Not necessarily so. If your updates are set for critical only, you will not receive driver updates. The best place to get updated video drivers is from the web site of the manufacturer who made your graphics card\chip. You should check this out as something as simple as a driver update can help graphics greatly.

Yeah. You can't rely on Windows Update. Even if you look at ALL avaliable updates.

so how do you know even if you go the site to look?
guess you don't, so luck out. well i still can't sleep so i think i'll nip on over there and have a look anyway

Which company makes your laptop? I have a gateway laptop and I go to their site and they have an update that takes care of those drivers. On my desktop, windows system properties/update driver did a strange thing. I'm having issues with Milkshape thanks to that. Sorry for off topic there. Anyways, the update in system settings took my graphics card down a level. It downgraded my driver and my display settings were inoperable for NVidia adjustments so I rolled back my driver to find that the one I had earlier was a later driver! The only difference I noticed was this.

The current driver 6.1.2.1 said Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher and the one it chose to install was Microsoft Corporation (5.6.7.3). Rolling back made one of my other tycoon games work fine and my NVidia settings fine but Milkshape won't start now. So, I think it is safe to say Graphics Card Mfr. or Laptop Mfr.

I should have mentioned to use caution when downloading a driver from anywhere else. Sorry about that. I've used driverguide.com as a backup for several things when my pc didn't seem to be able to find a "suitable" driver and the mfr. had none.. That's why I mentioned it. (sometimes I keep the dinosaur ones a long time)
It's good for when all else fails. I'd never heard of unupdateable cards either. You really might want to check at your laptop's mfr's site.. That's my guess.
Best to you
xts

LOL! Yep! Me too! You know, the only problem is, I can never remember the words, nor pronounce them right. I do better with southern draw, that one comes naturally from my past lol. Sometimes embarassing. And just for the heck of it, I don't think you're dumb at all! We all have our areas of expertise
Hang in there!
xts

On the subject of neighborhood terrain, i found it only does that if the lot has even the slightest slope. It doesn't happen on completely flat terrain.

XTS
its toshiba who make my laptop. i update the BIOS from there but have never found anything related to drivers other than that
ATI only seem to have drivers for full graphics cards not for pared down laptop ones
unless i am not looking for the right thing which is always a possibility

the microsoft site, once i got into it (like getting into Fort Knox) and having to open it up in IE <shock, horror> even if that was via firefox, had nothing for me apart from a .net update

jaxad0127
my problem isn't evident on a slope so long as i don't make the slope myself, how about you?

anelca, what graphics accelerator do you have? If you do not know go: start-run, type msinfo32. on the left click components, then display. A list will open on the right side showing video adapter manufacturer, the card\chip in use, the driver version, and some more info. Once you identify for sure which card\chip you have go to manufacturers site. If it is ATI, it is a little hard to navigate, but you will find a drivers\software update link on the home page. Click it and search for your card\chip. If your computer is 2 yrs old and has never had the video drivers updated, I can almost asure you there will be an update. I say almost cause there is always the exception to the rule. Good luck, and post what you find out.

*EDIT* by the way, if you do not see the model listed you have, there is a search option on the drivers page. You should be able to type the model in here and be directed to either a driver, or a message saying there is none available.

billyd1000
yes its definitely an ATI and yes the site is a bit awkward, i've been there before several times

ATI Mobility radeon 7000 AGP IGP
driver: ati2dvag.dll
version: 6.14.10.6497

laptop is only a year old so i should have the latest driver for it anyway. have just d/loaded one from toshiba which seems to have different last 4 digits than the version stated above to the one i have and is the latest in their list. going to give this a go

Wow! It's actually amazing you can play as well as you do. Your graphics chip is not on the list from maxis for being night life compatabile. It does't mean it won't work just won't work well, nor be able to show everything going on. Are you able to watch your cinematics play in game? (births, first kiss, etc?)

no i know its rubbish isn't it? it was supported before NL but not now
i am constantly amazed by what it handles. never thought it would handle uni, but thatwas ok. really doubted NL but thought well what the hey and it works better than it did before. i have certain things turned off like reflections, but other things medium or high and its fine
i did do something to get it to use 128mbs instead of 64 though. not sure on the techie bit there. i just experimented lol

no i can't watch cine in game, but thats ok

haven't done the update yet as i'm tied up on msn at the moment


huuge mistake to do the updates :D
something lost directx for a start. well i have done a system restore and all is well again :D
if it ain't broke, well not by much, don't fix it hehe

You lost Direct X due to an update? You could've just reinstalled it.

yes i could have but it was easier to just do a system restore to earlier on so thats what i did.

Poor babies!
Anelca, which one do you have? model of toshiba..
*maybe* I can find something for ya.. atleast for later if you want..
I found toshiba support page but without knowing what you have, hard to know if you have tried there and if there's anything there for you. I'd never heard of that. Maybe next time you will get a gateway or other laptop that supports ya for a while
Watch the lid on them, they can crack at the seem where it opens.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...kceghdgngdgmm.0
there's the link, not sure if it'll work for you, if not, I went into it with this link: http://pcsupport.toshiba.com/
and this was my google search page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...G=Google+Search
If that helps. Maybe you'll find more updates for your pc.
to ensure you have the latest directx you can also go to start/run/ type in dxdiag (incase you didn't know, I think most know that one here by now)
for driverguide.com I think you can still use their old user and pass to get in (for now). (user)drivers (password) all
They just started upgrading so it will (or has) change soon.

