With a bit of tinkering - and the advice of the boy-next-door, well, across, but we're not splitting hairs ;) - I finally got my Sims up and running again - just in time before my subscription runs out, so now I know it's worth renewing :D

I had to throw the towel into the ring and buy a new graphics card.  Instead of going for one of those on the list provided with the game, I opted for an ATI Radeon HD 5830.  According to my 'gaming connoisseur' neighbour, that should keep me gaming for a while yet.  It looks fierce enough with all them copper pipes for sure - it barely fitted in my slim tower :D 

After every installation, things were running smoothly - until we reached Ambitions and the dreaded patch.  You guessed it - black screen, crash back to desktop - aarghhh...  I went back to the thread I started some time ago and reread the comments.  Started   with the DEP configuration and Woohooh!  Things are back up!  Phew!  Of course I had to go and buy Late Night now too :D  I have to admit it was with some trepidation I installed, did the DEP and then tried it out - but it worked - result!

So now I have lots to catch up on and new things to try out.  Let the Games begin! :D