There are a few lengthy disclaimers to this crash:

1. I know that the chipset graphics controller I am using is not supported. Onboard graphics suck. I get it. However the graphics do support Pixel shader 2.0 and I read somewhere that thats all that was needed even if they didn't guarantee it. If you decided to disregard the rest of the post from this point and tell me to go cry in a corner until I get big boy graphics thats your right.

2. To get the game to run involves some odd workarounds that I have not seen anyone else mention. The first time I d\led and then ran betas 0.22 and 0.23 I had Spybot Resident running and that killed a file called DXAtlasWin.exe when the map tried to load. The game ran until the point that the file was killed as suspected spyware. After that the game wouldn't go past the splash screen, which I tried to fix with the familytree kludge. That didn't do me any good. (I got pretty excited when 0.23 came out as it actually went to the menu again until spybot killed the .exe again, then back to CTD at splash) What finally worked is making sure the program data\.....\screens was empty, going into program files\....\elemental and deleting the DXAtlasWin.exe file until I get to the menu screen, alt-tabbing to re-paste the DXAtlasWin.exe into the elemental folder (not sure if this is crucial as the debug file pretty much stops after seeing that its not there) then continuing into a skirmish. If i leave the files in the program data\....\screens folder I get menus with no background, text only, and a CTD on world creation but if they are gone the workaround does the trick.

At this point I am in the game and every thing runs hunky-dory. Until I research the first level of the warfare tech tree. As soon as I can build barracks I can't go back into the kingdom info screen without getting switched back to windows and seeing the igfx recovery. And of course the driver crash means I can't go back into elemental because the map won't re-initialize. If I never research the tech, or if I don't go into the KI screen after I do I don't have any problems and I can run around terrorizing spiders and rival cities to my hearts content.

And thats my story (novel?).

Oh yeah debug.err: http://pastebin.com/m1b438e74

For any that had the patience and stamina to read this entire post I truly appreciate it.

For any that can fix my problem I will reaaalllllly appreciate it.

P.S. I do plan to get a "compatible" card before they roll out the 3D stuff.