I recently installed the Ultimate Collection on my new laptop. The specs are as follows:
Windows 10 64bit, Intel Core i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz, 8192MB RAM (5462MB Available)

I do not have any problems with graphics after setting the graphics rules maker to what my computer recommended (1920x1080). The game does not lag or freeze, in fact it runs extremely well. The only problem is that my laptop becomes extremely hot and the fan has to run at full power every time I run the game. The CPU while the game is running is at about 40% (which shouldn't be too high, as my old laptop ran the game just fine with a much higher CPU usage).

I do have some custom content, but I know that it is not causing any problems because the game ran just fine on my old computer with all the same content. I have not downloaded anything new. My old computer had way poorer specs than my current computer, and was also a laptop, so it doesn't make sense that the game would run fine on that and can't run fine on my new computer. However, it is worth note that my old computer was running the base game + all expansions while my new computer is running the ultimate collection.

I have tried running the game in windowed and compatibility mode, but these don't seem to make any difference. My computer immediately becomes very hot upon entering a household, and doesn't cool down until I close the game. I do not want to fry my new computer playing the sims. There must be a way to fix this. I have tried most of the troubleshooting for the UC, but it hasn't helped since most of those things are to fix graphics and lagging/crashing issues, which I don't have.

Any suggestions?

The Windows 10 I have at work always has about 30% CPU use and gets warm without opening any program.
Can you tell how much CPU the game uses?

It's not just warm--it goes from completely normal and silent to molten hot full fan within a minute of entering any household. The game is running at about 25%. The other processes are just small things like audio and origin. My old laptop wouldnt get this hot even at 100% CPU. No other program on my new laptop makes it run this hot, not even running 20 other programs at once. It really seems like something is odd with the game.

What temperatures are you seeing?

Don't really want to download another program just to check the numbers but I have played this game for 10 years on 6 different laptops and I have NEVER seen it behave like this. This laptop is far better than any of the past laptops I've had and there's no reason it shouldn't be able to run this game for even 5 minutes without burning up.

Then there might be something wrong with the hardware.
What brand is it?
Also what graphic card is in the laptop?

Edit: New computer, 15 year old game... There's no guarantee the game matches with every (new) computer because the hardware is too new and it's not the first problem I hear with UC.

Yeah, that was my thought as well. I have an intel HD graphics 620. Don't think there's anything wrong with my computer, seeing as any other game/program runs just fine.
I was wondering what other people here with newer computers have done to make the game run well, assuming there are people who have made it work.

But you say the computer gets extremely hot- how are you sensing that? If you are just detecting with your hand that the case is feeling hot then that isn't necessarily anything to worry about, as heatsinks will carry the heat away from your chips and fans will expel the hot air so making vents feel hot. Having the fans run fast isn't necessarily bad either- they are meant to run faster when load is put on the processor, so I'd be more concerned that the fans weren't running fast. Does your laptop have any manufacturer software installed upon it? There may be something that monitors temperatures, and also you might have software to allow you to control fan speed.

What brand is your laptop?

It's really hard to tell anything without actual numbers. The fan might be trying to cool the machine or just some strange Windows10 thingie made it mad. It's unfortunatelly expected than W10 wastes quite a lot computing power and during doing nothing (idling) keeps CPU a bit warm.

*if* the temperature is high - it's specific for the CPU model but in general: above 80'C is very hot as around that point most common CPUs shall start to throttle - the fan may needs cleaning and the whole machine probably too, including renewing thermal paste, overview of heatpipes heat exchange etc. You may be surprised how many thing may compact itself after a while into even small, thin laptop.

otherwise it's possible that it is just "Windows 10 working in mysterious ways". Maybe update of update (of update....) will help

I thought mentioning cleaning the fan too, but as the laptop is new I don't think it would change anything. You can download the software Cam to see when the fan spins and how hot the laptop really gets. Indeed 80C is the temperature before starting to worry.

It's a dell inspiron

I understand that it may be nothing to worry about depending on the exact temp, but regardless it's still terribly unpleasant to play the game while listening to the fans going VVVVVVRRRRRRRRR on full power nonstop and feeling the keyboard getting hotter and hotter. And I kinda feel like even a 'moderately' high temperature can't be so great for my computer after a long time. If it's a normal reaction to the game, I'm not sure why it never happened to me before on any other laptop, or why it doesnt happen with any other game on this laptop. Guess I'll just have to consider uninstalling the game.

