Ok, so let me preface this by saying I'm at my wits' end emotionally and physically anyway, so having problems with my game is the last straw. It's very much an escape mechanism some days and I have tried everything I can think of and everything I've read that other people have suggested that might be able to fix my problems and I feel like a nag for asking anyone here for help but I don't know what else to do now.

So. Last week my game started acting a little funny, it froze up once or twice. Apparently before I'd turned story progression off, one of my Sims had adopted four dogs, and when I was playing her house, I kept getting stuck on one of the dogs. Like I'd select the dog to check on her motives or see where she was or whatever, and then I'd go back to my Sim but it would look just like I still had the dog selected, it would be her picture and her motives and everything, it was just weird. So I exited the game and started looking around online seeing if anyone else was having similar problems and that's when I noticed there was a new patch available. It didn't mention that it would fix that kind of issue but I thought maybe indirectly it would. And, while I was at it, I downloaded some new CC. No mods or anything, just some new clothes and a few new objects.

Then I tried to start my game. The screen was black, with the little blue circle the cursor becomes when it's trying to load or when something has frozen. That was it. I had to open task manager and force it to stop. I tried to get it to start several times, all with the same result. I thought maybe the awesome mod wasn't compatible with the new patch, since it's the only mod I use, so I took it out and tried again. Same thing.
Now, I'll admit my decision to download the patch had been rash. I hadn't backed up my game. So I decided to do a fresh install. I'd been wanting to anyway, and I decided that while I was at it, I'd wipe my CC clean and start a new neighborhood and just start everything over. It sounded really nice actually, to just restart everything. I had backed up a few of my favorite Sims when I made them anyway, so I uninstalled and reinstalled and opened the game. It was strange though, because even with absolutely no CC yet, it still had a lag before it started up in the beginning. It did start though and everything seemed fine, so I went about my business and went on a downloading spree. And when I finally had everything I wanted, I went to start my game up.

The same thing happened. The same black screen with the little blue circle cursor. I tried taking all my CC out and putting it back in little by little, and the weird thing is, it worked separately, but all together, it wouldn't start. But then eventually, with all the CC in, I just let it sit while I sat and stared at it in frustration, and it finally started up. But the lag. I don't even think the word lag applies here. It took a good 20 minutes to even get to the world screen. Once I chose Sunset Valley, I am not joking, it took at the very least four hours. I went and curled up with a book while it loaded and ended up falling asleep, and the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep it had been three and a half hours. And then I tried to load the CAS screen and the game completely froze and I had to start task manager again anyway.

So I spent all day trying to get it to work. Googling everything I could think of and trying everything in the help threads on here. Yes, I tried all the steps, all met with the same stubborn results from my game. I downloaded Delphy's Dashboard tool and deleted any files in my game that were duplicates or corrupt or empty or anything they weren't supposed to be, I deleted cache files. I did every step the help threads gave, and that's why I finally gave in and decided to post a thread, because I have no idea what else to do.
And yes, I have a lot of CC in my game, but not enough to warrant four hours of loading time. I have a powerful computer. I just got it as a Christmas gift from my parents, and my husband designed it and and chose all its parts with gaming in mind so it's not like I'm having performance issues. Before my game started having problems it always loaded quickly, the graphics were gorgeous, no lagging, nothing. And I had almost as much CC then as I do now.

I apologize for this being so long, but I just wanted to make sure I was a thorough as possible describing everything so that maybe someone would have some idea of how to fix it. Please please please someone who is substantially smarter than me tell me how to fix this.

Dxdiag

The portrait panel issue is an old one and have nothing to do with the patch. It happened to me once a year ago: http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/1...-portraits.html

Also, even though you have a new computer, it would still be helpful for the helpers to see it's specs just in case.

Oh, of course. I was going to do that and then I completely forgot. I'll update my original post with my specs

And thank you for the portrait panel fix! One problem down at least.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? :/

Hi, again. I stumbled upon something that reminded me of your graphics card. I had hoped that one of the more tech savvy players would have helped you by now. I don't know if this makes any difference but here's what I came across while searching something else: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3...00/td-p/2005547

http://http://modthesims.info/wiki....em_Requirements

Thank you for your help, varpunen. I actually had issues with that when I first installed my game, but someone here noticed that my game wasn't set to run off my graphics card and instead was running off the intel one. I have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645 and that's the one my game uses, not the intel. I had to set it to do that manually. Thank you for your help though

patches (at their best) have been double edge swords, causing almost as many issues as they solve. Patching to try and remedy an issue you were having probably wasn't the best idea, then to compound the issue by downloading more custom content just made things worse. Chances are, you have custom content that is either corrupted and/or not compatible with your patch version. have you tried renaming your User Files and testing the game to see if it works ok without any CC, saved games, etc? If it does, then one or more of your CC items is the issue. If not, then you have more than a CC issue.