PA.exe has stopped working

Hi everyone,

Just activated my code on Steam and downloaded etc.
Upon launching it (after first time setup and whatnot), I immediately get greeted with that dreaded message which in this case says 'pa.exe has stopped working'.
After quite a long time of searching, I have tried numerous things, including downloading the DirectX files from the links posted from Uberent, and starting it from the PA directory (both normally and as an administrator).
I saw a few times about updating Video/sound Card drivers. I would, but I use one of these annoying Sony VAIO Z series laptops with the hybrid graphics so I'm stuck on a pretty old version of either an Intel graphics card or an NVidia Geforce 330M card which is the one I use most of the time. I have tested it on both of these cards (By switching the selector between the 2) to no avail. What strikes me as being odd is I have a remarkably large number of games on steam, as disks, new, old, and they all work without crashing even with my outdated drivers.
Am I missing something with PA that means that is has to have updated video drivers? Seems a bit annoying if it is like that, because (not that I want to be one of these annoying people that rants on the whole time), I spent a substantial amount of money on getting into the beta of this game, and I really don't want to have $60 worth of a crashing game on my laptop taking up just over 1GB of my SSD.

Anyone know if there is a way to resolve this?
Provided it worked, I've attached my DxDiag.txt if that helps, as I've often seen that requested in the topic about this issue.

Thanks!

Anthony

Can you not go to NVidia directly for driver updates?
I ignored Windows and went to Intel to update my laptop. Discovered there was an update that device manager hadn't found.

Sorry, I'm no expert about drivers, though somebody here will be.
I had problems in early alpha, and needed the DX download stuff
and an updated sound driver before it allowed me in.

It's not that PA HAS to have updated drivers, it's just that :-
1) It seems to "fix" most issues

2) Many ppl seem to assume they have the latest drivers, even though they haven't checked for several years...

3) The game is unfinished, so can't really be compared with existing finished games

4) This is a ground-breaking piece of software. You can't build ground-breaking software which is exactly the
same as all the other stuff out there.

5) This game is being designed to be as future-proof as possible. Therefore, it might not work on your equipment
yet, but it will on your next set...

Have you tried downloading nVidia drivers (latest WHQL) applicable to your graphics card?

If not, try this one....

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/notebook-win8-win7-64bit-327.23-whql-driver-uk.html

Hi all,

Unfortunately I can't update my drivers through the NVidia website. I know exactly where the updated driver for my NVidia graphics card is, but on my laptop you can't update each driver individually.
You have to wait for Sony to release a pack for the hybrid graphics card unfortunately. However they haven't released one for ages (and may I say that nearly all the Sony VAIO Z users are rioting because of it!), meaning it's out of date, and unless I want to tamper with the BIOS to update it, and in turn mean I can't switch between the graphics cards without doing a bunch of things first (unlike now when I can flick a switch and it does it), it's unfortunately not possible to update it like that.

Anthony

One of many reasons why I won't buy stuff from companys that "lock you in".
The bigger they are, the worse they treat you.
And, the more you pay.

Very true I guess, lesson learnt. Given the circumstances I'll probably see if I can contact uberent to see if there is a solution not involving video cards, check to see if it will work with older graphics cards by the time the full release comes out; and if it won't be fixed, I'll request a refund (even though I really don't want to do that because I would rather blow up planets!)

Anthony