So I made a thread a few months ago about playing Sims 3 again on a brand new laptop without a disc drive. I finally got one and I'm attempting to install the game along with all the expansion packs I own. But I have a big issue that I uh... never realized before:

I have 2 copies of the base game disc!



One of them is from the Deluxe package, which had base game+Ambitions, the other one is a Starter Pack with the base game+Late Night+High-End Loft Stuff. I'm not sure which one I should install as I don't know which is on my older computer. Is there any difference between these 2 base game discs? Supposedly certain discs will force me to install Origin and update to patch 1.69, which I don't want, but I'm not sure which one does that or if I can bypass Origin with either of them. They both have separate codes.

Which disc should I use? Also, when I install the base game should I do updates first after that or just keep installing the rest of my packs and then update to patch 1.67?

you can try them all first if you're unsure. make sure you're disconnected out of internet, then you can apply super patch and install the rest of add-ons

I was talking about the base game disc. Do all of the expansion packs also try to force an Origin installation too? I was under the impression that only the base game would.

Both disks appear to be EA original. If it only says EA or perhaps EA and Maxis on the case, and doesn't say Origin anywhere, they are EA disks, and don't need Origin or any app to install. All EPs and SPs will load to that base game, even if they do say Origin on the box. Do NOT follow any prompts associated with Origin and do NOT go online while installing!!! You will need the Super Patcher, and patch your game to 1.67.

NOTE: This is what I did on PC, and "assume" MAC will be the same.

I think the Deluxe version should be okay, as long as you don't connect to Origin/ EA App. Before September 2012 you could superpatch to 1.67, but after that I think you needed to go through Origin and patch to 1.69.
https://modthesims.info/showthread....620#post5045620
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_3#Editions

Origin came out around 2012, I think and certain EPs that were released after 2012 would prompt to install Origin (Season/University Life/Island Paradise/Into The Future). Base game disc (assumed it's a retail one that was out in 2009 you have) does not contain Origin unless it's a bundle with add-on that was released in 2012 and after. if you accidentally install Origin while installing disc version add-ons, just don't connect to internet and delete Origin afterwards.

Would it be this prompt then? This popped up for the disc pictured on the right:


While this popped up for the disc on the left:

I'm not familiar with the Super Patcher, will that install all patches including 1.67?


I'm not sure which disc is which tbh


So just install the base game+expansion packs while disconnected from the internet will keep it from installing Origin/updating to patch 1.69? Uninstalling Origin after installation won't screw things up will it?

I have the base game disk from pre 2012, and I was able to ignore all Origin install popups when it suggested it. I then superpatched. My base game disk looks like the one with all the faces on the left.

I don't know about deluxe or bundle thing but my base game disc doesn't have any Origin, but then again I bought it in earlier 2010 when Origin wasn't out yet. Just ignore the Origin installation, install super patch, then install the rest of add-on discs you have. make sure you're offline during the whole process.

Ok, so just go offline/disconnect from internet>install base game, ignore anything Origin>install super patch>install everything else.
Is the super patch the one on Nraas or from somewhere else?

The Deluxe disc is the one on the left, I can tell by the trademark dates on the rim of the disc. The one that says 2009-2012 will ask for Origin, not sure if you can cancel that or not as Mandelyn suggests.

Superpatcher is here:
Game Help:TS3 Patching^wiki

Unfortunately, if that is a base game disk, it appears to be Origin. You can see what happens if you ignore that pop up, but I'm pretty sure the really older EA/ Maxis disks didn't have that pop up at all.

Is the super patch on Nraas the exact same as this one? And just install base game first, then super patch, and then install everything else?

The disc on the right is the one I have and yeah, it asks for Origin.

The patch over at Nraas is the same. As for the order, either installing the expansions first or the patch first will work.

If somehow you do get stuck with Origin (I don't know if you can download it anymore since EA stopped supporting it), you should be able to get around having to update to 1.69 by not letting Origin to connect to the Internet (using Origin in offline mode)

Alrighty, so I used the disc on the left to install the base game which went pretty smoothly
I had this pop up at the end to install EA Download Manager though (I think this is Origin so I didn't click Yes):

I then used the Super patch and the Launcher is now displaying 1.67 as the current patch level so yay

While installing the expansion packs, I got to Generations and this new window popped up:

The game didn't have any issues when I ran it after this, but should I run the Super patch again just to be sure there won't be any problems?

