i've had the problem with incompatibility with the direct x and the video. got a new dell - with xp home (so yes, it can run). sims 2 ran fine for about 3 days, i'm really into the game, then it starts crashing. i meet the requirements, have reinstalled the game, but alas - it still crashes. even tried to update drivers that didn't need updating. any ideas guys? i've tried everything tech support suggested. since this computer is only a week old, i would hate to have to reload all the programs again, i tried system restore also, but that wouldn't go back to any old configuration. since i'm not all that up to date with xp - this is all new to me. thanx ahead of time! :-/