Billy: thanks for trying to help out.. I can only do so much. But I enjoy helping or trying to anyways.

jax: when you word it that way, it sounds really close to anelca's..

I'm so confused today.. One of those slow brain days so I'm going to take the family to get pumpkins and carve them.. (not much thinking needed in that) :D

Happy Halloween and sure hope you guys get your graphics fixed!
I'll be back soon..
xts

XTS
have done all that with the toshiba site. al they have which is appropriate is BIOS updates and that is up to date. the driver they have is the one i have too
i have a satellite A60
dxdiag (i'm always in and out of there lol)showed that directx was ok there was just a conflict somewhere.
what i did after the restore because the game started to crash altogether, was uninstall the updated ATI driver, it then resets back to the original driver
i have no time to fiddle with it today as i am off to work soon for 9 hours, might not get to it till thursday now. i have a website address of omegadrivers.com but have no time to investigate it properly yet but they have drivers suitable for laptops. i'll have a look later

happy pumpkin carving :D
i have yet to get mine, probably thurs, i love pumpkins with the candle inside, looks so spooky but strangely comforting :D

Anelca. LOL on the spooky yet comforting. I know what you mean. Especially the ones with the wicked grins!
I wanted to mention, it was you that can't watch the little movies right? I have one at my ea site (first kiss) if you want to see it. I also captured engagement and a few others. Maybe I can get them molded into a package to upload to ea? http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/my...?user_id=110698

You've been through alot, you deserve a break! I picked up the pumpkins but have to carve today, we ran late, got some food to boot. Needed it.
I'm sorry to hear about your troubles though. You seem so nice. (I won't mention I know your old username by accident, lol)
I think I mentioned it. I recently updated mine (to see if there was an update) and it totally messed me up by taking it down a notch instead of updating it. I rolled it back to have milkshape no longer work :O Yep, I'm unable to mod right now. Well, I could use the laptop but.. I can't see near as well as here for that kinda stuff. I"m on a desktop. Monitor kinda large I refuse to wear glasses unless I have to. lol
So, pumpkins tonight I'm not going to do one. they only had one. Got it for my 8 year old to do. I have enough work. Bringing it in every night to put in the fridge in plastic and coating it with vaseline. lol
I'll try to go check out the site for ya..
There are carving kits at Target for really cheap if you don't have one. Comes with patterns, tools, etc. You can also pick up the candles there if you wish. I did so it'd be orange.
Have fun!!!
xts

jax, how's yours doing? same? Hope you get yours too!

I can see the movies, but not in the special events window. They take up the whole screen.

Oh, I see. Me too, but I like that that way.. Better for recording :D
Glad you can see them. You're still more than welcome to watch mine. I'll get more up anyways cause I want to share them. They're one of my favorite parts of the game
Back to working on my pc and supervising the carving. :o
xts

XTS
yes i had to change that username as i started getting worrying PMs from another poster. Don't know what possessed me to choose it in the first place

I think that was the same problem you had, installing a newer update downgraded it, last thing i wanted
i tried a newer driver from OmegaDrivers.net but that tried to display widescreen, so had to get rid of that as well lol.
don't think i'll bother fiddling again for a while as i have a few houses in my head i want to get down
thanks for telling me about Target but i don't think we have them here in the UK
also the tip about vaseline, never would have thought of that

i used to be able to see the little movies with the original game but not since installing the EPs. the quality was pretty rubbish as i recall anyway. movies isn't my thing so i don't miss it
jaxad0127 at the risk of stating the obvious, is there any option available to minimise the window for the special events? my thing is greyed out so can't do anything with it anyway and i can't remember whether there was an option there.

anelca. Glad you liked the tips. Sorry for not reading and paying attention to your location. I am blonde lol. I use that every chance I get. :o
I'll quote what I got in a pm to you
(keeping it on topic here much as possible besides the occasional side remarks)
Well, least you could make use of my "movies" if yours do not work. Sorry to hear that too! They are pretty cool I think.
xts

Try moving it into the Lots and Houses Bin and then moving it back.

XTS
just watched your movie very pretty. i couldn't do that in a million years

I have now really exhusted all my options re graphics and their cards and drivers i think to solve the problems i have. but it remains, not interfering with gameplay but makes hoods ugly. i just d/loaded a house that had raised terrain which corrupted the lot view, but flattening it to the original level took care of it. so it seems so long as i can level the terrain it turns out ok

to summarise in case anyone else reads this and has the same problem
having a mix of levels is not ok, basements are not ok, ponds not ok changing this from one of my earlier statements
pools are fine. i think this might be due to it acting like a tile rather than changing the terrain
updating drivers may not fix the problem. getting a new and better graphics card may but i have no way of testing this due to the constraints of my laptop

thanks everyone for their input on this, even though it wasn't my thread

SimsFan2020, didn't help me. anelca, basements aren't a problem for me, just the terrain.

no, moving it to lots bin and back makes no difference to me either

anelca, I understand. and thanks for the compliment Did you know you can also use those movies on your sim's tvs?
Still unable to regenerate your issue, I'll keep watching.

Happy Halloween everyone.
xts