Sims 3- how many games exist?

[pinkgirlforyou]

Wow! I had no idea. By the way, I just discovered "tethering" , where I use my cellphone as a modem!
But obviously because of my luck, it doesn't work. Urgh. It does connect me, but it keeps saying every web page is a security risk. Even Google. Every... Single... Page. It won't let me download chrome. And it takes aaaages to get a web page up. I got a feeling the internet stuff is out dated, because of course there's never been internet on it before. I will ask if that can be sorted soon. So I can give you all the info, and so I can be helped without hiccups. I recently went on the nraas page, and the instructions on how to Install a mod, looool, whaaat? It's so confusing. I have no idea what they talking about. I only have basic computer knowledge. So I have no idea what patches are or how to extract etc.
Sigh, but so far I'm having no problems with the game now. Just that it lags when I'm under water and Scuba diving. I hope before the end of year I'll have everything sorted.
You are so helpful and kind, thanks again.

[puzzlezaddict]

@pinkgirlforyou  While we're talking downloads... if you're playing in the EA version of Isla Paradiso, it's no wonder you're having issues.  That world is so poorly made that it's almost unplayable, no matter how powerful your computer is (or how many mods you have installed).  Just to be clear:  The pack itself is fine, and the activities that come with it work well in any other world that has enough space for them.  It's only the unedited world itself that causes problems.

You can download the fixed version of IP made by ciane, or you can do the necessary edits yourself (which she also detailed), but either way, you'll have to do something to address the routing issues and horrible world design.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1

The other thing to take into consideration is your computer's hardware.  Whether it's under- or overpowered, there are some steps you should take to protect it from the stress of running TS3.  I know I must sound like a broken record, but either a dxdiag or a report on specs (pretty sure I described how to find that info earlier) would be useful here.

And I can help you install the mods, if you're interested.  It's really a lot simpler than it looks, and the NRaas site gets a lot easier to navigate once you learn the basics.  But, and I cannot stress this enough, you WILL break your saves if you try to use mods on an unpatched game.  Every mod is written with a particular patch in mind; if that mod calls on files that don't exist or read differently than expected, game corruption is inevitable.

For the internet issues, I'd try downloading Firefox.  It works better than Chrome for a lot of things, and I've never had any issues with it.  If the most recent version doesn't play nicely with your operating system, you can look into Waterfox, which is an earlier iteration updated only to enhance security.  And if necessary, you can always disable your antivirus/firewall while downloading a browser; just remember to enable it again when you're done.

[pinkgirlforyou]

Hi again! I've been nagging and nagging my dad to fix this internet on my computer. I tried plugging in my cellphone into my significant others laptop, and the  internet worked perfectly fine! I was on any site, no problems. Now , I try here at home, but my computer gives a bunch of error messages. It won't let me download Chrome, which it says it needs. I don't know what to do further. I really want to give that computer info for you. I didn't forget. Lol. Would you able to give advice? Would it help if I uploaded a few pictures of the error messages ?

[pinkgirlforyou]

I sincerely hope you don't think I'm being forward, but I was wondering if you could reply in a way that you're explaining to your techno-phobe family member. Lol. I am proud of myself, I googled today the meaning of Patch. So I do know what that means. I don't know why they don't just say upgrade. Anyway. As I already said, I'm awful at technical things. Technical terms. Etc. I hope that's okay with you.

[puzzlezaddict]

@pinkgirlforyou  You probably don't need Chrome; there are other browsers you can download instead.  (I mostly use Firefox myself.)  The issue with Chrome may be that your computer hasn't had any updates in a long time, seeing as how it's not usually connected to the internet.  So the current version of Chrome may not be compatible with your computer's older operating system files.

I'm not sure why your computer thinks it needs Chrome, unless you set it as the default browser at some point.  You should have Internet Explorer on your system, no matter which version of Windows you have, and all the newer ones have Edge as well.  They're not great, but they should let you download a better browser.  Just type in either name in the box in the lower left corner of your screen, and the app will pop up.  Then you can download Firefox or Opera.  There's also a variant of Firefox called Waterfox, which is an earlier version but with updated security; this runs well on older systems.  But even if you can't get any other browser, Explorer will work in a pinch.

And sure, if you want to upload pics of the error message, that's fine, but it's not necessary unless you can't get any other browser to work at all.

By the way, the term "patch" is preferable to "upgrade" because many patches aren't really upgrades in that they don't change how an app is supposed to work.  A patch might fix a glitch or a security flaw; not all of them introduce new features.  So "patch" covers any new data that should be added to an application's program files.

For TS3 in particular, there were many patches added on to the base game, and the code for later packs was written with the assumption that the packs would be installed on a computer with a fully patched base game.  For example, I believe that Island Paradise was released shortly after patch 1.55 (I could be wrong about the number), and it wouldn't work properly with a base game that was still on patch 1.27 or something.  But earlier discs were released long before the later patches, so of course their code doesn't take those patches into account.

It's therefore necessary to make sure a disc install is fully patched before you try to run the game.  The TS3 launcher was supposed to take care of the patching process, but it's kind of fragile and doesn't handle that kind of load very well.  So EA made an app called the Super Patch that does the job instead.  It's much more efficient and doesn't fail like the launcher so frequently will.

For the dxdiag, while I'd love to read the whole thing, you could start by copying the most relevant information into a post here.  This guide covers how to read a dxdiag, but it shows where you can find that info:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Academy/How-to-read-a-DXDiag/td-p/3325775

I'd specifically like to know your operating system, system model, processor, and memory (first screenshot of the initial post); card name, dedicated memory, current mode, monitor model, native mode, and driver date (second screenshot); and free and total space (this is shown in the screenshot in the fourth post, but it'll be below Sound Devices and PS/2 Devices, so you'll need to scroll for a bit).