Sims2 Fix on a Dell Inspiron 1525 vista video crash bang boom.

So let’s say that you’re my wife and you like to play the Sims. The Sims 2 in fact with a fair few expansions. Let’s say that your geek husband bought you a shiny new vista running dell inspiron 1525 and loaded up your transfered settings, neighborhoods and all and sure it loads the Sims, but it just won’t play. black screens that go nowhere, sound but no video, all of these can happen.

Let’s fix it shall we?

Dell’s drivers for the Intel 965 Chipset family are junk. We have had this computer for over 6 months now and they’ve done nothing to improve my opinion on this count. So what to do? ROLLBACK. And rollback to a nice old school HP driver to boot.

Go to one of these:
driver choice #1 apparently choice 1 is no longer working, so we’ll just strike it.
driver choice #2

Either should work just fine, the key is to find one of the drivers with Version: 7.14.10.1318 A.
Download the .exe and run it. It should extract the files to C:\swsetup. You’ll need to know this.

You can run the program from there, but it won’t help you, it’s HP specific. So what to do? Now that it’s extracted those drivers and such, let’s go to the device manager. You can right-click on ‘computer’ in the start pearl and click on ‘manage’ to get there. ‘Device Manager’ will be a choice on the left column. From there, expand the ‘Display Adapters’ and double click on your Intel 965 to bring up it’s properties.

Click on the ‘Driver’ tab and do the unthinkable. Uninstall it. Completely.

If your screen doesn’t just go black and freak you out, skip ahead a paragraph. If your screen is black and you’re freaking out. Restart the machine. It will load a simple VGA driver and you’ll see things crazy big,but it’ll be just fine. Navigate your way back to that miracle place where you uninstalled the driver, because we’re about to install a fresh proper one that is totally Sim-able.

Click on the ‘Update Driver…’ button and choose the ‘Browse my computer…’ choice, the hit the ‘Browse…’ button on the next page and navigate to that folder, C:\swsetup, make sure that ‘include subfolders’ is checked and bang on that ‘next’ button at the bottom.

It will now search out and install the older driver. Don’t be afraid if it goes black again after it completes, a restart will have you back in business. Mind you, you might have to adjust your screen resolution once you’ve restarted again, but that’s a small price to pay to be able to play the Sims again.

10 thoughts on “Sims2 Fix on a Dell Inspiron 1525 vista video crash bang boom.

  1. nellybunch

    I signed up just to comment on your post, and so THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I have searched the net for the answer to this issue for months, and this is the only thing that gave 100% results!!!!!! I cannot say how wonderful it is to have found someone who had the answer to this problem!! Thanks a million!!!

  2. rwrites

    Hi- I’ve followed the instructions exactly and just un-installed the Intel Driver. I’m back in the Device Manager folder now but there isn’t a ‘display adapters’ folder anymore. What do I do now? I don’t know where to go to do the ‘update driver’ thing.

    Thank you!

  3. rwrites

    Umm, sorry to spam your comments page but I’m very confused. I figured out the answer to my previous comment, and completed all the steps, but now it says that my Display Adapter is the Intel(R) 965 one again even though I installed the other one. Is that supposed to happen? Sorry, I’m a total technophobe and this isn’t making sense at all.

  4. kuraiamaya

    I’m having a little problem with this…
    I did everything you said. Downloaded the hp driver, extracted it to the correct spot, uninstalled the intel 965, etc.
    After the 965 is uninstalled, a new selection comes up in the Device Manager called, ‘Other Devices.’ In that section, there is ‘Video Controller,’ and ‘Video controller (VGA).’ Or something to that extent, just sort of thinking off the top of my head there. So, I double click on that, and all the same options pop up as if I were to double click the intel 965.
    Yet, when I click the ‘Update driver,’ and select the hp driver folder, and go through the installation, it installs as the intel 965… which brings me right back to square one.
    Do you have any idea why this is, and how I can fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. (:

    I hope you can understand me… it’s going on 4am and I am slightly tired, but am determined to get this figured out.

  5. t.del

    I also signed up just to comment i followed your instructions Sims 2 works perfect now. now the sound on my laptop is no working now sound!!!!!!!!!!!! help me please

  6. surrealguitar

    Brilliant job…it worked perfectly. Driver choice #1 wasn’t recognized by the computer. So I tried driver choice #2. It works flawlessly. Now my daughter can enjoy her Sims games…no more “Daddy the game crashed..I hate this computer”. Thanks.

  7. DLincoln92

    Thank you!!! I did everything you told me to (The first one didn’t work but the second clicked everything into place like a charm.)! 🙂

  8. mellowmornings

    I did everything and so far so good it worked. I was just wondering if you would know what to do with the no sound happening? ):

  9. rebeldesigns

    Thank you SO MUCH! This worked out so well; it was both well-explained and easy to follow. I had bought the Sims 2 game a long time ago, when I first got my Inspiron 1525, thinking that since my laptop was brand new it could run anything… boy was I wrong. It’s taken me two years to find a solution to this problem. Thanks so much for posting this!!

  10. scott

    You’re amazing, been looking for this fix for ages. Now everything works like a charm :). I’m gonna be sure to follow your blog.

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