I bought a Dell Latitude e6400 over the internet and was wondering if it will run sims 3 at all.
I used to play it on a HP Pavillion Entertainment PC tx1000 and it worked perfectly but it
has the "Black Screen of Death" (when the computer overheats and detaches the video processor
from the motherboard.) My dad recently brought back another HP Pavillion (I don't know what kind it is)
and when I play it, the game crashes in CAS! .

The new computer specs:
Processor: Core 2 Duo
Speed: 2.26GHz
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 80GB

More specs here.

thanks,
Lilly :D

I don't think so, and if it does it won't run it well. The nvidia quadro graphics card isn't meant for video games, it's intended for professionals. It's designed differently.

I don't know how much you paid, but I really hope you got a killer deal on it because Core 2 Duo technology is really old now.

My first computer, the HP Pavillion Entertainment PC had a Nvidia graphics card, and it played it without any problems.
I was looking for a gaming laptop but I couldn't pay $1,000 for one.

I set a strict limit of at least $300 because I was going to buy the whole collection of Sims 3 games. The laptop was only $215

If you have a strict limit of $300, then you shouldn't buy a laptop. Laptops are much more expensive than desktops for the same processing power.

Not all Nvidia cards were created equal. The "Quadro" series are not the same as the "GeForce" series. At $215 I think its an okay deal considering what it is. It just wasn't meant for games.

Was your old pavilion not upgradeable? (I haven't googled the model number, I'm on my phone)

I thought about a desktop but I there is too many cords and I can't take it anywhere. I have heard that Desktops are better for playing games,
but my desktops crashes when I play Sims 3. I get a message that says "Display driver has stopped responding"

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium T5224 Desktop PC Specs

Hard Drive: 250 GB
Processor: Intel Pentium D 820
Ram: 1 GB

Reviews

I have a review of my old HP Pavilion
The one in the review has a different graphics card. I found a review with specs and problems with it here. I do not think it was upgradeable.

Both desktops and laptops can be great for gaming, or they can be crap for gaming - it just depends on precisely which model you buy. The reason why most people recommend desktops for gaming is that you can build a good gaming desktop for about $600, but you have to spend $1000 to get an equivalent laptop or convertible.

It looks like your old HP is indeed not upgradeable. Your eMachine is upgradeable, though it's very out of date. If you're on a really tight budget, I think you've got two options:
You can return the new laptop, buy a netbook or a cheaper laptop for portable stuff, and save the rest of the money. Keep saving until you can buy a real computer .

Or, you could return the new laptop, buy a netbook for portable stuff, and invest a few hundred dollars into more RAM and a new graphics card and power supply for your eMachine. Having done that, you could save up for a new computer and, once you have enough money, reuse the graphics card from the eMachine in your new computer. However, I have to be honest - I don't really believe that, even with a decent amount of RAM and a good graphics card, the eMachine would actually be able to play TS3; simply because the processor is ancient and very, very weak. TS3 needs a beefy processor for the open world.

The story of this thread seems to be that you've acquired a series of cheap devices which aren't any good for TS3. If, instead of buying a succession of cheap laptops, tablets etc., you'd saved up - you'd be able to buy a good gaming computer now. So it might be a case of less haste, more speed, for the future.

P.S. - Maximum allowed signature length is 5 lines.

Thanks, Nysha, ajaxsirius, and Mootilda, you helped me so much. Turns out, I shouldn't be the one to pick out computers, I'll save up and let the Geek Squad do the picking. Thanks again.

I would recommend against allowing the Geek Squad to choose your computer. Many people don't understand the Sims requirements. Instead, when you're ready (and before you buy anything), ask us.

Will do, thanks again and Happy New Years.

Thankyou, and thanks for changing your sig.

You're welcome, Nysha.

UPDATE: I just played The Sims 3 with Supernatural, Master Suite, Pets and Showtime installed and it works perfectly, I still haven't tried it with any custom content.

It will probably keep working until the damage to your components is serious and irreversible, at which point it will stop working (although I suspect you'd have a different definition of it "working perfectly" if you'd played TS3 on a good computer :p) . The big difference between a good computer and a crap one is how long that takes.

Will run...but I really doubt that you can play with max settings.And probably you will encounter with terrible lagg.