I've just purchased a new laptop, which I had hoped would run Sims 3 better than I've been accustomed to, but I've run into difficulties.

The machine is an HP ZBook GB, running Windows 10. It has an Intel Core vPro i9 processor and Nvidia RTX laptop GPU.

Well, I started installing TS3 from disks, and all seemed to be going well. I got a message about my graphics card not being recognized, but I'd expected that, it's never been a serious problem before. After I'd installed the base game, I tested things out, and it both played and looked gorgeous. I was dead chuffed and couldn't wait to get the rest installed.

But now I've got as far as Late Night and had to stop there, because something is definitely wrong. Map view shows as just a white on black silhouette. You can see icons for the various lots, but that is all.

I went into CAS, created a test sim and placed her in a house. Once on the lot everything looked fine, in fact it was looking better than I've ever seen the game look. But when I zoomed back out into map view everything was a complete white out again.

I've not got any mods or cc installed yet, just the Base Game, World Adventures, Late Night, Ambitions and Generations.

I hope that somebody can help me fix this, and that I haven't just wasted £900 on a computer that will never play TS3 whatever I do. Any advice will be much appreciated.

EDIT: I now see that losail27 had this identical problem, which I did not spot when searching. Sorry about that. Well, they say 'grey', I say 'white - whatever, it's the same problem. nitromon suggested trying to get the game to recognize the graphics card. Well, I shall try that. At the moment I'm still trying to find my way about Windows 10. (Using a frickin' touch pad! However do people manage with those things? Gimme my trusty old mouse any day! But there's only one USB socket on this thing and I need that for my DVD drive).

If I remember correctly, when it comes to installing discs, it must be installed in the precise order in which it was released or issues can arise. I'm not sure if stuff packs count too but I would also install in order. An EP or SP can be skipped if one does not own that one or several.

-World Adventures (NA: November 17, 2009)
-High-End Loft Stuff (NA: February 2, 2010)
-Ambitions (NA: June 1, 2010)
-Fast Lane Stuff (NA: September 7, 2010)
-Late Night (NA: October 26, 2010)
-Outdoor Living Stuff (NA: February 1, 2011)
-Generations (NA: May 31, 2011)
-Town Life Stuff (NA: July 26, 2011)
-Pets (NA: October 18, 2011)
-Master Suite Stuff (NA: January 24, 2012)
-Showtime (NA: March 6, 2012)
-Katy Perry's Sweet Treats (NA: June 5, 2012)
-Diesel Stuff (NA: July 10, 2012)
-Supernatural (NA: September 4, 2012)
-Seasons (NA: November 13, 2012)
-70s, 80s & 90s Stuff (NA: January 22, 2013)
-University Life (NA: March 5, 2013)
-Island Paradise (NA: June 25, 2013)
-Movie Stuff (NA: September 10, 2013)
-Into the Future (NA: October 22, 2013)

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Are you up-to-date on your graphics driver? Go to NVidia's official website or you can download GeForce Experience which will make sure you are updating the correct driver on your PC.

Official Driver/NVidia
https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx

GeForce Experience
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforc...rce-experience/

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Laptops can have two video cards similar to a desktop depending. One is the dedicated graphics card and the other usually comes with the CPU and is the integrated video card. Make sure all your visual applications are using the RTX which is the dedicated video card.

You can check by downloading NVidia Control Panel here: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/de...?hl=en-us&gl=us (There's likely a few ways but this is the one I commonly know of.)

Under 3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings (Should already but selected on the right hand side) > OpenGL rendering GPU > Click on it and select your NVidia RTX if it isn't already > Click Apply at the bottom right of the window

Also

Under 3D Settings > Configure Sound, PhysX > PhysX settings > Processor (Choose NVidia RTX if not already listed) > Click Apply

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Might not have anything to do with the game but it's good to make sure you are also up-to-date on Windows updates. Just be sure to look at your settings first to what's okay and not okay to install. For example: Some accidentally allow a free upgrade of Windows 11 to be installed. Which I am going to take an educated guess that something is likely to go wrong going about it that method. Personally if I wanted to upgrade my operating system I would do so as a clean install most likely with a brand new SSD and removing the old one while backing anything I want to transfer to an external HDD or SSD.

Hi Elynda

I had the same issue when reinstalling my game from disks on a newer iMac. I wanted to save some towns before I installed the later expansions so they didn't all have Port-A-Party Warehouses etc, only to discover that the map view was white and the game couldn't identify my computer's graphic card. The saves themselves seemed fine.

The following day I installed the remaining expansions from disk; my graphics card was now recognized and the map view went back to normal.

I think the problem is old game versions loaded from disk only recognize a limited number of graphic cards.
You could see if upgrading directly to version 1.67 solves the problem.

Best wishes

Peter

Thank you both for responding:

Deshong

I'm glad you listed all the EPs and SPs in order, that saved me some bother. I had the same thought about installing them in the correct order, so I uninstalled everything and started again with Base Game, which is once again working fine. We'll see how we get on.

At the moment I can't download anything on that computer, because I can't seem to get on line. (When I was installing the first time I had a message telling me that the application (Sims 3) needs .Net Framework 3.5 to work. I couldn't download it on the new machine, so I had to come onto this computer and look for an offline installer, which I then moved over to the new one and installed). So upgrading the drivers will have to wait till I've got the thing on line.

peter9g

That is encouraging. I have the 1.67 patch ready. I'm not sure if I shouldn't install it now or wait till I've got everything else installed, or does it really matter? I certainly installed it last the last time I had to re-install everything

UPDATE:

Well, I think we've cracked it.

And I am SO glad I kept that copy of patch 1.67 on my external drive, because that did the trick.

I was installing all the packs in the right order and everything was fine till I reached Late Night, then I got the white map again! I nearly despaired. So I thought it high time to try the Patch and then, finally, there was Bridgeport in full technicolor! So to answer my own question above, you must certainly have the patch installed for Late Night.

Anyway, I've been at this all day now, so I think I'll go to bed and continue installing tomorrow.

Once again, Deshong & peter9g, many thanks .