Sims2 Sims 2 fresh installed on win10 crashes on start

Greet you, simmers! :-)

My younger sister and me, we are playing Sims 2 since... well, it was released. At last I ran it on a win7-system without ANY trouble.
But my old win7-system became too old and slowly for newer games - and MS dropped support this year. Yet I loved my win7, I had to build a new system, now running a fresh win10 x64 Education. My new Hardware:
- ASRock B450 Pro
- Ryzen 5 3600 (Matisse / Zen 2)
- Radeon RX 5500 XT

Well, 3-4 years before, I managed to install our Sims 2 (CD-version) on my laptop - running win10 x64 Education, too. No problems right from the start except from low resolution and black squares - i could fix this thanks to internetguides! But I know need to work with my laptop while my sister would like to play the game...
Thus I now tried to install the Sims 2 on my new build system yesterday. Long story shortened: It doesn't work.

Here the long story^^:
I installed it using the 4 CD-Roms. There was a short stuck when inserting CD 2 - guess it was because of a interference with another program's backround progress. But afterwards no problems any more. After the installation, I just wanted to install one of the expansions, but - no, let me check first, if the basic game runs... *klickklick*
--> The desktop screen resolution became very low and the screen was blackened for a second. Ok, I know this behaviour on start from older games, especially the Sims 2. But then it goes back to "normal" desktop and tells me: "The application has crashed. The application will terminate now." And sometimes, when I try again to start, it just tells me: "Unspecified error." (Loving these overwhelming error-messages! :-D )

I tried a few things yesterday:
1) Just installing an expansion on top. Crashed during installation with update-error-message und was uninstalled. [To be expected...^^]
2) Oh, sure, running as Administrator and/or on different compability modes (winXP, win7). Didn't help.
3) Doing some changes on GraphicRules.sgr taken from different internetguides. Didn't help. [I can't tell you every change I tried any more. Sorry! But it was nothing complicated, because I'm really no IT-crack. ]
4) Patching with CD-version-patch from "modthesims". Crashed during installation with update-error-message. (Yes, CD 4 had been inserted!)
5) Taking No-CD-Patch from - don't know, if I may mention it here, so I leave it for now... Well, the "patch" seemed to work in words of beeing able to start the game without CD. But "my" error still remained.
6) Somewhere I found a GraphicsRule.sgr for Radeon. Replaced my old ones by this. Didn't change anything.
7) Oh, almost forgotten: Yes, I even uninstalled and reinstalled the game. Still the same issue...

I'm sorry that I'm not able to recall every detail I tried yesterday any more! What I still have to say is:
- I uninstalled the Sims 2 again.
- Because I just build this new system, everything's up to date, and there are no undeteced devices.
- I managed to install some other games from CD and DVD, thus it's not about my CD/DVD-device.
- I managed to install the Sims 2 just a few years ago on my laptop and the CDs have been safe and clean and not used since then. Thus I doubt they're broken. Not to mention: There have been no errors during the installation itself... both times!


I know, it's an old game, not made for new hard- and software. But maybe you could help me to make it run though? :-)
My younger sister (and me) would really enjoy to play on... ;-)

...and please excuse my bad english! I'm no native speaker, so you may have to be a bit patient with me. ;-)

Have a nice day,
Chaotica

@Chaoticaa

Do you still have your old Win7 system? I can instruct you on how to revive it over LeeFish here. I'm used to working with semi-language barriers.

IF THIS MACHINE IS STILL WORKING... It can be revived to play The Sims 2, and probably pretty easily. Let me know. I'll tell you what you need, and what you need to do, and how to go about doing it.

I will need a lot of information from you, IF you feel it's worth it. You are *NOT* going to get The Sims 2 working on Win10, for any amount of time. Win7 is the key, to playing Sims 2 reliably.

Just let me know if you want to do this, and due to the way we're going to be doing this, it may take a bit of posting, and a bit of time. I've been working on computers since 1977-78, and have done MANY custom rebuilds for computers, JUST for The Sims 2.

@Kunderr:

Thanks for your reply.

Sadly, rebuilding my old system won't be an option for me. At least not in foreseeable future. I would have to buy missing things to do so, but don't have the money for it atm. AND I don't have enough place for a second tower...
I'm really bad surprised that I can't get the game running, although it definitly runs smoothly on my laptop's Win10!
Maybe I should try it in a virtual machine running Win7?

Yet, I'm a bit disencouraged by your strict statement, that I won't get it running at all on Win10. Does it concern my hardware?

It won't run long on your laptop either.

It has some to do with hardware. Newer hardware drivers are NOT Sims 2 friendly, and Win10 is hostile period.
I'm not trying to discourage you, but simply tell you the truth.

What model is your laptop? How old is it? Maybe you can Dual Boot win7, and Win10.

Oh, well, I noticed that my laptop's Win10 has still version 1803, so maybe that's why my Sims are still working there...

My laptop should be this (Link to MSI-Website); most script on its back is Chinese, but "Model No." is said to be "MS-16J3".
A friend of mine had bought one himself before and told me that Win7 didn't run properly with his one - so I didn't even try, because I had to make my one work quickly.

Yeah, I thought about Dual Boot on my PC, too. But combining my hardware with Win7 shall cause trouble about USB-connections. *sigh* Otherwise I would have installed Win7 again - right from the start!

@Chaotica

Well, some good news for a change. Your MSI, if it's the same one, is Win7 compatible. You shouldn't have trouble running that machine on Win7.

It's a Broadwell processor, and it runs fine on Win7. The chipset should work fine with it, and the GTX 950, is Win7 compatible.

@Kunderr:

Thank you so much for your investigation!
Yeah, it should be the model I linked above, so maybe my friend did something wrong when he tried to run Win7 on his one.

Although I won't do that in next time, it's really good to know that my laptop could run my beloved Win7!
So if the Sims 2 should ever stop working on my laptop...

@Chaoticaa

Before you go messing around, I *HIGHLY* recommend three things:

1) Get an external drive, even if it's a 2.5" 500gb spin drive from an old computer, with just a USB 3.0 to SATA cable adapter!

2) Download, install, and LEARN TO USE "Macrium Reflect". This is FREE imaging software, and I highly recommend it. This will save you a LOT of grief!

3) Image your O/S, before you do ANYTHING ELSE!!! That way, you have a way to recover everything, should things go awry.... Awry DOES happen!

Thank you, Kunder, I will keep it in mind.

Good luck. Let us know if you need help.