I've loaded Sims2 and all 3 expansion packs without any hitches. Except now I've started playing them it will only play in screen size 800x600 even though in Windows the screen size is set to 1280x1024.
I've loaded the latest driver for the graphics card which is a GeForce2 MX200. Is there something obvious I'm missing? I can't find a way into the settings for Sims2 other than through the game and the only option there is 800x600.
It's driving me batty cos the graphics look silly as I'm on a 17" monitor!! The edges are all jagged and the wants panel and needs panel can not be opened side by side cos there isn't enough room which makes game play awkward! Has anyone had anything similar?

Highly recommend you upgrade your video card. Even an FX5200 which can be had for under $50 these days would massively improve your performance. Honestly, I'm surprised the MX420 can even run the game considering it only has SDRAM.

Do you have an AGP slot, or just PCI?

"Milk was a bad choice!"

The pc is an old one my Dad was getting rid of. I put a few bits in I nicked off other pc's. I thought it might need a new graphics card... I'll get one tonight! :-)
Thanks

Sorry, it's got an AGP slot.
I've just had a look at my local pc store they've got a 128mb Nvidia 5200 DDR AGP 8x will that run on this board with the RAM it's got do you think?

Make sure it has 128-bit memory. (This is not MB!)

But to be honest, I'd try to get a Radeon 9550 or 9600 Pro. Shouldn't be much more than the FX5200.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102484

Although the 256M is overkill for the card, that's still a good card for the money.

If you spend a little more and wait for the rebate...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102410

"Milk was a bad choice!"

My local store has the ATi Radeon 9550 but not the Sapphire Radeon 9550 and they've got the Radeon 9600XT but not the Sapphire 9660Pro.
Are these vastly different?
Would either of those two they've got do?

The 9600XT is better than a Pro.

Basically they're very similar cards, although the 9550 is clocked slower than the 9600 Pro, which in turn is clocked slower than the 9600XT. However, the 9550 comes with 128-bit memory or 64-bit memory. Make sure it's a 128-bit memory card, NOT 64-bit. (This is NOT the amount of memory in Megs!!!)

On your system, it doesn't really matter which one of those you get, as your CPU (P4 1.6GHz, right?) will bottleneck any of those cards, so get the least expensive of them, except again do NOT get a 9550 if it has 64-bit memory. If no info is provided about that, it's probably a 64-bit card, and you should steer clear. All 9600 Pros and XT's have 128-bit memory, so you're safe there.

ATI vs. Sapphire, it really doesn't matter. Sapphire in fact has even manufacturered cards to be sold under the ATI brand label before.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

Thanks for all your help, I've gone with the 9550 because as you said the cpu will hold back the speed anyway so I've gone with the slightly cheaper one, and my local stores 9550 is a 128-bit memory so that's cool :-) They've got it at £35 which is just over $50?
It'll be good to play Sims properly again!! :-)