Sims 2 problem

I recently bought sims 2 from a used book store..loaded it onto my laptop and everything was fine..until i went to create my own family...i could create the characters and everything fine..but once it got to the family loading page it wouldn't go any further, i've tried a million times..

figuring it was something with the game (since it was used) i bought the new game..it does the same thing. Now everything else (as far as i can tell) works just fine. everything's great.

anybody got any ideas?
thanks!!