So, many years ago, I had a very old laptop that was terrible and lagged and the snow flashed red but somehow it could run Freetime without freezing in the middle of CAS, a problem I HATED when I made the mistake of installing Freetime on an Intel 965 chipset family laptop. Now, I have a shiny new Windows 8 that runs EP/SPs up to Seasons just fine, with all graphics settings set to low just in case and played in a room that is pretty much freezing 365 days a year along with my trusty fan. Everything's all great but it has the dreaded Intel HD graphics, which scares the bejeebers out of me because all I really, really want out of the pack is the tmbodytech outfit to recreate my favorite family I made on my dinosaur laptop, but I don't want to risk the agony of having to close out of a frozen up CAS screen just for an outfit. I mean, the violin and pottery items were something I used often, but that outfit... I dunno, it just brings back a lot of memories.

Backstory aside, I thought I had hope looking at the EA "Upgrading your PC for Freetime" page, but it made me have this question. It says "Intel Extreme 82865, 82915 and above," is Intel HD considered better or above? And will it freeze at CAS or will it just require my newer laptop to be babied like other EPs? I don't understand how I don't have this problem on a laggy, almost 9-year-old laptop with a horrid video card that makes the snow look like a million sims were murdered in it and their insides are throwing a rave party, yet risk it on a newer computer.

tl;dr version: Will my game freeze in CAS or not?

I have HD 4000 and it runs great. Just get a cooling fan under your laptop similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It keeps your components cooler and will hopefully keep your video card from frying. It has reduced my average core temps with about 10C when playing.

Go ahead and try it but back up first before you install Freetime that way if there is a problem you can uninstall it and have your game back.

Just watch and listen you will hear your fans speed up if it has to low of video to run FT.

Ohmigosh thank you guys. I'll certainly back up my files.
But one small extra question about that. If it doesn't turn out, do I copy and paste everything back in or just replace the neighborhood files and downloads?

After starting up the game for the first time you can then delete the whole The Sims 2 folder and copy and past your old one in and it will work or you can just replace the Neighborhood and downloads folder its your choice.

Thank you again I'll give this a try when I get home from my vacation this Saturday, since my FreeTime disc is at home ^w^