Are you downloading the latest version (ignore all the others) from here:

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php?page=3

MTS2 (which hosts the download) has been having on-again, off-again service and download glitches all this week, so it may well be that you just have to wait a bit until they are back up to speed.

Also, try turning off Windows Defender before attempting to install it -- Defender is really not necessary and is very intrusive, and turning it off is generally a Good Thing anyway -- it mightbe flagging Clean Installer as spyware or malware (which it is not).

Deleting those files is not even close to the same as doing a re-install.And you don't need to resort to a re-install.

Have to ask before anything else if you have already downloaded and installed the patches for all your EPs - if not, those need to be installed, preferably in the order in which you installed the EPs.

Patches here, just in case:

http://thesims2.ea.com/update/index.php

First, does this happen on only one particular lot or on any lot? If only one, then there is most probably a problem with that lot.

If all lots are so affected, there may be a hack or mod in any custom content you may have which is inhibiting the interaction.

Second, have you installed any custom robots or recolors of robots or of the robotics station or anything else in custom content related to robots or to the robotics station?

If so, remove those temporarily from your Downloads folder and then start the game up and go buy a new station and see if it functions as expected.

If the glitch still persists, try this:

Visit the lot where the 'bad' robotics station is.

Open the cheat box (Control-Shift-C).

Enter this cheat:

boolprop testingCheatsEnabled true

You might immediately get an error warning. If not, then shift-click on the robotics station and choose 'Force Error' and then 'Delete' from the error warning options.

Open the cheat box again and enter:

boolprop testingCheatsEnabled false

Then Quit the game. Then go into the Sims 2 folder and delete the groups.cache file there (if tehee is one). Re-start the game and purchase a fresh robotics station and see if the problem has been corrected.

Well, there is this:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=101362

But it can be iffy or in conflict with other mods you may have.

The more family members, the greater the strain put on the computer running the game, so if it does work in your game and you then experience slowdowns, lags or crashes, that mod would be high on the list of what to attribute those to.

If suddenly an interaction or something else stops functioning, the two most likely causes are:

1) Something installed between when things were functioning and the present  (custom content, hacks, even houses or Sims -- those latter two things, particularly, can include content for EPs which you may not have installed)

2) Installing a new EP and having pre-existing installed custom content which is incompatible with that new EP.

The Hack Conflict Detector is a broad guide and first step in looking for conflicts, but just that. There are certainly things outside the boundaries of its recognition which can be in conflict, and also conflicts it does detect which are, for all intents and purposes,  benign.

If you have recently (as in since the last time the interaction was O.K.) added custom content, take that content out temporarily and see if the interaction is restored, then you'll have to narrow it down bit by bit from those files to find the offending one(s).

As far as the laptop goes, would think that if just using the base game, you'd be all right, though watching for heat build up would be recommended (as with most any non-ultra high-end laptop), as would triple-checking that nothing else that is not absolutely essential is running in the background.

Once adding EPs into the mix, you'd be further pushing against the limits of both the graphics chip and of the processor and would be courting experiencing problems down the line as the system is stressed to and perhaps beyond its capabilities.

Frankly, checking in the fine print (or by e-mail or phone) as to whether there is an option to have it shipped with XP instead of Vista (not sure about Acer, but some other companies, though they don't openly advertise it, still offer that option) would be my suggestion.

As far as Sims3 goes, the final specs aren't available, but a hunch (and it is just that, a hunch) would be that, optimistically, the laptop would be at or near the very bottom end of the spectrum of recommended system specs.

Best of luck with the new machine -- and in case you might have missed it, added a bit more in an edit to my last post above.

Yes, but even easier is to open the Downloads folder and use View--Arrange Icons By-- Type

All the same types of files will the be automatically grouped together and you can either delete or move the ones you don't need all at once.

Repeat, of course, in any sub-folders, in case there are any non-package files sitting in those.

EDIT: Feel should also mention that if you have in the past downloaded and installed any houses or lots and want to use those in your new game, then the contents of the LotCatalog folder in your old machine (My Documents--EA GAmes--The Sims 2--LotCatalog) will need to be moved as well, replacing what is in the LotCatalog folder on the new machine.

If you have donwloaded and installed any neighborhood terrains which you want to keep, do the same with the SC4Terrains folder contents.

Ditto, if you so choose, for your Saved Sims folder and (if you happen to want to pick up exactly where you left off while playing rather than starting a brand new game), double-ditto for the Neighborhoods folder contents, the Collections folder contents and the Storytelling folder contents.

Short answer: no, you don't,

Any zip or rar files you have already unpacked, and any Sims2Pack files you have already opened and installed, do not need to be redone.

In fact, those types of files don't even need to be sitting taking up space in your Downloads folder.

