OK, so I had difficulty installing Sims 4, and one of the EA techs had me use a program called CCleaner. While it worked, and I was able to install Sims 4 with no problems, it seems to have messed up the brightness on Sims 3 - the typical dim screen issue. This has never been a problem until I installed Sims 4, and I'm wondering if the use of CCleaner may have had something to do with it... Someone please help!
@roberta591 Well I have to start it from Origin... does that matter?
@roberta591 Well yeah, there's a desktop icon, but if I'm not logged on to Origin when I double-click it the Origin login box pops up, so does it matter if I'm logged on to Origin or not?
@FirePrincess917 I have Origin set not to run at boot so I have to double click the Origin icon and manually start Origin then minimize Origin. This is to check that there are no updates for the games. Origin is required as that is the DRM for the game. Do you have any cc or mods in the game? Here is a link to the game reset I referred to - reset Sims 3 game This will clear all user data. If the game runs correctly now there is something was wrong in the user data for the game.
@roberta591 I do have some Store content, but the dim screen was a problem before I even downloaded and installed it...
@FirePrincess917 Did you try the game reset?
@roberta591 No, I'd like to see if there's anything else I can try before I do the reset. That's something I kind of see as a last resort...
EDIT: I just tried turning off compatibility mode on my Into The Future icon, and it didn't work...
@roberta591 OK, I tried the factory reset, but it didn't work...
@FirePrincess917 The posts I have read relate to solutions that can not be taken as the solution. Like in my case one day I started the game and the issue was gone. I still think it is a video driver issue that relates to the way the graphics chip handles the chroma element of the video signal. Intel does not issue frequent video driver updates like Nvidia and ATI (AMD) so you can't update the video driver because you have the latest driver from Intel. If you do the game reset correctly you should be able to return the game to the condition it was in when you started very simply. The only other solution I saw is about deleting files from the user data and reinstalling store items. I don't think this is the correct path to take until it it is known that user data is causing the issue. BTW this issue seems to only affect Windows 8.1 and that leads right back to the video driver. Again Intel HD Graphics 3000 is known to have issues with this game. Your computer is very weak and as your free space on the system drive I feel is critically low for normal operation there are going to be issues. Trouble shooting computer issues l\is like being a detective.
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains however improbable must be the truth - Sherlock Holmes
IMO Windows 8 was poorly designed (tiled start screen) and even more poorly supported so bad that by the time Windows 8.1 was released the damage was irreversible. Microsoft had to give away free upgrades to Windows 10 to even get users to start using the new Windows. This giveaway was well publicized I can't understand why people are still using Windows 8. Windows 7 main support is over and on extended support. While Windows 8 is still a Microsoft product - it's user base is much like Microsoft Vista was - small and declining.
You have to eliminate the game as being the issue before a solution can be looked for in a poorly supported device driver pool. This is why for gaming Intel graphics is a poor choice.
