Please Help! Warning: Unable to Identify Hardware

[chick4muzic]

I am trying to play the Sims 3 and keep experiencing crashes. I am running Windows 7 and have quadruple-checked that my computer meets all the specifications (it exceeds them by a long shot). Here is more information about my problem... After installing Origin and The Sims 3, I go to boot up the game and the first time after installation, before selecting a town, I get this message: "Warning: Unable to Identify Hardware. This game is unable to identify your hardware. Please contact customer support. You may need to adjust your graphics settings manually for optimal quality and performance." I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game, and the same message popped up. I am able to go into the game and play in the Create a Sim area for roughly 5-15 minutes before the program crashes. The music continues to play but game play will freeze and I'll be unable to click anything--although the cursor still moves. When I press alt+ctrl+del and open the Task Manager, it shows that The Sims 3 is Not Responding. Please note that I have tried adjusting the DEP settings and I also changed the compatibility mode to "Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows XP (Service Pack 3)." The latter enabled  me to play longer before a crash, but I can't even complete creation of a sim and save that character. Very frustrating, as I have been trying to get this working since Christmas.