Woohooh! Take that, Murphy!
With a bit of tinkering - and the advice of the boy-next-door, well, across, but we're not splitting hairs ;) - I finally got my Sims up and running again - just in time before my subscription runs out, so now I know it's worth renewing :D
I had to throw the towel into the ring and buy a new graphics card. Instead of going for one of those on the list provided with the game, I opted for an ATI Radeon HD 5830. According to my 'gaming connoisseur' neighbour, that should keep me gaming for a while yet. It looks fierce enough with all them copper pipes for sure - it barely fitted in my slim tower :D
After every installation, things were running smoothly - until we reached Ambitions and the dreaded patch. You guessed it - black screen, crash back to desktop - aarghhh... I went back to the thread I started some time ago and reread the comments. Started with the DEP configuration and Woohooh! Things are back up! Phew! Of course I had to go and buy Late Night now too :D I have to admit it was with some trepidation I installed, did the DEP and then tried it out - but it worked - result!
So now I have lots to catch up on and new things to try out. Let the Games begin! :D
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