New Laptop. Sims 3 won't recognise video card and hardware

@pigsquiggle  The unrecognized card is fixable.  You just need to add the MX150 to the game's database: specifically, you'll need to edit two files called graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, which are both located in the Sims 3 program files.  For a disc install, I think the default file path is:

Program files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Note:  These instructions only apply to and will only work for the original poster's graphics card.  If you'd like help getting your own card recognized, please post the same information from deviceconfig (at the bottom of this post) and ask for help.

Open graphicscards.sgr (Notepad works fine), and crtl-F to search for 10de.  That will take you to these lines:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

Create a new line under the "Nvidia" line, copy this text, and paste it in the new line:

    card 0x1d10 "GeForce MX150"

So you should now see this:

vendor "NVIDIA" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de

card 0x1d10 "GeForce MX150"
card 0x0fd1 "GeForce GT 650M"
card 0x0fd2 "GeForce GT 640M"

(with indents from spaces that this site isn't displaying properly).  Save, quit, and open graphicsrules.sgr.  Crtl-F and search for g100, which will take you here:

or match("${cardName}", "*G100*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelHigh

Change the bolded G100 to MX150.  Don't change anything else, not even the asterisks.  This will classify your card as high.  You can play with the graphics options later if you want, but this is a good place to start.

Finally, scroll back to the top of graphicsrules, and look for this, 8-10 lines down:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 32
setb textureMemorySizeOK false

change the 32 to 1024, and add a # and a space in front of setb.  Your card has twice the video memory, but TS3 can only use 800 MB anyway.  The lines should look like this:

if ($textureMemory == 0)
seti textureMemory 1024
# setb textureMemorySizeOK false

You'll know it worked if you see a [Found: 1, Matched: 1] next to the card name in deviceconfig, and texture memory listed as 1024 instead of the current 32 MB override.  If either tweak doesn't work, please paste the section of deviceconfig between "Graphics device info" (about 25 lines down) and "Options" (about 40 lines down) into a post here.