Hi there! :>

So a few months before I had to wipe my computer I had great performance with my Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. I had almost 14GB of cc [a lot, I know] and the game loaded in under 15 minutes. It was pretty fast and there was very little lag. But after wiping the hard-drive and reinstalling Sims 2 I have had nothing but problems. Part of this has to do with my old graphics card burning out. I had a GTX 660 TI and the folks at Best Buy helped me purchase what they said was an 'equivalent' to my old graphics card, a Geforce GTX 960. I know very little about graphics cards so I trusted their advice.

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Luckily the folks at leefish helped me get my graphics card updated with the TS2 forefront. I fixed the graphical problems, but the problem is more technical this time around. My drivers are updated, I have applied the 2GB patch with CFF explorer, managed to set the game up with the Data Prevention get-go from simswiki, and now only have about 9GB of custom content. The game is awful. It takes forever to load EVERYTHING. I've found without cc it loads much faster, but I'm one of those people who can't play without cc and there's still a lot of lag without the custom content as well. I'm not sure if this is because I'm playing in windowed mode [so I can multitask while I'm waiting FOREVER for the game to load] or just because SOMETHING is wrong with my setup.

I know a lot about custom content, creating custom content and the basics of gaming, but managing a gaming computer is something I know very little about. I updated my ram [16GB of it] and have a great running computer that does wonderfully in every other aspect. I have no viruses [just got the rig checked with Geek Squad, no overclocking or malware/viruses] and I've renamed all my filenames so that the game loads faster. I've also compressorized all my custom content. The problem persists.

My drivers are updated and I have razor game booster enabled. Nothing seems to be fixing this problem, and I am frustrated and confused. I am curious to see if anyone has any other tips or helpful hints. I'm at my wits end. If anyone could help I would be greatly appreciative.

I've included my dxdiag as an attachment. Thank you for any help that you can give.

You may have a bad install of UC, have you right click on UC icon in Origin and check for updates and then do a repair on UC.

You may need to reinstall windows again and then update all drivers and after getting your computer running as it should then try Sims 2 again.

I have now just seen you have windows 10 and the protection software may be your problem.

Try this.

1. Disconnect from the internet then turn off "User Account Control". *(Or UAC.)
2. Restart your computer.
3. Check after restart that UAC is turned off.
4. Change Program folder for UC to read and write.
5. Some times it takes a restart for this to take effect.
6. Change My Doc. for UC to read and write.
7. Some times it takes a restart for this to take effect.
8. Now try your mods and if they work then restart your computer.
9. Check again that mods are working, if so then turn back on UAC.

Thank you so much for replying so quickly! I really appreciate it.

I've done all the steps up to 4. I'm not sure how to change the program folder to 'read and write'. Can you explain how to do that?

Right click on the folder and choose properties and then the appropriate option (i.e. not read only).

The only other option I have, which sits underneath 'read only' is hidden, and all that does is hide the folders. Also, when I uncheck the read only, and then apply it, it shuffles through the files and then when I click 'okay' and go back to look, 'read only' is still clicked.

I tried restarting like you said, but it didn't seem to do anything.

Nevermind about the read-only still being clicked. After doing research I realized that even when the folder is NOT read only, there's a black square checked in the 'read only option' rather than a checkmark.

And after doing everything you suggested, still no luck. ;__; The game still takes almost thirty minutes to load and is as laggy as it ever was.

I play on Windows 10 without any problems at all - and all I did was to change the graphic rules. The game loads in a couple of minutes ( I do have less than 4 GB of cc) - and does not lag at all - in fact, I find it runs much better than before.

As for most of the above steps you have taken - I either never heard of them(2GB patch?) or it does not seem as if I need them.

I have found that the game may be a bit slow with the build/buy catalog after a bunch of items is added (but only the first time after installing them).

Have you tried to make the game compatible with Windows 8? It seems as if that sometimes help on some systems.

Your new graphics cars should be fine - I have wondered if the card burning out has damaged some other part of your system. Do all your other programs work as they should? The most difficult thing for experts to find on my pc was when my power supply gave in - they were testing software and looking at other things - at that time I must have reinstalled the game (disks still) around 10 times. It was only when Word started to misbehave that somebody said "Power supply." So it may be worth checking out your other hardware.

a few simple questions:
a. do you play the game through Origin? - not sure that it makes a difference, but it is not necessary.
b. do you use a registry cleaner of any kind? - those delete some dll files the game needed, and if you play for Origin, I would guess that the game will try to put them back. (Never use registry cleaners).
c. have you tried to repair the game through Origin? (You may need to update the graphic rules again after and perhaps have to replace your camera mod, but your cc and game will be intact).

Hey there. :> I actually did change my graphicsrules, etc with leefish's graphic rules maker. So that's fine- the graphics are fantastic, it's just the lag that's causing me problems. I have yet to make the game compatible with windows 8, but I'll definitely try that next.

As for my system, I just had the whole rig checked by Geek Squad [twice, actually] about two months ago and there were no problems, they did an overall analysis, there wasn't any viruses or malware, and it was running like a gem then. It seems like after I start adding over 7GB the game slows to a crawl. Which is weird, because I had twice that much before and it worked just fine.

In the end, I've been having some other technical issues with the interface, so I think I'm just going to reinstall everything and see how it works. If it doesn't, I don't know what I'll do. :p

I have read securerom does not agree with Windows 10 at all

Don't uninstall the game. Just delete the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection folder - and start your game - it will generate a brand new one and you can start over that way - no need to uninstall and reinstall with UC.

Before you do that, you can try to repair the game in Origin.

You will have to fix the graphic rules again.

Thanks to everyone who came by to suggest things, although it turns out that CoffeenSimming was right, my problem had to do with securerom, luckily Kiri at leefish helped me out, and now the game loads in half the time! My problem appears to be solved. :> Thanks again everyone.

Blimey - that thing rearing it's ugly head again.