so a few days ago I bought the sims 3 and when I went home and installed it I then went into the game to check it out and it was fine so I exited and I installed the sims 3 late night it looked fine at first but when I went into my game the maps of both Bridgeport and Sunset valley were all grey, I want to know if anyone can help me with this
@rubysunn There are a couple of reasons this happens. One is insufficient hardware for the game; another is changing the wrong graphics setting and loading a save without quitting first, or changing while a save is already loaded. (Sometimes this just happens for no apparent reason at all.)
Move your entire Sims 4 game folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. Launch the game, which will create a clean folder with no content. Don't change any of the graphics settings, just load a couple of new saves, and look at each map. If they're fine now, you can go back to the Main Menu and change some settings, but quit to desktop afterwards, and then test.
If the new folder doesn't help, please go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, open the file labeled deviceconfig.log, copy the information between "graphics device info" (about 25 lines down) and "options" (about 40 lines down), and paste it here.
@rubysunn It's unusual that the deviceconfig would be blank, but not unheard of. Please try loading the game a couple more times to see whether the file will generate the proper info—it's written to at the beginning of each play session. If that doesn't help, you can look for deviceconfig inside your old game folder and copy the info from there, if it exists.
Please also let me know whether your computer runs Windows or macOS. If Windows, list what kind of install this is (Origin, Steam, disc, some other source), and run a dxdiag and attach it to a post:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
If you have a Mac, please post its full specs, as described here:
Here is the dxdiag
@rubysunn First, try running the Super Patch to fully patch your install. Even if you have before, it might repair something that's off with the game.
If that doesn't help, try updating your graphics card driver, which is from 2016. I don't think HP offers a newer one, but Intel does.
Just as a warning: Some HP laptops have software that blocks install of non-HP-approved drivers. If you get a message to the effect of you can't install this driver on this laptop, just back out and let me know.
@rubysunn Please open the launcher and take a screenshot of the whole thing.
@rubysunn The Sims 3 launcher, the one with the Play button showing.
