pa.exe has stopped working. No mouse cursor.

I just bought planetary annihilation through the store and the game loads up fine. However I do not have a mouse cursor until I go into Windows mode and when I go to load into a game, the game itself crashes with the error pa.exe has stopped working.

Graphics driver from last year, February. That's my guess, update it.

Bit shy on ram and such, but should start, and if does start should get further. So, my guess is update graphics driver, if applicable update sound driver, and if applicable update .net framework and directx (because I notice you have vista).

I might be a noob at this, do you have 64x? I see you have vista ultimate, that is 64bit right?

Also, it helps if you let us know if it fixed it (or if it didn't, let us know so we can re-evaluate)

No, I have 32 bit. It let me in single player but wont let me in multiplayer.

Here is a link for the latest 32bit ATI driver for vista..
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/13-12_winvista_32_dd_ccc_whql.exe

It may help to get multiplayer working better.

Your problem with joining multiplayer caused by 32-bit OS limitation, please check this link for more information:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/648816742979172000/

Invisible cursor caused by AMD graphics drivers bug on Windows Vista: PA#2098
It's known problem and only way you can bypass it it's run game in windowed mod.
You can switch to windowed mode using Alt+Enter hotkey.

If you upgrade to Windows 7/8 64-bit cursor will work fine for you and other problems with memory limitations will gone as well .

I am going to upgrade to Windows Vista 64 bit. I am not upgrading to Windows 7/8 because I am not a fan of it and I don't want to upgrade just for one game. If this fails then I guess thats my money wasted.

Thanks for the help

upgrading to 64bit wont fail you.
32bit os can only use 3gb ram, the game needs to use 4gb minimum.
A 64bit os will fix the issue instantly by freeing up/letting you use the other 1gb of ram sitting in your machine doing nothing

@Keeran
Your computer is good enough to play PA it's more powerful than what im using.
im playing the game on a tablet/slate pc, 1.7ghz CPU and onboard intel HD graphics with 4gb ram.

Alright, Im upgrading later on and ill let you know if it fixes the issue.

just remember to download the 13.12 64bit ati drivers for your graphics card and you should start no crashes..
You may still have the missing mouse issue tho, i think that is a vista issue both 32 and 64bit.
Just play in windowed mode it should be ok then..

64-bit Vista won't fix cursor in full screen mode, but everything else should work fine.