Thanks to those who've offered their help!

Dells always used to have a built in diagnostic utility, does yours have that? If so you could test that the hardware was working correctly using that. For the keyboard heat, if the laptop has heatsinks directly below the keyboard then that could cause heat there. You'd have to either see some schematics of the laptop or ask on the support forums to be sure.

intel HD graphics cards are generally not particularly good for gaming. Looks like that one can manage TS4 on low to medium settings, but it's not recommended on high/very high settings - which doesn't promise much good for TS2. Most of the integrated Intel cards run on internal memory and on their own they're mostly meant for running programs for schoolwork or office and such, and rarely for gaming. Possibly also managing slightly more demanding programs like Photoshop. Running something heavy like a game on them might work, but you can also expect its lifetime to be shorter (because of overheating, etc.). I'm guessing this card can manage vanilla TS2 on medium settings somewhat okay, but if you start adding a lot of CC or turn settings on higher, I'm not surprised if it is prone to overheating. I'm guessing the fans inside the laptop aren't powerful enough to take away all the heat.

Most graphic cards and integrated chips nowadays can (with some tinkering) run TS2 - but that doesn't mean you should run TS2 on all of them, and it certainly doesn't mean that they'll manage to run the game on the highest settings for a long while. When looking for a laptop to run the game on, ideally you'd want a proper graphic card, not just an integrated chip that gets winded (as in turns all fans to turbo and still gets overheated) if it has to do more than open a browser and run Word at the same time.

You don't have to get the newest, most expensive, fastest race horse of a laptop - but don't go for just about any cheap junk. If it's for instance advertised as a "school laptop", that's exactly what you're getting - a (usually cheap and often lower quality) laptop you can use for schoolwork and internet browsing, and various resource-light programs. Also, just because the laptop is a newer model doesn't always mean it's better than an older laptop.

The laptop I currently have does has an extra Nvidia graphic card (not the best, but it manages TS2 on high settings if I don't play for too long, and it handles shaders), but the laptop does get very warm (I suspect it's very dusty inside by now - it's 6 1/2 years old and it's started to get slower and show some wear-and-tear). I've had to get a cooling plate for it, and while this protects my legs, it doesn't do that much for the laptop. It's not a gaming PC, and I don't treat it as such - it's more of a school+light gaming hybrid. It does have an Intel card for regular desktop tasks, but running the game on that is an absolute no-no, with all kinds of graphic errors.

it shouldn't be like that and there's something wrong with hardware or (?) software enviroment. It's not 'normal' in any way. Does the machine stress out like that in other tasks like video watching, other games, eh - even Origin consumes more resources at the lauch than most Sims 2 UC installations.

The fact it's a "brand new" machine does not mean that hardware mailfunction cannot happen or just internal garbage collection cannot build inside the machine. If it's a new one, I'd go straight to the service.

// and 'bout game's demands - anything in the i5 line or above (i3 line will do just fine) will run game on its max even with internal HD4000 gpu until you throw mindlessly layers of beautification onto the stack (filters, effects etc. which with some effort can make brand new top GPU's neal) with current standard HD resolutions.

Hardware malfunction absolutely can happen to new computers. A laptop my cousin bought for her daughter a short while ago stopped working after just a week or so and wouldn't charge the battery. Production errors happen.

Depending on which country you're from there might be some kind of guarantee, and if it's a manufacturing error you may get a new one, or get it fixed. Just don't let it go too long from when you bought it, or that guarantee might run out (if you have some sort of insurance for the laptop, that might also help).

Though, if everything is working other than the laptop overheating when playing TS2, it may be the composition of the laptop, and strain on the parts.

One thing you may want to keep in mind - most computers (unless custom built) tend to have a bunch of junk programs installed, some of them running (completely unneccessary) at startup. If that's the case, it could help to uninstall some of those. Some antivirus programs that come pre-installed (the ones that give you a month free use before they start pester you with popups) are often resource-heavy, and can cause issues in the background.

