Snow on Ground flickering

Hello all!

I think it's time to turn to the great people of Leefish for help!
(I'm just about ready to tear my hair out!)

I'll try to summarize everything the best I can...
Game ran beautifully up until Christmas, didn't play it for a month, now has all sorts of bizarre problems.
(Windows updated itself to 1709 earlier this month, I suspect this may be the problem but not sure...)

I have Sims 2 and all EPs installed from original discs +all patches.
At first the game just crashed every time, then I got it playable but with bad graphics, now it's playable with good graphics but still having issues/crashing.

The main problem right now is this Snow on Ground flickering issue (I'll attach a picture)
The dark spots on the ground flicker whenever I move the camera around.
Tried all sorts of different in-game graphics settings to no avail (although I can turn Snow on Ground Off as a temporary fix.)
(I haven't actually played it long enough to know how crashy it is yet, but it did already crash once just during testing...)



Computer specs:
Windows 10 (ver. 1709)
Intel i7-7700HQ @2.80 GHz
16.0 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB)

Here are some of the things I've already done:

- all the usual in-game stuff like disabling custom content
- run as admin, tried various compatibility modes, told the game to use the good graphics card
- modified the video cards sgr to include my card
- modified the graphics rules sgr to include higher resolutions, increase texture memory, and "allow the driver to manage its own memory"
- using no CD patch and 4GB patch
- clean reinstall of graphics driver using DDU and manual reinstall from NVIDIA site
-did this step TWICE because it reverted somehow
- turned off Windows auto-update drivers and uninstalled GeForce experience (in case it was auto updating)

Here's a thread at MTS2 where I discuss everything I've already tried.
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=606068

I've attached my config-log and I'm already noticing a couple weird things about it.
(never really looked at these before...)

1) It says OS version Windows NT 6.2...not Windows 10?

2) Under Graphics device info it says Intel® HD Graphics 630 <NOT FOUND IN DATABASE>
NOT my GTX 1060 even though I added it to Video Cards.sgr and it looks like it's using that card in-game (High graphics settings).

I'm so confused by all of this...hopefully someone can shed some light?
Any help is greatly appreciated!

  DESKTOP-CBO7GJ7-config-log.txt (Size: 10.4 KB / Downloads: 2)