Once you have extracted the contents of any zip or rar file, you can either just delete it or else move it to someplace else on your computer for storage. The same holds for Sims2Pack files: once you have installed them, the Sims2Pack file itself can be safely deleted or moved for storage elsewhere.

Keeping them in your Downloads folder just bloats the size that folder, and can slow down the start-up of the game as well.

Think of any of those types of files (zip, rar, Sims2Pack) as the envelopes in which the contents you want are sitting, and think of your Downloads folder as the file cabinet in which you want to keep those contents. Once you've opened the envelope and put those contents into the file cabinet, you can safely get rid of the envelope.

The same goes for txt files and jpg or other image files which might accompany the contents intended for the Downloads folder - they can be safely deleted. Essentially, just package files belong in the Downloads folder and in any of its sub-folders.

There is no reason you can't move all the files in stages.

When you've moved what you can fit onto the flash drive, put it into the new computer and move those files from the flash drive to your new Downloads folder.

Then delete those files from the flash drive, go back to the old computer and move the next chunk of files from your old Downloads folder to the flash drive, and so on.

Don't know whether this will help or not, but what I use are a mix 'n' match assortment of some files from here:

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=75472

and here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=106077

Both places show shots of the various choices pretty clearly labeled, so that it is easier to delineate which ones you may want to use in the game and which ones to jettison.

Most likely is that there is an incompatibility between the disk drive on the old machine and the disk drive on your new machine.

There is no direct fix for that, but rather alternatives.

Best bet would be to put either the entire Downloads folder (or if it is really huge, just parts of it at a time) onto an external USB flash drive - there will be no incompatibilities moving the flash drive from one machine to the other. 2 GB flash drives are found as low as $15 (or less) nowadays (smaller flash drives even less - have seen 500 MB drives at 3 for $10 on sale), so the expense is minimal.

Or, if you are comfortable with manipulating the innards of the machines, pop the old disk drive from the old machine and plug it into the new machine (presuming the new machine has an available IDE cable), and use that drive to load the data onto your new machine.

The replacement templates go  into your Downloads folder  - it can be a big help to create a new folder inside of Downloads and name it Faces (or whatever you like) and keep them all in that folder.

A couple of immutable things first:

1) Replacement face templates always override the game-standard face templates.

2) There is a limit to the number of templates the game can show (and handle) to choose from in Create-A-Sim or in Bodyshop.

You mention that you have tried to install many replacements from a variety of creators.

As any replacements automatically override Maxis defaults, if you have several sets of replacements in Downloads, they can well also be trying to override one another, which can glork the whole process.

Choose one and only one creator's set you like and put just that set into  your Faces file in Downloads - then delete the thumbnails and the cigen and the groups files (if they exist) and start up the game and check if the new templates from that set only show up when you go to create a new Sim.

Then you can try adding additional files into your Faces file in Downloads, deleting the thumbnails and cigen files again, and going in-game again until you get evidence of a conflict, and then exit and remove the offending file to get back to normality.

But, even with many multiple files which do not conflict, you will still only be offered the fixed upper limit of choices of templates for any individual created Sim (can't recall the precise number, but I think it is about two dozen - whether that upper limit number has changed in EPs later than mine I cannot say).

MTS2 downloads (indeed, the entire site) have been intermittently up and down all week, as they apparently finish moving all their data and ironing out after-move bugs.

Best I can offer is to try again later and see if the particular downloads you are after are fully available at that time.

It absolutely could be something (or even some things) in your Downloads folder that are either incompatible or in conflict.

Temporarily move the contents of youir Downloads folder to someplace else on your computer, then see if the game starts okay.

If it does, then it is something in your Downloads folder which is causing the problem.

The only sure way to pinpoint which item(s) are involved are to add back a portion of the Downloads folder at a time, each time starting up the game to see if it is okay.

If it is, then add in some more items and start up again.

If it is not, then you can further whittle down the most recent items you added to Downloads to hone in on the culprit(s) and remove them altogether.

Hint: Sometimes included in custom content are Collection files, and often having these in the Downloads folder instead of the Collections folder can glork game start-up. Using Clean Installer to find items lised under Type as Collection, then moving just those items from the Downloads folder to the Collections folder may also help.

Also, in your My Documents--EA Games--The Sims 2 folder, delete the groups.cache file - the game will generate a new one when it starts.

As you are using Vista, if you haven't already done so you might try turning off Windows Defender. See here for how-to:

http://www.vista4beginners.com/How-to-disable-Windows-Defender

Reasons?

a) it's a piece of redundant crapola anyway.

b) having it enabled in the background could be gobbling up enough resources to impact your gameplay.

Also, if you happen to be running Norton anti-virus, turn it off before (and keep it off during) gameplay.