Vista - Sims 2 install

Ok so. I have a Toshiba A100 laptop, it was recently sent for a minor repair, before it went i had Sims 2 installed on it and running with out a problem, i uninstalled it prior to sending. It has come back and i went to install the game again and it ran the auto play saying that the publisher is not recognised i was like whatever, just do it any way, so it was all going good and i entered in my serial code and then it went to the "Where would you like to install this to" screen, i clicked next and it minimised the setup program and brought up a dialog box asking if i was sure i wanted to quit, i assumed i hit the wrong button so i hit no and it went back to the setup program, i very deliberately hit next and it did it again, so i hit yes... it did the obvious and closed the setup. I restarted the system and tried again, same thing. I tried a different game from the same publisher (simcity4) it recognised the publisher of this game and there were no dramas... so i tried Sims 2 again... still failed... so i thought i would try one of the expansion packs... it recognised the publisher and everything worked until it got to the hey wait you need sims 2 to run this EP... So my partner went out and bought me a new copy as we were thinking the cd was messed up, nope that didnt work either... so now i am at a loss as to what to do besides buying a new laptop... any help that would save me the money would be grand.