March 2018
Haven't been able to start the Sims 2 ultimate collection since yesterday. The shortcut opens Origin but does nothing else. Starting the game through Origin does nothing. I have downloaded and replaced Paul.dll and started in XP compatibility mode which seem to be the two most frequent suggestions in help threads but neither has made any difference.
I've also looked up the reliability monitor but it does not see any crashes from the sims 2.
March 2018
Is there no help? I'm pretty sure this has been caused by an Origin update as I have a laptop where Origin has not been updated and the Sims 2 still works fine. Is there any way to get Sims 2 to start without opening Origin?
March 2018
Not if you have the UC version, the disc one can run without Origin though.
I really do not know what could be done, can you try reinstalling the game maybe? :/
I guess, first, you could try to Clear Origin's cache.
Also, make sure to run Origin and Sims as administrator.