Well, it's safe to say that upgrading to a new PC has turned into a frustrating nightmare, and the machine is literally a few days away from being sent back. I'm now attempting to run the game on the following:

HP ENVY 700z
• Windows 8.1 64
• AMD A8-6500 processor quad-core [3.5GHz,4MB L2 Cache]
• AMD Integrated Graphics
• 8GB DDR3-1600MHz [2 DIMM ]
• 1TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
• 460W Power supply

I'm using XP SP2 compatibility mode, because it seems to move faster than running it in Windows 7, 8, or 8.1, but I still have the following issues/concerns:

-I don't know which graphics card the game is defaulting to. I popped in a Radeon HD Sapphire 6570 1GB DDR3 card, which appears to be working fine on the PC in general. My icons are bigger, and it's a bit clearer. When I booted up the game, I received a warning about an unrecognized graphics card and something about my default settings being set to high. Is there a way to check and/or change which graphics card the game defaults to?
-Certain towns won't load. So far, I've tested Sunset Valley, Appaloosa Plains, Midnight Hollow and Isla Paradisio. Sunset & Appaloosa will get to 98%, and hang forever. Midnight & Isla load within 3 - 5 minutes, but the zoom in is painfully slow.
-CAS is slow to load in all categories, and the graphics are squished and dark.

Is there anything that can be done to fix the issues that I'm having, or should I start looking to get a refund? I've dropped my graphics options to low - medium, and that hasn't helped. I tried running the game with and without the custom content, and there is NO change in speed and functionality with or without it.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!


EDIT: It's being returned to HP.

Hi, @~Iris~
My OS is Windows 8.1. When I Installed Sims 3 + some expansions I was shocked the game didn't recognize the graphic card (NVIDIA GeForce) on my laptop.
My graphic card was considered too 'new' by the game. It seemed like because I installed TS3 base game until Pets EP then tried to load the game, the notification 'Unrecognized Graphic Card' . The graphic setting was set by default to lowest setting as possible. World texture became brokenly white. Something was not right. Exit the game then try method by Crinrict http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/0...-your-card.html

If it is not working, you have to install Expansion Pack up from Supernatural to the latest Expansion Pack(s). The graphic card has been recognized on OS windows 8.1 after I installed Supernatural EP.

.