Hi everyone this is my first time posting but I'm at the end of my tether trying to get this to work.

I recently got back into Sims 2 in the last few months, I have all the EPs and the Kitchen & Bathroom stuff pack (All original CDs). And just this week I came across the Mansion and Garden stuff pack, I never really thought much about it before but after looking into it the Art Deco additions to build mode etc really interested me so I found a used copy (with case and manual etc) on ebay. When it arrived I foolishly didn't do a back up of my game prior (I know I know). I do have a back up saved to an external hard drive but that was from awhile ago and I've done a lot since then.

Installation went seemingly fine without a hitch, so I booted it up, loaded into my favourite neighbourhood just fine, and clicked play on my current family. Seemed to load fine except after the coloured loading boxes (can't think of a better word, when it loads it puts colour to some the icons on the background behind the portrait of the family you're loading) completed and it swishes back (again for lack of better words, sorry!) it didn't do anything, just the cursor egg timer kept spinning and spinning, left it for a good hour and it didn't change, so I minimized it to the desktop and closed it with task manager. I booted it up again using a different family to the same result. So that's when I went through the FAQ Game Problems topic, and I've done everything. I removed all my CC, which didn't change much. Then I tried to reinstall it clean and now I can load families, but regardless of any I go into (Default families of course since it's completely fresh) when it loads, the Sims temperature bars are all the way to top (though no sunburn), keyboard commands aren't working, and things are missing from Build Mode (the Garage, Elevator, and 2 Story column icons are greyed out, nothing comes up when I click the 'Architecture' icon) and a couple of Buy Mode icons are greyed out too (Pets and Cars I can remember but there were a couple more) and I can't find anything relating to the Mansions and Gardens stuff pack.

I am completely confused to what's going on, no matter what I've tried it hasn't changed, I've done the Graphics Rules etc and all my patches are up to date, I'm wondering if it could be an issue with the CD itself?
When I uninstalled it I booted it up as Apartment Life and it worked fine as it always had done. I know this is a bit long winded but I can't find anyone having the same problems after trawling through here and google and I'm feeling a bit lost, if any of you lovely folk can help I'll be endlessly thankful.

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System Information
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Time of this report: 10/11/2019, 23:03:19
Machine name: LENOVO-MATT
Machine Id: {D2BA0B89-2BAB-4066-8136-799ECC47710D}
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 18362) (18362.19h1_release.190318-1202)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: LENOVO
System Model: 80EC
BIOS: A4CN32WW (V 2.01) (type: UEFI)
Processor: AMD A10-7300 Radeon R6, 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G (4 CPUs), ~1.9GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 7098MB RAM
Page File: 12239MB used, 4955MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
System DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DirectX Database Version: Unknown
DxDiag Version: 10.00.18362.0387 64bit Unicode


---------------
Display Devices
---------------

Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) R6 Graphics
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x130A)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_130A&SUBSYS_398817AA&REV_00
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 4555 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1006 MB
Shared Memory: 3549 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
HDR Support: Not Supported
Display Topology: Internal
Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
Color Primaries: Red(0.639648,0.330078), Green(0.299805,0.599609), Blue(0.149414,0.059570), White Point(0.312500,0.329102)
Display Luminance: Min Luminance = 0.500000, Max Luminance = 270.000000, MaxFullFrameLuminance = 270.000000
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: CMN15CB
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Monitor Capabilities: HDR Not Supported
Display Pixel Format: DISPLAYCONFIG_PIXELFORMAT_32BPP
Advanced Color: Not Supported
Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,amdxc64.dll
Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1474 (English)
Driver Version: 16.300.2201.0
DDI Version: 12
Feature Levels: 12_0,11_1,11_0,10_1,10_0,9_3,9_2,9_1
Driver Model: WDDM 2.0
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Detachable GPU: No
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Not Supported
Power P-states: Not Supported
Virtualization: Not Supported
Block List: No Blocks
Catalog Attributes: N/A
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 07/07/2016 01:00:00 AM, 1543200 bytes


-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_510F&SUBSYS_17AA3807&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: CHDRT64.sys
Driver Version: 8.65.0055.0000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 13/04/2015 12:00:00 AM, 1543912 bytes


------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 238.9 GB
Total Space: 913.7 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB

It may be worth noting that I use an external CD/DVD drive since the one built into my laptop failed, but I've been using it for a couple of years and it installed the rest of my Sims 2 EPs no problem.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice!
~Matt

I can't speculate as to your current problem.

A typical solution to try when the game (or BodyShop) hangs on startup is to delete the groups.cache file. Something to keep in mind if it should recur.

Also delete your neighbourhood manager file and let the game make a new one. Inside the neighbourhoods folder.

Tried both suggestions but nothing has changed unfortunately. (I had deleted the caches previously too) Same things are missing from Buy/Build Mode (I also noticed that just base game items are available, nothing from any of my expansions is showing up), sims temperatures are still right to the top, and another thing I noticed is their Needs bar is right in the middle (neither green nor red) even though their needs are all in green. It's very frustrating, and I'm thinking there is something wrong with the CD even though I don't know why or how that would happen