It's not a cheap junk laptop, nor am I saying it's better because it's newer. My old laptop, which ran all the TS2 expansions perfectly with the exact same settings and CC, was 3x cheaper and had less than half the ram and half the memory of my new laptop. It was objectively worse in all aspects and yet it ran the game perfectly. So either my new computer is simply not compatible with the game in some way I can't figure out, or it is a problem with the ultimate collection.
It is true though that my new computer has an intel graphics card while my old computer had a radeon card, so I guess even though it should be a better card the brand is somehow incompatible with the game?
The reason I don't think it's a graphics card problem is that the game does not lag or have any graphics problems, like what usually happens with poor graphic cards. It's only the heat/fan that's being weird.
I've deleted all unneeded programs and have monitored which programs are running when. There's nothing that should be interrupting the game.

Nothing else stresses out the laptop. It runs all other games/videos/programs I have with no problems. That's why I decided to come to this forum to ask--because it really seems like a problem with the game and its comparability with my hardware, not with my hardware itself.

hm in that case -

is it that unfortunate new S2UC version which spams user with constant Origin presence? It's not very brilliant piece of software (saying it politely). Unfortunatelly with that new version you're without options left. Or with barely legal ones (an previous executable without embedded Origin call do fine), that depends of the country where you live.

If the machine suddenly struggles while reading disk (launching, reading families etc) it may be antivirus case (as @simmer22 stated) try to add the game and subsequently the whole game's folder to exceptions. It's particulary annoiyng case if the builtin MS antivirus/antimalware software and the installed from another developer bites each other ankles. And most sold machines comes with a lot of these things preinstalled which can cause problems. Particulary with 32-bit software. Adding to the exceptions in default MS software may help too, though it may be tricky - in its infinite wisdom Microsoft keeps to messing around with settings so it shall be better if someone W10-savvy will point the way.

Getting a previous executable without embedded origin is a good idea. Thank you for your help!

Mine was doing that. Fans die. Even new ones, and being super loud and inefficient is a symptom before it does. No matter what the eventual diagnosis, you can lift a laptop off of any soft surface, of course, and then simply point a household fan at a computer that is not cooling well. It's still just air flowing over the heated parts, any fan will do. New computers will shut down before they really overheat so, while I wouldn't leave it like that indefinitely, you probably don't need to worry too much. But, if it is just the fan, do get it fixed. If it's new, they should fix it. Even if it's not, you might as well fix it before it really breaks, because when it does, the computer won't boot unless you bypass that safeguard. Doable, but a little scary. I replaced the one in my laptop just recently for the same reason. I bought the replacement on ebay and had someone local install it, about $100 U.S. altogether, and everything's fine now. I also now realize it had been bad for a long time, because it was noisy forever, and now it's whisper quiet and cool. Best of luck!

The graphic card could still be part of the problem. A lot of newer cards are not compatible with the game for various reasons, though for most you can do some tinkering in the Graphic Rules and Video Card files in the game install files to make the game recognize the card. I think yours may be one of those you can do some tinkering on - there's a how-to over at Leefish. You can think of it like this - if the card isn't meant for gaming, the rest of the laptop may not be meant for gaming, either. Doesn't even have to be a cheap laptop (I just mentioned that "cheap school laptop" because some people - not neccessarily you - assume it's possible to play resource-heavy games with any newer laptop, and get dissappointed when their laptop barely handles the game on medium settings).

TS2 is by today's standard an old game, and countrary to the belief that "newer is better," an older laptop is sometimes able to run the game better than a newer one. Most newer computers come with multi-core CPUs, and TS2 was made when single-core CPUs still were common, and as far as I know it's not possible to make it run on more than one core (so it depends on how powerful each core is, I guess). TS2 also has a memory limit on 2 GB, which means that while your laptop may have 8 or 16 GB, TS2 can't make use of more than 2 GB (unless you apply a memory fix that makes it use 4 GB instead). There may be more limitations on the game, but those are the most common ones: Graphics card, CPU and RAM use. If your laptop happens to have 2-3 of these issues, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what causing it to overheat.

Some laptops also come with a turbo mode, so whenever you start up something resource-heavy, the extra resources turn on, and the laptop will make more noise. Mine does that (well, it did - now it turns on turbo whenever it feels like... )

As mentioned above, some antivirus programs go nuts when anything is put into the CDrom or USB ports, or if you run an EXE, and some will even quarantine TS2 files on a whim. You can exclude the Sims install files from most antivirus programs, though.

My laptop is 5 years old. It has both Intel and Nvidia graphic card and the game runs on both (it's not the UC though).
Have you tried changing the graphic settings to the lowest as possible?
The household that you load has it a lot of sims and is it a big lot?