For answering even my most inane questions, just sent $ 20.00

My current PC is dying a slow, painful death, so it's time to get a shiny new one.  I want to be able to play Sims2 and Sims 3, but I have a couple of inquiries.  Is anyone running Sims2 games with 7 and had any issues?  Has anyone had any issues with 64 bit versions of 7?  I would hate to be limited to the 32-bit operating system and capped at 4gb of RAM.  If these are stupid questions, then I apologize in advance.  I figured this would be the only place where someone actually knew what the fuck they were talking about.  Thanks guys.

I've tried numerous things to troubleshoot, but to no avail.  So now I'm here, with my tail between my legs to ask for some insight.  I've been playing Mansion & Garden since it came out, my CD drive went completely kaput not too long ago.  It wouldn't play anything, and when I tried to load the game, all I got was "no disc inserted.  Please insert the original "The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff CD/DVD".  Since it wasn't working for the game or anything else non Sims related for that matter, I figured okay, it was just time to replace the drive.  Once I got the new drive up and running, the game began loading again, and I went back to gameplay with no issues.  I used the drive to burn a picture CD a few days ago, and when I popped the M&G CD back in again, I got the "no disc inserted...." message and have ever since.  Obviously it's not the drive, I can play music CDs, and look at pictures on CDs, so I can only fathom a guess that it's SecuRom.  Figured I'd get a clear and concise answer here than anywhere else.  It's just irritating as fuck.  Thanks for reading.

Thanks olienka, Mootilda and Zazazu for all of your input.  I was inadequately trying to convey my concern about the files showing up as they were.  I thought that gameplay issues could transpire if they remained that way.  I appreciate the insight!

Yes, it's partly a cosmetic change.  However, I need to know what program the package files uses to open them with.  It's not one of the choices that comes up, that much I know.  Sorry I didn't add that detail in the previous post.  I'm sure I'm going to have to go to My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/File Types to make the change, but that's where I hit a dead end.  

Oops, I definitely broke it!  This is the only place where I know I'll be offered a constructive solution.  All of my CC, (with the exception of lots), are showing up as Sims2 Pack Clean Installer files.  I'm sure in my infinite wisdom I inadvertently changed how to open the files.  I tend to do a shitload of things at once and sometimes, something suffers.  How can I change everything back?  I would suspect that this could bork my game if I don't troubleshoot.  Any help in the right direction would be much appreciated, thanks guys.

Yeah, I may just do that or like yourself, just not play that hood at all.  The Contender house was the only one I had played.  I just wish I knew why it got borked.  Thanks.

Well, I'm pretty much back to square one with the re-installation of M&G.  I had originally uninstalled because Belladonna was getting crashy, it never did with AL.  It would crash while I was saving, and it would crash when a lot was in the middle of loading.  I removed all my downloads, fully prepared to do the binary samba, however, the lot crashed upon loading, even with no cc.  I said screw it, uninstalled M&G, and everything went back to normal once again.  

Of course I wouldn't leave it alone, got antsy and reinstalled.  I also replaced files from an earlier M&G backup (before problems started occurring).  Same issues started up again, with an odd new development.  Currently there are no families in the family bin at Belladonna, while the other neighborhoods have them.  I moved the Contender family into a new house, the lot crashed while it was still loading.  I moved them to the family bin and into a different house a few times, the lots loaded and crashed about ten seconds in.  Now I'm thinking that the hood is simply FUBARed, or the Contenders, or even the game for that matter.  If it is, it is.  I would appreciate it if someone could decipher the error log, just so I can say fuck it and scrap the thing already if that is the case.  Thanks.

Had NO idea that deleting groups.cache would fix anything.  I tried it myself with reinstalling M&G today, it would run for a few seconds and then stop.  I deleted it and it worked!  Thanks to all!

Hey, thanks for responding.  Yup, that's correct.  I uninstalled M&G and don't plan on reinstalling it again.  I thought that was the case as well, once you uninstall you can't go back to use those files unless you reinstall that latest pack again.  Damnit, I wanted to go back to playing some of those families again.  Oh well. 

