sims 2 disagreeing with video

when i try to run the sims 2, crazy stuff happens and my computer switches to software graphical rendering (ithink).
then sims pops up a dialog:

failed to find any directx 9.0c compatible graphics adapters in this system! please make sure you have a directx 9.0c compatible graphics adapter and have the latest drivers provided by the manufacturer. the application will now terminate.

probably because it just crashed my drivers ><
i'm running winxp sp2 with radeon 9550 video, and yes, i updated the drivers. two or three times.

WHAT HAPPEN ?

Try Omega drivers.

to no avail, but i like these new butans...

Really?
Did you make sure to uninstall ATI drivers and CCC before Omegas? I know the 9550 is a DX9 card. What does dxdiag say? Make sure your DX install wasn't fubared by something. Also, it isn't very likely, but sometimes if windows sees a problem with your graphics drivers it might throw a tantrum and turn off hardware 3d acceleration. Check that too.

I had SOME ati stuff left on here, like hydravision, so i got rid of that and reinstalled omega, also reinstalled dx9. Still doesn't work

Don't know what to look for in dxdiag, but the tests work out, and when i disable d3d acceleration the complaining dialog nicely pops, without killing my video card.

ALSO i forgot to mention that the aformentioned dialog only came on when i told the sims to run windowed (added the -w flag).
With -w: splash screen occurs, and i get a black window the size of most of my screen (game seems to be running fine from sound and sims-style curser, just no video)
Normally: after splash, screen borks as usual when fullscreening games, except screen is blank (sound and curser just like above)

MORE ALSO when i say it "switches to software graphical rendering i think" or "kills my video card" i mean windows drag slowly and the dxdiag d3d acceleration test fails. i don't know for sure what's going on right there, but that's what makes this so annoying to test. *restarts box*

Wait, you disabled 3d acceleration, or it WAS disabled? You want it enabled, the slider moved all the way to the right.

I disabled acceleration in testing. It is now and was initially enabled.

For me I have a Radeon 8300, but the problem is is that the ATI drivers actually made my compy worse and the graphics are messed up now. The sims 2 though use to work fine on it before I installed the ATI disk drivers.

But the message you get is the same as what I get when I try to play it on my parent's computer. Perhaps try installing Directx9.0 first, or just that from the disk. Usually you can select which drivers to upload from the disk if you click "Custom." I could also suggest just formatting and trying to install SIMs 2 first before installing any of your drivers. See if it works then.

Have you tried re-installing the sims or checking any of the game's support forums?

>>10
i tried reinstalling a few times, but not since omega. could that help?

and i tried looking all over the 'webs for others with the problem, couldn't find anything. 4chan isn't the first place i'd look for tech support. "delete system32 lol"

It just occured to me, if you have a pirated copy, it might have someone elses graphics card listed in the game's cofig file. If that is the case you might delete the config file to have the game generate a new one.

It does happen to be the case that i am using a downloaded copy. (My legal copy broke on the way back from the store, What're the chances?) It has 4 .img files of the 4 cds, each with a .cue (which i used), a .ccd, and a .sub.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by config file, the only file called "config" is in the support folder, but there are a bunch of folders called config.

Does that even apply with iso(or whatever)'d cds?

>>13
No.
What other directx apps (other games) do you have? Do they run?