@Briona_rd You did do things correctly, and there's nothing obvious in your dxdiag or your deviceconfig that would explain the issue. You do have a number of failed Windows updates though, and it's worth addressing those just to be thorough.
- Hit Windows key-X
- Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
- Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
- The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
- After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
- Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
- Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
- Post the message you receive here
Restart your computer, click Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates. If anything installs, restart again when you're done.
For the issue itself, please try playing a new save in a clean user folder. Move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, a new folder will spawn with no content. Don't add anything to it yet; just start a new save and see whether you can reproduce the issue. It would be especially helpful to have a look at the same lots in your screenshots, that is if they're from a default or store world: it's fine to install some store content, though better to keep things to a minimum for now.
If you can't reproduce the issue in a new save, you can copy your existing save to the new folder, but don't add anything else unless that save takes place in a store or custom world. Since you're copying and pasting the save rather than dragging and dropping, you don't have to worry about missing items—your original save will be intact in your original Sims 3 folder.
