Flickering screen after CC

@drkatrine  It's hard to know for sure what might have happened, but my first guess would be that your laptop was using the Intel 630 rather than the 940MX when you saw the flickering.  Sims 3 should always use the dedicated card, and Origin likes to as well, but occasionally a computer will misread the demands of an app and use the integrated card instead.

The easiest way around this with an Nvidia card is to use the built-in Control Panel to specify that a given app should always use the high-performance card.  You can access CP by right-cllicking on your desktop.  I don't have screenshots of the high-performance setting specifically (my laptop has an AMD card), but it should be with the other settings shown here:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16540301/#Comment_16540301

Be sure to use TS3.exe for an Origin install; TS3W.exe (with the "W") is only relevant for disc or Steam installs.  While you're at it, you may want to turn on vertical sync, which can help with flickering issues from other causes and protect your graphics card from overworking itself in general.  V-sync limits your framerates to the refresh rate of your screen, so your 940MX won't be generating higher fps than is useful.  Control Panel only works in fullscreen mode, but there are other tools to use if you prefer windowed mode, starting with Nvidia Inspector (free download), which is also shown in the link above.

Bottom line though is that as long as this doesn't happen again, you don't really need to worry about it.  Sometimes graphics cards or drivers can have a little hiccup, but the real time to be concerned is when you notice a pattern.

Thank you very much for responding so quickly.

I'm happy to hear that this has probably been the cause and not something more serious as I was getting really scared when it happened.

About the "Be sure to use TS3.exe for an Origin install; TS3W.exe (with the "W") is only relevant for disc or Steam installs." - Before I just installed the Sims 3 via Origin, I just clicked "download" and it downloaded and installed it all. Is it the same thing again or is it something else you're asking me to do? As I said I uninstalled all of the Sims 3 because I was hoping that would help at the time, so will have to install it again.

I also apologize in advance because English is not my mother tounge so some things can confuse me at times.

Thank you very much again for helping me!

@drkatrine  Your English is great; I probably didn't make things quite clear enough, since I tend to write out this particular recommendation a lot.

When I mentioned TS3.exe and TS3W.exe, I meant that you need to pick the correct one if you set up a profile for the game in the Nvidia Control Panel (or another app that limits frame rates).  In any Sims 3 install, both of these executables get installed as well, but the one that runs the game depends on what type of install you have (Origin vs. disc or Steam).  So if you use an outside tool to cap fps, you need to specify which .exe that tool is actually supposed to work on when it's running.

OH Now I understand it better. Thank you so much for this, I truly appreciate it. I will try all of this as soon as I can 🙂 

I can tell you that it probably dosen't have anything to do with what you said. 

I didn't have a blinking screen until just now, it came suddenly, so it's back. Just restarted and it seems okay now, but it also blinked on the 'closing' screen when closing the laptop, so it must be something in the laptop.

@drkatrine  It might be an issue with the graphics card itself, or it might be the load that the card has to carry when running Sims 3.  It's still a good idea to confirm that the frame rates are stable when you're playing though.  A drop below 60 isn't really a problem, but if you're getting higher numbers, then you'll want to try another tool to limit fps for the protection of your card.

If you're interested, I can recommend some hardware monitoring apps so you can see how hard your 940MX is working.  It may be that some features of the game, like rain and snow or long-haired animals, puts excessive stress on the card, and you might need to adjust your settings accordingly.  This is all speculation though until you see how hard the card is working, and whether the flickering is related to the overall load.

I'm very glad I have you because or else I wouldn't know what this even means, so thank you, haha.

I will say again that I haven't even reinstalled Sims 3 after our first discussion as my life was hectic. It's not installed now either as I simply haven't dared to. Even though the game isn't installed sometimes the screen flickers and blinks. Long time happens in between, but it still happens, and it all started after I tried to install that custom town Storybrook County, which I don't understand. It happened the moment I double clicked the file to get it installed in the launcher. I have talked to others and they don't know how that's possible either.

You might be right. I have to find a way to check frame rates while playing once I install it again. It could very well be the graphics card itself as Sims 3 isn't installed right now and it still happened, I really have no idea. I have contacted support for this laptop and they told me there are some updates for my graphics drivers, so will look into that. But I'm beginning to think it's actually the graphics card there is something wrong with. Still don't get how double cliking a custom town file to install in the launcher could trigger it though. I'm so lost. Glad to have your help though!

Sure, please recommend me some and I will look into it 🙂 

@drkatrine  If your laptop's support recommended graphics card driver updates, then that's the first thing you should do.  Once you update, if the blinking doesn't go away, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post here.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

The apps I use to monitor my hardware are hwinfo and GPU-Z.  The first shows info about all hardware, from the motherboard to the case fans, and the second is just for graphics cards.  But both will show the overall load on your card as well as a number of more in-depth stats.  You can also log a session with either app, so you can see how the stats change over time as you're playing.  Both are free.

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/

But there's not much point in running them unless you're actually playing a game.  Otherwise, your card won't be working particularly hard, and the data probably wouldn't be useful unless there was some glaring error.  More helpful would be the dxdiag, which might list certain hardware and software errors directly.  Then once you've addressed those, you could install the game and see what happened.

And I agree, it's very strange that the flickering started after installing a custom world.  I tend to think it's more likely a coincidence, or at most that running the Sims 3 launcher revealed a new issue that you hadn't seen up to that point.  But it's just a guess without more information.

Thank you so much for your help!

The thing is that I will now get a new laptop - the situation is complicated but I'm in a situation where I can get a new laptop of the exact same kind - since the wierd screen stuff are still there after graphics updates. 

I might do a dxdiag on the new laptop and throw in here just in case to make sure nothing is wrong, but I just made one of this laptop, so here you go, I hope the file works.

As you know my first language isn't English but Danish, which means stuff are probably written in Danish. I hope it's still understandable. 

Let me know what you think and again, thank you so much for your help. 🙂

@drkatrine   I think a new laptop might be a good call here.  Screen flickering can have plenty of different causes, including problems with drivers or running apps that are more demanding than the graphics card can handle.  But it can also be caused by hardware problems: everything from the card itself to the connection to the screen.  And while the problems, hardware- or software-related, can be fixable, hardware issues are sometimes difficult to repair in a laptop.  And there's nothing obvious in your dxdiag that would explain the flickering, making a hardware issue more likely.  So if you can just get a replacement, it's probably the easier way to go.

As far as the new one is concerned, you'll still want to manually cap in-game framerates and make sure the laptop is using the dedicated card to run Sims 3.  (The fps limiters should take care of this too.)  Some flickering while you play wouldn't be surprising on a 940 MX.  It's not the strongest card, and running the game on ultra graphics settings might be too much.  But you should definitely be able to play with a mix of medium and high settings, depending on which packs you have installed.  (It also helps to reduce the in-game resolution.)  Sometimes it takes a bit of experimenting to get the right settings, but it's certainly doable.

Anyway, when you do get that new laptop, if you run into any issues with Sims 3, feel free to post back asking for more help.  And I'd be happy to look over a dxdiag on the new system for you whether or not there any problems.  The dxdiag itself is easy to read by the way—all the important info is either in English or computerspeak.