The Sims Medieval Questions

Hello! I've had my Sims Midieval game for a while now, and it seems to run fairly well in all aspects besides a few things.
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<BR>1.I'm having terrible graphic issues. For instance when the game starts up it's fine, however, once it runs for even a few minutes some of the graphics start stretching creating gazillions of little lines that go all over the screen. (most of the time these lines are caused by the water graphics like the river.) Then, while the lines are all over my screen (and it only seems to happen at certain angles or when I move the camera) my sims' hair disappears, and if there are blurries like when your sim bathes those can disappear at certain angles as well. I mean the game is still playable, but they are quite annoying. For some odd reason I find that the graphic issues are less when the graphic settings are higher. It was very unbearable at the suggested low settings. I wondered if it was the graphics card, which it may be, but whatever settings I put the game on these graphic errors still occur. Another odd error is when my computer locks up and I move the mouse to make the screen show back up, the game becomes darker tinted. (the only way I've found to fix it is to restart the game.)
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<BR>2.The game takes quite a while to load when entering a lot (like the castle, tavern, clinic, ect.)or switching floors.
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<BR>Now first off I'm running Vista on my computer and it is a desktop. I have practically no knowledge about my graphics card (how to check it, how to replace if if needed, ect.)or how to check my own system to see if it meets game requirements. I tried surfing the web to see if others were having the same issues but I couldn't find anything.
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<BR>My first question is are my graphic issues a graphics card issue or a game issue? If it is a graphic card issue how do I go about replacing my graphic card? (please be specific because I have no idea exactly where a graphic card can be found or anything.) If it's not a graphic card issue how do I go about fixing my game? Would it be wise to contact EA?
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<BR>And coming back to my 2nd question, is it normal for the game to load a while when switching floors or entering a location?
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<BR>Sorry for the long question but I would like my game to run as smoothly as my Sims2 game does. I seem to have no issues when playing The Sims2 will all the expansion packs, but when it comes to Sims Medieval I seem to run into problems. Thank you for you time and hope I can get some answers.

Date of Question: Oct 9th 2011 | Question ID: 223451

First off THANK YOU for giving lots of information. The amount of people that say "This game isn't working. Help!" is ridiculous.

It sounds like you are having issues with your graphics card. It may be a good idea to try and update your graphics card drivers. You will need to find out what graphics card you have and then search 'drivers for *graphics card*' or something like that.

You could also try running the game in compatibility mode as this can often fix graphical issues. Just find the game folder and right click on the executable file (.exe) and click on troubleshoot compatibility problems which will run with recommended settings or click on properties. Go to the compatibility tab and check the box that says 'Run in compatibility mode for:' and try out the different compatibility modes.

Long loading times are probably just lack of Ram or processing power. The only way of really fixing this is to upgrade your computer.

Hope this helps.