Hello puzzlezaddict, sorry it's taken a while to get back to you. but real life.... busy.
I did everything you advised with the DDU and in safemode. The first time I tried to install a clean installation of graphics driver it failed but on 2nd attempt was successful.
So then rebooted the laptop and tried to run Sims 3, did exactly the same thing, signed into orign fine, but when click on play sims 3, brings up a black screen with strange white box thats not alligned properly. and freezes the whole computer so I have to power it off and restart.
Anyway rerun dxdiag and have attached it here.
@StrangeAngels Sorry for the delay in responding.
Can you grab a screenshot of the black screen with the "strange white box"? It would be helpful to see.
In the meantime, you can run some commands to check your Windows system files. Here's how:
Ok it refuses to start validating at all. Screenshot attatched. I will try again over the " strange white box " to show you, but last time I wouldn't let me press any key at all, print screen refused to work, its as if it completely locks the computer down. task manager I can't bring up either when this happens.
@StrangeAngels You need to choose "PowerShell (Administrator)" or "Command prompt (Administrator)" to be able to run the command. Trying to run DISM via the option without the (Administrator) at the end will throw that error.
As for the screenshot, take a photo with your phone and upload it.
Ok I have the screen shot of the black screen with white lines on it attached and also the 2 command prompts with scan results on and clean up - restore health.
@StrangeAngels Well, at least the repair commands ran smoothly. That eliminates quite a few potential issues.
However, your second dxdiag lists a number of Intel graphics driver errors. I didn't know this at the time (thanks @holger1405 for pointing it out), but your model of laptop has a technology that requires both the Intel and Nvidia drivers to work together, even when you're playing games. So the best approach is to clean uninstall both drivers and download the most recent ones from MSI. I know you already dealt with the Nvidia driver, but that version is newer and doesn't necessarity work as well with the Intel driver.
Anyway, here's the process:
You already have DDU downloaded, but you'll need MSI's versions of the graphics card drivers. Be sure to get both the Intel and the Nvidia drivers now, listed under VGA, since you'll be offline until you finish the process.
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/support/PE70-6QE#down-driver&Win10%2064
Take your computer completely offline (again, disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cable). Double-click on Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you should get the message that you're not in safe mode. (If you don't, go to options and enable safe mode dialog, as before, close DDU, and reopen it.) For launch options, choose Safe Mode, and then click Reboot to Safe Mode. Once you login, you'll see this again:
Choose GPU, then Nvidia, then click Clean and Restart. Your computer will restart in normal mode. Launch the DDU again, reboot into Safe Mode, and repeat the above steps, but this time, choose Intel instead of Nvidia in step 2.
After your computer reboots into normal mode, still offline, you can install the Intel driver, then reboot, and then install the Nvidia driver and reboot again. For the Nvidia driver, choose a custom install again, and only install the driver an the PHYSX software.
If it helps, you can print this out, since you won't be able to go back online and have a look until you're done with the whole process.
When you're done, try TS3 again. It's best to remove your TS3 game folder from Documents\EA before you test, just to be thorough.
If you still can't load the game, do a clean boot and try again. Here's how:
@StrangeAngels Now that the driver situation is squared away, try another clean uninstall of Origin. Clear its cache first:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
Then use Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine, either regular or portable) to remove all traces of Origin, except for the Origin Games folder. Here's how:
Next, download and install Origin—the regular version, not the beta. Here's the direct download link:
http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe
Be sure to run both the ThinSetup (the installer) and Origin itself as an admin: right-click on each and select "Run as Administrator." Let me know how it goes.
(Thank you @holger1405, as always; you're wonderful.)
