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Keyanna4211's avatar
Keyanna4211
2 years ago
Solved

Re: [READ FIRST] Unrecognized video card

Hi @puzzlezaddict - I'm having this sort of issue with my Sims 3 game. I saw that this was the most recent thread for the unrecognized card issue, so I thought to reach out here. So, I would try to f...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    2 years ago

    @Keyanna4211  This is a guide to the AMD Adrenalin (graphics control software) app.  Please try changing the settings in step 3:

    https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh3-021

    You can change them back again right away; the idea is to make the software think about the color tints.  It's probably enough to change the settings just for Sims 3 (TS3.exe if you've installed through the EA App; TS3W.exe, with the W, otherwise), but you can try the global setting as well.  Let me know whether that gets rid of the purple.

Keyanna4211's avatar
Keyanna4211
2 years ago

@puzzlezaddict - Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly! Sorry if my explanation gets complicated so please bear with me. 

About some of the files that you are seeing (if you're referring to the "\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\" and not the "\Game\bin\" folder), this was when I transferred some of the backup (copied) files from my flash drive (PNY 1TB) to my external SSD drive (Seagate). So, originally (before I knew you can't just drag and drop a game folder from one drive to another because of registry entries) -- I was planning to transfer my game to a flash drive but learned that an external SSD drive would be better and that I would have to uninstall the game from my Windows PC drive and then reinstalling it directly to route to my external SSD drive.

Once I did that, the files that I did have in my "Seagate Portable Drive (D: )\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\" folder were only ("_Installer", "Caches", "Game", "GameData", "Support", and "Thumbnails"). I looked and compared it with my flash drive "USB322FD (E: )\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3", and thought to drop in ("Custom Music", "DCBackup", "DCCache", "Downloads", "EP04", "FeaturedItems", "Library", and "Saves"). If these are the files you are referring to that should have been under User files, these would be the only files I transferred. The other files were there on their own upon reinstallation. I also left out some other files I saw under my flash drive but didn't think to transfer them in (PS: not an expert on these sorts of things). So, they might be the files that you said are missing.

I can share with you an attachment of what I do have in my flash drive. To see if you can help me understand. Then, I can transfer the necessary ones and you can tell me if they should be in another folder (User folder). One question: Would I have to create this User folder or should it already be somewhere in my external ssd drive? So that it won't have to be mixed/combined with "The Sims 3" folder.

Btw, I don't believe I properly transferred everything to my flash drive either and because the method that I used was the "copy and paste" method, none of the game launch files work on there if I click on them in there. So I have some files that were manually transferred from Windows to there but not all files.

I also followed what you said about looking through the Documents folder and luckily I did find it! (I was afraid I would not be able to find it because I thought that I already deleted most of the sims-related files from Windows) but I see them there. I also noticed I have the copied version in my flash drive "The Sims 3" folder too.

Okay - I have attached the photos for the first 40 lines of the DeviceConfig file after the "--Options--" line. Let me know what are my next steps. Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/guglkk9

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago

@Keyanna4211  Before we do anything else, please post screenshots of the contents of all the Sims 3 folders you have on your current computer.  It sounds from your description that the best approach here is to clean-uninstall and reinstall the game, but I don't want to inadvertently help you delete files you'd like to keep.  While I can me somewhat confident based on your description, I'd rather be absolutely sure, since you wouldn't be able to get back the content the clean uninstall removed.

There's no point in getting your graphics card recognized until you've reinstalled the game since the edited .sgr files would be removed along with everything else.

  • Keyanna4211's avatar
    Keyanna4211
    2 years ago

    Hi @puzzlezaddict! I just realized something while looking through all my Sims 3 folders like what you told me to do. I realized that the directory, "\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\" from my Windows drive IS indeed the 'User files' that belong to my current Sims 3 game. I noticed this because I saw that the creation dates for them said 3/3/2024 which is the same day that I had reinstalled my Sims 3 game as well as uninstalled the Origin app to update to the EA App.

    So sorry about the mix-up! You can disregard what I said about there being old sims-related files there because I realize that those files are the right ones. For some reason, I thought it couldn't be them because I installed the game in my external SSD drive so I thought that the files you were talking about would have been under Seagate and not my Windows. But I learned that 'User Files' actually meant my own PC drive. In this case, the photos that I have attached with the ones in my Windows Documents are the right ones. Including the notepad for DeviceConfig. I will not worry about those few folders ("Custom Music", "DCBackup", "DCCache", "Downloads", "EP04", "FeaturedItems", "Library", and "Saves") I had transferred from my USB flash drive to Seagate because they're basically duplicates that I can delete without a problem happening. My game already has its original files installed in the right place. 

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      2 years ago

      @Keyanna4211  That makes things a lot easier.  If you have saves or other files you want to preserve that are NOT also on your USB, rename the Sims 3 folder in Documents to something that doesn't include "Sims 3" in its name; otherwise, you can skip this step.

      For the uninstall process itself, please download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) and tell it to remove Sims 3.  Make sure the EA App is closed, the EABackgroundService is NOT running in the backtround, and the external drive is plugged in and recognized.  When Revo is finished, restart your computer and reinstall the game to the external, or wherever you want it.

      I would strongly suggest installing into a folder on the external, for example D:\Games, rather than on the root level of the drive.  That will make troubleshooting much easier and will also avoid some potential complications that could happen if the EA App thinks the entire D drive is one of its game directories.

      Once you've reinstalled the game, launch it once to make sure everything is working, and then we can move on to getting your graphics card recognized.

      • Keyanna4211's avatar
        Keyanna4211
        2 years ago

        @puzzlezaddict Okay! Thanks for these tips! I will try them. Just one more thing before I uninstall The Sims 3 game off my drive, to ensure there isn't any misunderstanding. The only important downloads on my USB "(E: )" drive are just CCs like houses, custom clothing, and that sort. The other folders in it -- were old duplicates (like the ones I've tried to move) that were from my previous installation of the Sims 3 when it used to be on my regular computer drive. So, they are basically unneeded/old files. I don't plan to use the USB at all until of course, it's for moving just the CC downloads (which is not dependent on the game registry). 


        Also another thing, it seems that my computer had automatically installed the 'User Files' into my Windows "(C: )" drive although I had selected my External Drive "(D: )" as the destination for installation. Are you sure that the 'User Files' will/should be under the "(D: )" drive? Like I understand, the original folders that I mentioned that were there initially from the time of installation would be okay to be under "(D: )" drive. But shouldn't it be fine for the 'user files'-which include save files, game settings, and caches to be within my Windows folder directory "(C: )"? I saw something that said that sometimes game's registry entries and system path variables often point to locations on the C: drive for user data, regardless of where the game is installed. So that user-specific data is separated from the program data (making it easier to manage and back up important files) and since its a default that Windows does for user-specific data.

        Just want to make sure, because I wouldn't want to reinstall the game if the 'User Files' are supposed/will go back in that directory place "(C: )" unless it was something else you meant.

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