Is that possible without screwing anything up?  As I previously mentioned in an earlier thread, I made a backup, and then completely uninstalled M&G because it got borked.  Can I take the neighborhoods folder from my backup (while it was still considered M&G) and overwrite the current one (AL)?  I'm just interested in recovering the families that went poof, starting from scratch has worn a bit thin.  Thanks in advance.

Simsample and BastDawn, can't thank you enough.  The house wasn't in my current game's LotCatalog folder, but I did find it in the backup that I made prior to uninstalling M&G.  Copied it over and it's there, thanks again for the advice and pointing me in the right direction with it, much appreciated!

Thanks a lot Simsample!  Another turn of events, I went to take a look at the files in there and found they're all listed as Adobe Reader documents.  I know yesterday when I was trying to poke around in there to find it, I hit "open with" and most definitely hit that choice, even though I thought I had backed out of there, didn't want to bork things.  So now Clean Installer isn't picking any of them up.  Yes, I can fuck up just about anything.

Nope, definitely didn't delete it, and yes, I definitely made a back up.  I honestly don't know where to begin looking for it.  Is it...My documents\EA Games\The Sims2\Lot Catalog or do I look for it in the back up...AL folder\TSData\Res\UserData\LotCatalog?  I don't know which one of those files it could be either.  That's it for now, thanks again.

The house was built with the AL EP.  I built it and just saved it to the lots and houses bin.  Later installed M&G, and everything was fine for awhile.  M&G then became FUBARed, so I uninstalled it and haven't bothered with it since then.  Is the house gone?  I have a backup of the files before uninstalling M&G, but I've been enjoying playing from scratch.  It'd be nice to have that house back though, any advice would be appreciated. 

I haven't modified any files and I don't have a NO-CD EXE in.  I haven't found any advice from EA, and that's what brought me here.

Amazing how a once pretty simple process has become the frustrating shit that it has.  After numerous attempts, neither patch will install, I get the standard "error during update installation...you may need to uninstall and reinstall...."  I removed my downloads folder, tried to patch again, nothing.  Of course during the course of this, I decide to be a complete and utter jackass and order Celebration stuff.  Hey, what do you know..."this patch is for the Sims2 Pets, but you have a more recent expansion pack installed. To make sure you have the latest updates, you may need to download the update for your latest expansion pack."  Well, that's wonderful, however, I can't very well do that, now can I? 

Ideas?  Insights?  Suggestions?  Figured it was worth a shot here, than elsewhere.

It reads ".....blah, blah, blah....application will now terminate", then screen freeze.  The only way I cant get out of it is to use ctrl, alt, delete. 

As I use this site as gospel for what could be going wrong....the issues are this: once my sim gets a job for her pet, and I click on the trained behaviors icon to review which ones the pet knows, the game crashes.  Interestingly enough, the game also crashes as soon as the pet returns from work.  I've already updated any aforementioned hacks, antiwatchout, phonehack, etc.  Any advice or suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

It worked!!!  Thanks heaps!

Up until now I've lurked here, but I've reached my limit with this issue.  I used aging off while the sim in question was pregnant, so I'm not sure if that's linked to the problem or not.  I turned aging back on again a few hours before she went into labor.  I can't recall what was happening exactly, but she wouldn't deliver the baby.  I used move objects on/off and deleted her, nothing.  I used the agesimscheat to age her to an elder and then back to an adult again, and then she finally had the baby.  Now she won't interact with the baby, when I instruct her to go to the bathroom, she jumps out of queue of course.  She freezes up at times.  Any insight as to what caused this would be appreciated.  If a workaround or solution is provided, you'll have a disciple for life.  Thanks in advance.

Okay, error log's up.  I did see that earlier thread.  I don't have SimPe, is the hacked painting at the Insimenator a good alternative or should I just bite the bullet and get SimPe?