OK, I have a serious problem here and hope someone can help me. I have a laptop that has both integrated graphics card as well as a NVIDIA GTX 780M card. The problem is, my Sims 3 game is using the integrated graphics card. I tried to follow the solution here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...zed_by_the_game but it was no use.

As a result of this, my game keeps crashing! Can a kind soul please advise me? Thanks!


By the way, this is how my GraphicsRule file looks like:

I am confused. There seems to be a card for 700M series? Am I mistaken here? What and how should I change?

This is my DxDiag report:

Please help! Thanks!

Have you looked at this thread - http://www.modthesims.info/t/481768

I have looked at this thread. The funny thing is that Sims 3 is using my NVIDIA card but when I look at the DeviceConfig file, it shows this: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 [Found: 0, Matched: 1]. This means that in reality, the game is running on integrated graphics! I am so frustrated. Not only that, 5 minutes into my gameplay, the game crashed as usual.

OK, I have solved the problem with regards to the NVIDIA card. However, my game crashes whenever I ALT-TAB out of the game and return to it. Why is this so? Is this problem common? The reason I am asking is that I would like to surf the Net while playing Sims 3 to look for tips and tricks.

Thanks.

This is my crash report. There are 2 of them:

Please advise. Thanks.

I would like to add that I am a bit confused with the DEP.

Here it says, http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...Prevention/TS3W "As of 1.21 and newer, The Sims 3, all expansions, and all stuff packs use the same executable: TS3W.exe in The Sims 3 directory. This is the only executable that must be added to the DEP list to take care of DEP crashes."

But here it says, http://help.ea.com/sg/article/dep-s...-and-windows-7/ a different solution.

I followed the first one but the game still crashed.

Should I add all the executable EP files to DEP to make sure?

Please advise. Thanks. I have all the EPs and SPs.

OK, I played the game again and it crashed as usual. What is unusual is that when I used the Sims 3 Crash Log Analyzer, it states, "Insufficient graphics capability- update graphics drivers, upgrade your graphics card, and/or get it checked". I am sure that my NVIDIA GTX 780M drivers are up to date because I checked with the NVIDIA Geforce Experience. It states that the driver version is 335.23. I checked the DeviceConfig file and it also states, "Intel® HD Graphics 4600 [Found: 1, Matched: 1]".

I really do not understand what is going on. It cannot be the card's fault because I just bought my laptop and other games like Rome Total War 2 and Battlefield 4 play out just fine!

Please advise! Thanks!

Interesting. I have the feeling the game is sneaking back to my Intel HD. Someone please advise! Thanks!

My desktop has a similar set-up. It has an IGP and a dedicated graphics card (Radeon 4200, and a Radeon 7870 OC). For you, we will call the IGP (Intel 4000) IGF0 and dedicated graphics GFX0 (Nvidia).

You need to make at setting in the PC BIOS or UEFI. Both are collectively known as BIOS in the computer world. UEFI just looks better and uses a mouse.

When your computer boots up, it might say something like Press F2 for settings Press F10 for Boot menu. You want to get into settings.
I am basing my knowledge from an American Megatrends BIOS, but you can take pictures and I can help you out with this.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6995/capture1i.png

That image is an example of an American Megatrends BIOS. The red part circled is the order for the graphic card boot.
IGFX is the Integrated Graf('ph')ics -- the thing soldered into your mainboard.
GFX/GPP/PCI is the card.
Select the one that is GFX0 first. I don't know if the dedicated gfx card is GFX0, but if the PC doesn't find anything in the slot, it will move to the next available card.

See if that help.

Edit: In my case, when I put my PC to boot from the Radeon 7870 ONLY, the IGF disappeared. I haven't seen it in years :x

Thanks for the detailed information. Unfortunately, my laptop does not allow me to change the settings. When I went to advance in the boot menu, there was no option to disable my integrated card. Moreover, I spoke to an EA technical adviser and he told me that this cause of action is not recommended as it could lead to system instability.



Apparently, I found a solution, well sort of. I set my graphics settings to default mode, making the resolution 1280 x 768. Basically, I had to tone down my graphics. I still experienced crashes but it was not as frequently as before.

Well, I had to make a compromise. Even if I didn't like toning down the graphics, as I like to test my powerful GTX 708M card, I don't have much of a choice. It is either I play or don't play the game and I will always choose the former!

That is horrible advice from EA... The method I outlined does not disable the GFX card, it simply changes the order of the GFX card selection.

Also, I mentioned to go into the BIOS. Not the boot menu.

