OK, I just bought the game tonight but it's been crazy ever since then because I can't get it to work. This is mainly a problem with DirectX rather than Sims. I currently have DirectX 9.0b installed on my Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 system.

When I did the installation for Sims it asked me if I wanted to upgrade to DirectX 9.0c so I naturally selected yes. I was taken to the next screen where I get to either agree or disagree with the terms and conditions. I click yes, go to the next screen. It says that it may take several minutes to update and install, blah blah, and click Next to begin the installation. When I click Next however, the screen changes to the one where it says "installing' with the progress bar for a split second, but then jumps straight into the 'installation complete' screen.

It basically doesn't install. I tried this with the 9.0c version from the game CD and I even downloaded it off of the microsoft site. But it still does the same and I'm stuck on 9.0b.

Right now anytime I try to run the game I get this message: "Failed to initialize Direct3D. Please make sure DirectX 9.0c has been installed on this system. The application will now terminate."

I tried different things, updating my drivers and everything and nothing works. My computer is a newer version and is pretty fast so I'm not concerned about that. It's just the DirectX 9.0c won't install for some reason. Anyone please help me? Im desperate