Maybe its the graphics card? A Sims 3 crashing to desktop problem

So, I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7 (64-bit), which works much better than my old one. This one may have the ability to play games and maybe even Sims. I matched it up with the Sims system requirements and unfortunately, I have the mobile intel chipset family series. I checked online to see if I could still play Sims 3 with it and people said that it was possible. Not only taking their word for it, I installed the base game first with my retail cd. Turned out fine. Unlike my desktop dinosaur that gives game lags, this one was working so smoothly. But I only played it for fifteen minutes. Maybe if I played it longer, I would have realized my current issue.

So, I installed all the expansion packs from this site as well as the ultimate fix. No problems downloading and installing. When I finally started the game, the loading became stuck and crashed to the desktop. I immediately came here to hunt down the problem. I went on the link that you admins tell us about so often and I tried the DEP. It worked well for at least half an hour...and then my computer screen faded to black and froze. I had to press the on button for it to reboot. When it did, the Sims programme was still on and a notification was on the screen to say that 'Sims 3 has stopped working....' Sigh. So, I went back to hunt the issue again but I am having problems:

1. It may (more than likely) be my graphics card. My graphics card is Mobile Intel (R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family.I wanted to do solution 4 in the list but I could not find the vertical sync tab anywhere. How do you find it with this graphic card?

2. If it is my lovely graphics card, I would like to be able to lower my graphic settings in the game. After it says that 'Sims 3 is not working', my laptop also informs me that the resolution is not optimal for the display device...or something like that. I had changed the settings within the game while I was playing the base game. So, this could be the problem. But now I am not able to get to the settings since my computer crashes before I can reach that option in the Sims 3 main menu. This may be a stretch but is there any way I can get to the options before it crashes?

These two solutions in the list seem to be the only ones plausible since I only have one saved game, no mods or cc and my RAM is at least 4gb.

So, please

Okay, thanks. I will try this and see if it works.

Hello,

Please do so and let us know the result, good luck!

Turns out it was an overheating issue. The laptop is currently being fixed. So, when I get it back, hopefully, it will work.

Lady ElDi wrote:
NumMaxActiveLotOptions 4 <- not sure what this is so I didn't touch it

What this does is tells the game how far out to show details for lots. If you're in a crowded area the maximum number of lots that will be visible with details is 4, based on the setting shown. Lowering this will greatly help many of the older cards, though really I've seen no real reason to set it higher than 3 even with the more recent cards (how often do you see yourself looking at 4 lots without moving the camera away from the lot you're currently at? For me, not very often - if at all)