2 computers and a very strange install problem.

[daytonaraceway]

I have a fairly new Compaq Presario, and a very old (but still trusty) made to my spec PC. I had Sims 2 on both PCs but I took it off my old one. And now it won't read the base disk at all. It'll read all the other disks but not the base. It'll still read on my new PC. Anyone else have this problem? I'm at a loss and really don't want to buy a new game. Please help if you can, thank you.

[rwills]

Several quick, random thoughts--

Cleaning the disks couldn't hurt.

Do you have access to or might be able to borrow a separate external disk drive you could connect via USB to the old machine just long enough to install the base game? And then install any EPs using the built-in drive.

You might try one of those disk drive head cleaner disks that are available.

Try reseating the plug on the old machine's disk drive. It might have worked just loose enough over time to unpredictably gum things up.

If you're going to install expansions beyond the base game on the old machine (and the old machine reads those expansion disks O.K.) and if the old machine will accept it, you could temporarily swap out the disk drives just long enough to get the base game installed and then swap them back.

Not my area of expertise at all, but suppose it would be possible to set up a network and designate the new machine as the slave machine just long enough to install the game onto the drive of the master machine. That would be time-consuming (setting up the old machine's drive as the one to run the network, mapping that drive and then bypaassing autorun on the new machine's disk drive and telling the new machine to install the disk it can read on the old machine) but it could conceivably be done -- and then reversing the steps of setting up the network to separate the machines to run independently.