Installation problem

[Stinkerbella]

I hope there is someone who can help me with this. I have googled, yahooed, and msned my fingers off and only found one other person out there *but dated for the year 2006* who had this same problem but no one posted anything to help. Then the light dawned on me to ask for help here. D'OH! Forgive my slowness lol.
Anyhoo, the problem is this, I just got this new laptop and it is equipped with Windows XP Professional *not that I need that one lol* and when I first installed my Sims base game it installed with no problem *i should have left it alone* but I was trying to make it install on my external HD so since it didnt I uninstalled it. So now that I try to reinstall it I can't get past cd 2 of my Sims 2 Holiday Edition. When I put in disk 2 it just freezes at 23%. I don't know what to do. I know it reads the disk because when I restart to unfreeze it the disk can be heard that its being read and I see it show up in the My Computer folder. Any ideas? I tried a system restore but no luck. Also I can't reformat it since I have no disk to do so. So am I sofa king screwed?   

*is it ok to leave up in case someone like me LMAO has this problem?* I found the solution its so simple I deserve to be hogtied and have eggs thrown at me or be tarred and feathered. Your choice. LoL! I got it off this site: http://uoem.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-5529.html
Special thanks to stahowey's answer.

SOLUTION:
"Ok, this may sound funny but I had the same problem and I realized that I was kinda jumping the gun..... When it asked for the next disk, I was clicking ok before the disk started to load and it would stop at 23% or 77%. I would insert disk and then when the cd drive would start running at a steady pace that is when I would click ok and it seemed to solve the problem. I hope this works, just a suggestion. Stacey:rolleyes:"
That was exactly what I was doing. LMAO! Sheesh. Guess laptops need a touch more time to get it running then.

[rwills]

First, should mention that laptops, generally, cannot handle Sims2 plus multiple expansions nearly as well as non-laptops.

That said (and I am far from even close to being an expert on this), one thing to try, as you are just having a stalling problem but with no associated error message alert:

Uninstall the glitchy EP/SP (if you can). Don't fret if there is nothing to uninstall just now.

Next, clean the problem disc, just in case it might by oily or grimy.

Disconnect from the internet

Then boot up the computer in Safe Mode (keep tapping the F8 key while booting up to get to where you can choose Safe Mode). and turn off any anti-virus program you may have (if it is indeed running while you are in Safe Mode), and try installing the EP/SP you are having problems with while in Safe Mode.

Note: Your on-screen display may look odd or unusual while in Safe Mode only. This is normal and expected.

When done, do a Restart to boot up as per normal. Your anti-virus program will be operational and running as per normal as well at that point and you can then re-connect to the internet.

[Stinkerbella]

Thanks for your reply Rwillis.  I found the answer when I googled again. I added it to my now modified post above. Since you kindly responded you can be the first to throw some eggs at me. LoL!