Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can help me, I'm having a slight problem I've installed sims 2 , university, open for business and the stuff packs and pets so for a while all working fine, now a few weeks later I go and put in pets to play and the drive isn't even registering a disc, so I check the disc that seems fine and all other discs play and read including dvds and cds even the other sims 2 games work fine except this one. So I go out and buy the new expansion pack seasons and that doesn't register either (remember now new disc) my partner then restores the computer to an earlier time, it won't let us though! So he resarts the computer back to factory settings, that has not made any difference, there are no driver updates available for my PC neither are there any firmware updates available, I contacted EAgames no joy and I've been round the block searching for an answer, please if anyone can help me I would very much appreciate it, remember the sims 2 pets did work a month ago!! Weird , Gem

Are both new disks DVD or CD? And can your drive read DVDs, if the disks are DVDs?

Hi, thanks for getting back to me, yep both discs are brand new they are cd rom discs there are no scratches or marks on them, someone suggested in another forum something about the registry? I'm really stumped with this! All I want to do is play the game. My drive can read dvds , cds play , rip and burn with no problems!

Are you running any type if virtual drives? Such as Daemon tools? Or the ones installed with certain cd-buring software?

Some game copy protection methods look for this and refuse to run or play. You'll need to uninstall these virtual drives.

Hi, um yea I've got dvd fab decrypter and dvd shrink, but they probably cannot be the reason as I uninstalled them to see if that was the problem , it still does not detect , I even(" oh god" ) uninstalled the driver, nothing! I'm telling you now I'm not meant to play the game it's a jinx it works on my bro's PC and the specs are better on mine! Gem

Hehe, What are brothers for right? Change out your broken one with your bro's working one.:D

I wish, he's not willing too, I think I'll buy an external dvd drive from eBay I've seen some bargains and if that don't work well nothing is going to, everyone is stumped with this one even packard bell!

Sometimes there's a defect in the laser. My bro had a computer that had a defective laser, and it didn't play some games. So, it's up to you, either try to get better drivers or find a new *internal* drive. I find externals to be too much of a hassle. (ex. Plug in, turn on, play, turn off, unplug. Whereas, internal causes no extra hassle, aside from installing it.)

I would prefer an internal and there cheaper but I have no idea how to install it and I really don't want to mess anything up in there!:rolleyes: are they hard to install?

A rom drive is easy to install. Open the case, set the new drive as Master, remove the old drive making note of cable orientation. Install the drive into the expansion bay.

Connect the new drive to the same connector as the old one, insert the power plug.

There are quite a few help sites that show you step by step how to install a new drive.

While your case is opened, take a vacuum and a can of compressed air to clean out the dust and crap. You'll be surprised and maybe disgusted at how much dust can accumulate. :)

Hi, OK so will and druve be OK or would I need a specific one for my hard drive, I don't want to buy one and it not fit or something, thanks Gem :rolleyes:

Any drive will be OK. Just ask for an IDE ATAPI version.

Now, beware of the return policy. What happens if you buy the drive and the disks still don't work? You'll be stuck with a new drive and a few inoperable disks. See if you can return that drive after it's been taken out of the package.

Thanks guys you've been a great help, I am now going to buy and install a new drive, Ive got an idea how to do this I've been checking it out , also I've checked on eBay and the particular drive I want can be returned once opened, so that's cool, I will let you know if my discs work as soon as I know, speak soon. Thanks once again Gem ;)