Can't change graphic settings in Sims 3

So i've got all the Sims 3 Expansions installed and the game runs fine save 2 problems..

1. When in town view everything is black except for the individual lots.. I can see them but they are just floating.

and 2. I can't change the graphic settings. When ever I go to change them and then click accept nothing happens. When I pull the menu back up everything has been reset, I can't seem to figure it out.

of course neither of these problems are particularly 'game breaking' problems. But still, it makes the experience much less enjoyable. I know my computer can handle 100% graphics because it ran them just fine when I had just the base game installed. It was the expansions that broke it.

Mod edit: Topic moved to the right section.

- Lady ElDi

Lady ElDi wrote:Hello,

Lets see, a few questions come to mind:
Have you been using mods/cc? If you have, drag&drop the mods folder from My documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 onto your desktop and try again.
What kind of graphics card are you using? The system requirements changed a little after Pets, so that you had no trouble using just the Base game doesn't mean much.
Are your graphics drivers up to date?

No. Nothing else is installed at all.
I'm using an AMD Radeon HD 6250. Pretty sure it can handle it. Besides, It's not that it runs slow in full settings. It's that I can't even get the settings to change at all. They simply don't save when I accept changes.