, I don't have any good advice.
With that specs, it is time to bury that machine in the ground...actually with that APU processor, you shouldn't be running Sims on it all.

It has never been a problem, but I bet the game lags on you.
And if I got the right laptop, that means this machine only lasted you a year++, at the longest, depending when you bought it.

A properly spec'd gaming machine would have been able to last 3-5 years running Sims.

Sorry for delivering bad news....

Brought it two years ago so it lasted at least 1 1/2 years which is more than I'd expect.
I shouldn't have been playing Sims on it you're right. yet all the problems have been hardware. The game ran fine with only lag on the largest lots and most populated areas as is to be expected. Any errors were due to conflicting mods not graphics.
I only had $500 NZD at the time and it was down from $600. And I did want the other one which had a 1.4 GHz (enough for the Sims 2 base game) but didn't realize till I got home that they sold me the other one.

I tested when the base game worked out well if adding an expansion would be disastrous. When it was fine with one I then put them all on in succession testing the strength. In the last playable session it took 10 mins from desktop to household. So pretty good for a computer that should be graphical dead.

Sadly I'm on an unemployment benefit so I shouldn't really use the money to buy a laptop that I am basically going to be using for relaxation.

Thank you for the bad news anyway, bad news is better than no news.

You know usually you can replace the hard drive and the disk drive. I dont have my computer right now so I cant look it up properly, but im pretty darn sure those two parts are standardized.

For the disk drive usually you power down your laptop, then take a paper clip and stick it into the tiny hole on the side of the disk drive and it should pop out. then you just pop in the new one in its place.

Hard drive is more complicated as you need to open up the laptop, but you just need some appropriate screw drives. Laptop size is 2.5 inch iirc.

Are you using a 32bit OS? if so that explains why your laptop is recognizing only 3.45 GB of RAM and its normal.

Everyone, watch what you get in a computer, with windows 10, I had awful problems, first my game kept breaking up during play, then I can't use the print screen key, it has been disabled completely. If you want to play sims2 again, then make sure you get the sims2Deluxe, this will work with the expansions, make sure you have a fast graphics card, or large one. I had to have my other drive re-made over, new graphics card, new drive, new power supply, and then it still won't work on windows 10, going back to girl when she comes back from vacation, to fix problem, please be sure that you get the right stuff to play sims, to me sims2 is worth all the trouble I am going thru, I love sims2 so much, won't play any other game, right now I am running my game on windows 7 professional, I had to put fraps on it to capture the in game pictures because the print screen won't work. So be careful and be sure you have all you need to run the sims2 game, it is WORTH it to me what I am putting into it. Good Luck