GTA IV won't run past the first 2 screens!

I've frantically searched the internet for solutions to my problem, and I keep finding the same answers which I cannot try, but I suppose I need to explain my problem first.

Ok, so yesterday I bought GTA 4 thru Steam, and let it install over night. I selected launch game and it said it needed to update, from what I remember. So I updated it and Installed a few other things like Windows Live and Rockstar Social Club or something like that. Anyways, I launched the game, and at first it appears to be working, but it stopped at the first 2 screens. By the first 2 screens, I mean the 2 paragraphs with entirely black backgrounds that talks about Third Party agreement and licenses and stuff like that. So when it stopped, I got a message saying,

"GTA IV FATAL ERROR: Unable to create depth render target. Please reinstall DirectX and/or install the latest video card driver."

I did a bit of research, and now from what I understand, this is Error Code TEXP70. I looked for solutions and what I found was things like "Use RivaTuner" and "Install the new NVidia Beta Driver." I did some more research and I found that the RivaTuner only works for Windows XP and Vista, and the NVidia Beta Driver works only on NVidia cards and is risky to use.

I can't really provide much information because I don't know too much about laptops, but here is what I Do know. I have:

Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.13GHz

Windows 7 64-bit OS

4gb of RAM

Toshiba Satellite U500

Well, If anyone can help me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

the problem is that your computer particularly the integrated graphics chipset isn't even nearly powerful enough to run gta4

Well is there anyway I can fix the problem? Such as downloading a certain driver, or buying an external graphics/video card?

No and that game should specify in block letters "You need a quad-core cpu to play this properly". GTA 4 is a good game - but only if your PC has a lot of balls. Integrated graphics will never work.

Well then there's $30 down the drain.

unfortunately external graphics cards for laptops have never panned out as was hoped primarily because they didn't work well and required an external moniter. and yes GTA $ is a demanding PC game, mostly due to it being poorly ported, which is an all to common problem with games designed for consoles and moved to the pc platform.

valtonray said:

unfortunately external graphics cards for laptops have never panned out as was hoped primarily because they didn't work well and required an external moniter. and yes GTA $ is a demanding PC game, mostly due to it being poorly ported, which is an all to common problem with games designed for consoles and moved to the pc platform.

Partially, Resident Evil 5 is a fine console port and GTA 4 isn't too bad after being patched repeatedly.

as much as i love pc gaming, and i'm glad that even on consoles a game can finally be patched after it's release date doesn't make it acceptable to ship a game that clearly wasn't finished. if i come home with a new game on launch day i've been waiting for probably preordered months ahead of time then i want to play it, not launch it and find out it's unstable and have to wait on it to be patched.