I did learn that when I got up to Showtime is when the installation asks if I wanna install Origin now:

So yeah, all of the discs ask if you wanna install EA Download Manager/Origin after installing.

I forgot how I bypassed the disc requirement to play on my old computer though (there's no mod in the files from what I can find). I did notice that a few of my discs had an odd smudge on it close to the middle hole, World Adventures in particular had a very noticeable one and it made a lot of clicking noises during installation it didn't have any errors or anything, and I double checked create-a-sim for anything corrupted. Everything looks ok as far as I know (hopefully...)
If there's nothing else I need to do or check, I'm gonna try importing all of my mods and cc over now, one of my main ones is world fixes. Are the ones here on this site still good to use despite the warnings on them, or are there better ones to use?

There is a no disc mod at NRass to bypass needing the disk in and it doesn't hurt to run the superpatcher again, I had waited to run it after I installed all the disc's.

I'll do that, though I'm trying to make sure all my cc is showing up in the launcher first. Some of my store content isn't showing up despite replacing the whole folder with the old one for whatever reason. That and the game isn't recognizing my graphics card (it's Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics) Is there a way to fix this?

Graphic card recognition https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/...p?topic=26753.0. You may need to reinstall your store content.

I figured that for the store content. Your link on getting the game to recognize the graphics card doesn't work; using the downloadable GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr provided there caused my game to refuse to even start up and crash. The steps are also confusing to follow.

Weird, i have used it for a couple years no problem.

I am using one from this post though, but it doesn't seem to recognize my graphics card either (says Found: 0, Matched: 1).

I'll put up this information in the event that someone else can help me. Looking around and I haven't been able to find a way to properly add my graphics card and have the game recognize it. Without it, my laptop quickly overheats even on the lowest settings (like the side vent just gets hot and burns, but underneath never gets hot due to my cooling pad), which concerns me. I got the Smooth Patch installed and I tried using the GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr listed on these reddit posts , which work but give me a Found: 0, Matched: 1. The guide here is confusing, and using the GraphicsCards.sgr and GraphicsRules.sgr provided just cause the game to not even load and produce a crash log.

The game boots up just fine, but the FPS is too high, going up to like 230-250 despite all I've done above.

My DeviceConfig log has the following information:

I'm not sure why it thinks my OS is Windows 8 either, it's 10/11. My laptop has more memory/RAM on it too, so idk why it says there's only 4. Unless I can't run this game on it at all which would suck any more help would be appreciated.

To clarify something further above regarding the SuperPatcher, we don't host it at NRaas. Neither does MTS. What we are both doing is supplying a link (the exact same one) to an EA server to download it.

Your device config (line 7) says you have 16 GB of RAM, not 4. I think you were reading the rating that the game is giving your RAM on Line 6, which is a score from 1 to 4, not a measure in GBs.

All TS3 DeviceConfigs say Win 8 unless you are running something even older. That's the highest level of Windows that was released when the game stopped receiving meaningful patches in Jan 2014. The incorrect identification is harmless.

Is your current computer supposed to have a dedicated graphics card? An Iris XE is an integrated graphics chip and while it should run the game, there will be limitations on how far you can take things when playing on integrated. Might it really have dual graphics and it's trying to use the "wrong" (weaker) one? I'm a bit surprised that an integrated graphics chip can even deliver wildly high frame rates like you are reporting, but stranger things in the universe have happened and that would need to be fixed too.

I'm not sure tbh I'm not very knowledgeable on graphics cards, much less this one. System settings show this info though if it helps at all:

There's also an app called the Intel Graphics Command Center that has more info on it too I think.

I did fix the high frame rates with the smooth patch at least, but I'm still concerned with possible overheating and the graphics stuck at looking muddy. I don't intend to have everything set to high though.

That system attribute you are sharing is your computer's processor, which itself is fine. Not a graphics card.

If your system does not have a dedicated Nvidia or AMD graphics card and you are thus running the game on the Intel Iris XE only for graphics, then again there will be limitations as to far you can realistically take the game before it starts randomly crashing or overheating things when pushed too far. At most medium graphics options, even less for some settings depending on the world being played and how many sims it is trying to simulate across the open world, would be the order of the day. A hefty dose of complicated, intricate high poly count CC and high impact mods, or even a world with "too many" trees and bushes, will add to the stress especially if all 11 EPs are in play (personally I would forego Pets and Seasons as those are the two heaviest hitters).

Not trying to be a hardware snob here, the game is after all almost 16 years old now. But it does have the ability to overwhelm hardware that it wasn't really designed to run on.