Vista - Sims 2 problem. huge frustration

I'm having some major problems with the sims 2. and it seems that every person with vista is having the same problem. crashes... But the thing is the game works fine at certain times. I can go in to the neighborhood build houses even play the game for hours on end certain days. and then it just stops working altogether. there are no problems with my harddrive space as i have 137 gigs left, and i really dont think that the game would really need more space. and i know it doesn't. I'm running vista home basic, and the really frustration part is i know quite a bit of info on this computer. its a dell inspiron 1525 laptop i have played many games on it and they all work fine. but when i try to load a game that i had already previously saved it works and then other times when i go into it all the building tools launch but the screen for the actual house stays black and then i have to start the task manager to end the game. i have tried running it as an administrator and i still have the same problem. i had no problems with installing the game at all. i am almost positive it is my video card and after i post this im going to test it on can you run it?
i've read alot of similiar problems but none of them said that the game actually worked for a while. the game works for hours on certain days ( as i have said before) and then some days it doesnt work at all. I don't understand why it would work one day and not the next. i have the real version of the sims 2 double delux its not a hack so that isnt the problem.
I am running on my system ( more in depth than i had previously said )

cpu : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00GHz
cpu speed : 2.00 GHz Performance Rated at 3.59 GHz
ram: 3.0 gb
video card: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family is the problem here?
358 mb ram
directx: 10.0
and my free disk space is: 147.9 gb

I think i've met all the system requirements but if anybody has any advice or knowledge of solving this problem please let me know. thanks

Have a look here and see if anything helps - The Sims 2, still confused?

Also, your post is hard to read as written. Paragraphs would make it easier to read.

Just a thought.

I'm running up to OFB without issue.

Assuming your "video card" is running the latest drivers, I can't offer anything but trying to run the game in windows mode by adding -w to the end of your shortcut's target.

It's weird that the problem is intermittent...

The problem is very likely due to overheat.

I am having the exact same issue! It'll work fine, right up to the point where I try to build a family, enter a lot to play a family or else to build! I have tried running as Administrator, changing ALL EPs to run in XP compatibility mode, changing processor thread priority and also even disabling the UAC function, but none of these have worked.

I have also tested the overheating theory, and I have determined without a doubt that that is not the issue (at least not on my end). I boot up, let everything get going, and then launch the game (I do not play games after a lengthy sessions on the system, just for this reason). That takes five minutes, tops and the fan never revs up at all during this.

I checked Intel's website for that graphic's card's game playability, and Sims 2 is listed. So that is not the issue, either. Unless Dell neglected to double check their version of the card's driver's compatibility or screwed it up somehow. (Interestingly enough, when I checked to see if Intel had a newer version of driver for that graphics chipset, I noticed that they did in fact have a newer version of the driver, and I tried to see if I could use that one instead, but it referred me to Dell without that option and they have, of course, not updated their version yet so no luck there either...)



I would just like to mention, that if you have custom content in your game, this may very well be contributing to this issue. Before I transferred those files from my desktop to my laptop, the game worked 9 out of 10 times - right up until I put them onto the laptop, and this nightmare started. So try moving your downloads folder out of the EA folder to your desktop or external drive and see if that makes any difference... If it does, try trimming it down by getting rid of some stuff. (I intend to try this myself after I have resolved more pressing issues and will post back with results when I do).