Hangup/phail/black screen at startup: SOLVED

[jwaas]

So I had the bright idea of trying to install AL on my laptop, now that it's finally working acceptably on my desktop.  My laptop is actually newer than my desktop, a dual-core machine running Vista, as opposed to my desktop, which is also dual-core but still running XP.  My laptop has an NVidia GeForce 8600M video card, and I believe my desktop has an (earlier) NVidia card also.

So as to get the same setup as on my desktop (base+UNI+AL only), I did the following operations (after doing a search here and looking at MTS2 for ideas):

1.  Uninstalled FT from my laptop, leaving base+UNI only.  (Base+UNI+FT had been working just fine earlier.)
2.  Installed AL, which apparently went without a hitch.
3.  Copied over my "The Sims 2" folder from the desktop.
4.  Replaced the TS2EP8.exe file with the no-CD crack version.  Opened the game.
5.  Screen went blue as expected, then black as expected, then "EA Games" splash screen with appearance of plumb bob and "Soo soo!" as expected.  Then black screen and nothing for 10 minutes -- no opening cinematic, nothing, dead.  Had to do a hard shutdown as the three-finger salute had no effect.
6.  Thought that perhaps EAxis had figured a way to defeat the no-CD crack with Vista running.  Returned the old TS2EP8.exe file to its place and replaced the no-CD version.  Opened game, same result.
7.  Reasoned that it might not be liking something in my "The Sims 2" folder.  Deleted it, so as to allow it to generate a new one, whereupon I could copy over my Downloads and Neighborhoods folders if it started successfully.  Opened game, same result.
8.  After hard shutdown and restart, I noted that it had started making a "The Sims 2" folder, and had made a complete "Logs" subfolder and an empty "Teleport" subfolder before hanging.
9.  Thought that my video card driver was perhaps not up to date.  Updated it with the correct one from the Dell website, as instructed from the NVidia website.  Opened game, same result.

So I'm at my wits' end.  True, the game does work on my desktop, but I'd really like to get it working on my laptop too.  I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

[Lorelei]

Possibly dumb suggestion: does your laptop have enough free harddrive space to hold ALL the Sims-related files? There needs to be enough free harddrive space, plus a buffer of free space your computer uses during normal functioning, plus a bit of free space that the computer will claim is there, but which you can't use due to the aforementioned buffer space. (More technical people can translate that into Techgeek for you, I'm tired.)

Also, when you say "installed," I assume you installed from CDs or from ARRRed files, and didn't pull an elaborate copypasta from one machine to another.

[jwaas]

I would be surprised if the laptop doesn't have enough hard drive space, as this desktop sure seems to, but stranger things have happened.  I installed the base game and UNI on the laptop from CDs a while ago, and then installed AL from its CD.  One thing I haven't tried yet is uninstalling everything, then reinstalling everything.

What you're saying also makes me think of setting aside enough memory for a given piece of software (this too has a techgeek term that I can't remember), and it's just possible that there isn't enough reserved for my laptop.  This I will also try.  Of course I'm open to other suggestions too.

By the way, I love the caek-eating lolcat.  I have a couple of cats here that would do the exact same thing. 

EDIT:  More things tried, after verifying that the better part of 100 GB of hard drive space remained.
1.  Tried running program in Windows XP emulation mode.  Result:  FAIL
2.  Increased size of virtual memory to a minimum of 7 GB.  Result:  FAIL
3.  Uninstalled AL.  Tried running base+UNI using the UNI CD.  Result:  success.  The game generated a complete "The Sims 2" folder, as it should.
4.  Reinstalled AL.  Tried running base+UNI+AL again using the AL CD.  Result:  this time the opening cinematic worked after the opening splash screen.  At its conclusion, I saw the "The Sims 2/Apartment Life" opening screen and the music started playing.  I thought I had it beat until about 15 seconds later, when there was an audible CLICK and it froze up.  PHAIL

The CLICK is making me think that maybe the sound card needs its driver updated too, even though I'm pretty sure it's nothing fancy and integrated on the motherboard.  I will try that next.

EDIT 2:  Incredibly enough, that was the problem.  Game now loads just fine.