Take a picture of your computer when it starts up.

Sorry, what I meant was the BIOS. To access my BIOS, I have to press F7. I went to my BIOS and checked the advanced settings and I can't seem to find the link to change my order of my GFX card.

It simply does not exist.

By the way, I don't have a camera to take a picture of my laptop.





OK, I am working now. I will try this when I get home in about 8 hours time. The BIOS access for my laptop is F2. I think I entered the boot menu by pressing F7 yesterday. Anyway, please excuse my ignorance. This is my first time doing this and I am a novice when it comes to computers. Hope everything would be OK.



By the way, would it be useful if I post my DxDiag report here? I really do not want to mess with my BIOS settings as I do not want anything to go wrong. Thanks.

By the way, I am not able to fully comprehend this: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...zed_by_the_game

"In Windows Explorer

If you suddenly have the Notepad icon on the files instead of a blank one, or the Type column (in Details View) now list the file type as TXT, you'd need to rename the files by removing the .txt extension.
If the extension still shows as .sgr, but the Type column is showing TXT, the system has the extensions hidden. And you would need to unhide them.
If you had to save the 2 files to Desktop, copy+paste them back into the <install path>\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin folder.
Answer the UAC security window with a "Yes".
After you've tested the game in the next steps, and things are OK, and you didn't get crashings or other issues, these files on the Desktop can be deleted or if you like you can Archive (or backup) to your external drive."

I think I skipped a part here. Can anyone explain to me what should I do here?



OK, I can now confirm that when I press F2 and go into the settings, I can't find the option of changing the graphics. I would also like to add that my BIOS is also called American Megatrends. Is it because I am having a laptop? Another reason could be that the manufacturer of my laptop, which is Aftershock, disabled this option for a good reason!

I have also read somewhere that Asus laptops also do not have this setting of configuring one's graphics capability.

So, long story short, my problem will remain unsolved, right? Please advise! Thanks!

OK, I have finally bitten the bullet and reinstalled my game. I just hope I don't have to do this again for the rest of the lifespan of my laptop.

So, I installed the base game only first and tested the game by playing it. It was patched to the latest version by the way.

I had a very pleasant surprise. The game did not crash! I even went to the map view a couple of times and still the game did not crash. Moreover, I even ALT-TAB my game to see whether a crash can be reproduced but no such thing happened! It was a nice surprise after a week of heartaches!

Now for the difficult part. I will install each SP and EP and see whether the game would crash for each SP and EP. Hope everything would turn out just fine. This could take days by the way. The ultimate goal is to finally install a couple of Twallan mods and play the game without crashing!

My laptop has the same graphic card and the same driver (version 335.23) and I also use the GeForce Experience to make sure the game uses that graphic card. Did you have a look at the NVIDIA system settings, too? There I have chosen NVIDIA as preferred graphic processor for The Sims 3. Works fine for me and I have all EPs and SPs installed (but no CC).

I'm sorry that you had to reinstall the whole game. That's quite a lot of work...

OK, finally I reinstalled all my SPs and EPs and tested my game. I did not have any crash! That was a pleasant surprise!

Now for the hard part! I have yet to install any Store Content (I have all the items by the way) and Twallan's mods for the game. It seems I hate to play the game without Twallan's mods. Reason being, EA has yet to fix some of the bugs which have been plugging the game and I think they will never fix them! Twallan's mod resolves most of these issues by the way.

Secondly, I would like to add that in the process of reinstalling all my EPs and SPs, I did not even bother to change my sgr. files! The reason being, my GTX 780M card is being used by the game! I checked my taskbar and Sims 3 is using my card! So the question is, is it necessary to change my sgr. files now? I mean everything is fine so far so why fix something which is not broken?

Lastly, with regards to my NVIDIA control panel, is it really necessary to set V-Sync on? What if I set it off? Will it damage my card? Please advise! Thanks! I really do not like V-Sync to be on while playing my games. But if this is necessary for Sims 3, then I don't have a choice, do I?

Thanks!

If the game is properly using your graphic card without editing the sgr files, then leave them alone. As you put it, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

V Sync - If the monitor refresh rate is at 60hz, the maximum fps you are going to see with your eyes is 60fps, even if the card is outputting 120fps or 1200fps (lol!). If you have a good video card, leave vsync on for a much smoother gaming experience and to avoid wasting power because with vsync off, your card will run at maximum speed and try to output as many frames per second as possible. In a 60hz monitor, the most you will see is 60fps therefore there is no point in having your card struggle to output hundreds or thousands of frames per second.