I was literaly playing the sims yesterday and to day it won't even load.
All it does is give an error report message.

"The Sims has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience."

>>details>>
Error signature
AppName: sims.exe    AppVer: 1.0.0.0    ModName: sims.exe
ModVer: 1.0.0.0    Offset: 0000986f

I have uninstalled and removed all regristry keys by HAND before reinstalling.
I have tried other optical drives.
I have used the various flags recomended in various other posts.
I have done spyware, adware and antivirus.
I have done a regclean.
I have run scandisk.

The part that BOGGLES my mind is the fact that it worked fine for the last 3 or 4 DAYS and then stopped without any changes to the system.

any ideas?EA Games tend to be very dodgy.

Have you tried looking through the EA help-database? I believe there is a Sims uninstaller tool available that MIGHT help you.

If it doesn't, contact EA technical support and don't forget to patch the game before running it.