Windows 7: Sims 2 driver issues

I am an avid Sims 2 gamer. In fact, I held off on upgrading to Windows 7 because of all the issues I heard, but, after a year or so, I figured that things would have been fixed (by official means or none), and I would be able to move on in the operating system world without too much of an adjustment.

But I was wrong.

The game keeps telling me that I do not have the proper DirectX 9.0c drivers to run the game. I checked my drivers (I had forgotten to upgrade my video card drivers), downloaded everything, patched everything, and Microsoft informed me that I had the most recent version of Direct X. I uninstalled Sims 2, and then installed it again after a reboot. Once again the computer informed me that I did not have the most recent DirectX 9.0c drivers.

This was getting annoying at this point, and so I searched online for the issue. Some sites said that a non upgraded sound card driver might be triggering the issue. Except, outside of onboard sound, I don't use sound at all (my hearing isn't that great, a soundcard would do nothing for me at all), so I checked the motherboard drivers and upgraded those, and checked the video card (which apparently was also a sound card), and made sure everything was up to date.

Once again, I did not have the proper DirectX 9.0c drivers. Microsoft said I had everything available for Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, but apparently it's not fully backwards compatible for some older games, like Sims 2.

Is there any way of getting Sims 2 to work on my system? To be honest, if I can't get it to work, I'm just going to have to go back down to Win XP SP3, because Windows 7 offers nothing for me if I can't game on it.

There's got to be a way,,,Microsofts compatibility page claims Compatible...no action required

Windows 7 Compatibility for The Sims 2: EA. Drivers, Updates, Downloads

If you click on Answers you'll see what Microsoft told other users with problems

Hi RiverDaughter, welcome to the forums

I've installed Sims 2 for the Mrs (only yesterday) and after installation I was directed to TheSims2.com - Updates to download the latest patch which would get Sims 2 working under Windows 7. Once installed, the game works perfectly.

Have you downloaded the latest DirectX runtime files from Microsoft? Microsoft DirectX

Another option is to disable driver enforcement. When booting, tap F8 to bring up the boot menu and select Disable Driver Enforcement


OS

None of those worked. In fact, nothing has worked, not disabling driver enforcement in BIOS, not wiping the hard drive and installing Windows 7 a second time, nothing.

I even called Microsoft, but they claimed it was a known issue with EA. EA claimed it was a known issue with Windows 7 and to call Microsoft. The bureaucratic run around. Neither company seems to be taking responsibility for their programs.

Have you tried running the game in Compatibility Mode for Vista? Might be worth a try

Compatibility mode for Vista never worked for Vista (Sims2 apparently never worked in Vista properly for many users in the first place), and it did not work for XP SP3 or SP2. I tried XP SP3 first because Sims2 worked just fine when that was my OS originally, but compatibility mode just didn't cut it, I guess.

Try downloading the DirectX redistributable package to see if that installes some missing DX libraries

Download details: DirectX End-User Runtimes (February 2010)


OS

Did that ages ago. Didn't help. I've been trying on this problem since June, there's not a lot I haven't done. I was hoping someone had user patched this issue.

Have a look at this.... The Sims 2

You also might go to EA's forums and see what users there have to say about getting the game to work with 7.

Good luck

Right the Sims2 DVD Patch That's what I had to run when the game wouldn't work under Vista.
With games like that it"s always recommended to patch it up as much you can.
(I didn't play Sims 2 but my "better half" did...I only had to debug the quirks

Just checked a major Sims2/3 board where it was suggested, to install the game directly into the root folder of the drive (i.e. C:\) and to turn off UAC completely. No idea if that helps (I left UAC on under Vista), but it's worth a shot I think.

All in all I'm pretty much fed up with EA games...not wasting anymore money on those guys
-DG