UGH! i can't play the sims, can anyone help?

[Its Binky!]

okay so ever since i got the sims 2 apartment life i have been having trouble playing the sims! usually when im playing the screen goes blue and the little hourglass appears... sometimes its there for 10 minutes other times its there for a long time and i turn off the computer and other times after sitting there waiting for it to go away my screen goes black and the monitor appears to turn off but when i press the power button to turn it back on it doesn't work even though the actual computer is still working.

i have tried everything i can think of from reinstalling the game to removing custom content and patching the game.

i have googled like crazy to try to find a fix but i have come up with nothing sad

 

[Menaceman]

This belongs in the Q&A subforum so I shall move it.

It sounds to me as though it could be one of three things:
Your computer is overheating because the fan needs cleaning;
Your computer is low on RAM;
Your graphics card/ driver is out of date.

So the first things I would try are cleaning your fan and updating your graphics card drivers.  

[Blueman1027]

I have heard of this problem before.

Possible causes and solutions that I know:
Overloaded memory
Solution: Clear all cache, cookies, and temporary internet files frequently, clear your trash bin, get rid of any unused software on your computer.

Hot CPU chip or processeser chip
Solution: Open up your computer and clean out all the fuzz and gunk and dust, check fans to make sure they are working, replace fans if needed.

Viruses
Solution: try different antivirus software. Some work, some don't, some like Norton's are targeted because they are so good. Watch for those. They are very tricky!

That's all I can tell you for now. The monitor going off and the computer staying on leads me to think it's the CPU chip. I could be bad or it could just be hot and need a new fan. But, I am not very sure about that.

PM me if you have any other questions.