Game crashes on startup, help please

I have GalCiv2 and both expansions on my laptop - i loved it because it was one of the few very cool games that would actually run on it since the graphics card is shit.

However, since replacing my hard drive (through warranty and official toshiba channels) i haven't been able to get the game to run again. It just crashes within a couple of seconds of trying to launch it. No debug.err is generated in My Games. (in fact, nothing's in there, the folder's empty). I do have visual studio installed on this laptop, so it gives me the option to debug on the crash. As it's not a .net file, i get the most basic of info, but I've posted it below. 

The laptop is a Toshiba Portege R500 - 2gb ram, 160gb hd, dual core centrino 1.2, built in intel graphics card (which does work just fine if i set the graphics settings to the lowest the game offers - it doesn't look as nice, but gameplay is the same).

I'd really like to get this working again, as I paid full price for galciv2, and then again for each of the expansions as they were released, so it sucks not being able to play them now that I have the hankering to conquer a few galaxies!

I've read through other posts on here - my screen resolution is 1280x800 and it's set to 32 bit colours, not 16 as I saw them listed as possible reasons for a crash on startup.

Hope you can help - i submitted a support request via email, but have not received a reply.

The error I get (from visual studio) on the crash is:

Unhandled exception at 0x00df1312 in GC2Launch.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000.

The call stack:

 

call stack:

 

DXAxHost.dll!00df1312()

  [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for DXAxHost.dll]

  DXAxHost.dll!00df1f9c()

  DXAxHost.dll!00df1161()

  DXAxHost.dll!00df97e0()

  DXAxHost.dll!00de7d26()

  advapi32.dll!77dddfae()

  advapi32.dll!77dde22e()

  advapi32.dll!77dddfae()

  advapi32.dll!77ddde71()

  advapi32.dll!77ddde7f()

  advapi32.dll!77dd6a87()

  GC2Launch.exe!004490ce()

  GC2Launch.exe!0041a1db()

  DXAxHost.dll!00e0f2e3()

  GC2Launch.exe!0041a4a1()

  GC2Launch.exe!0041a506()

  GC2Launch.exe!0040c7bb()

  ntdll.dll!7c915239()

  ntdll.dll!7c91542b()

  ntdll.dll!7c912465()

  user32.dll!7e42cecb()

  user32.dll!7e42ed8d()

  user32.dll!7e42cecb()

  user32.dll!7e42ed8d()

  user32.dll!7e42cecb()

  user32.dll!7e41db3b()

  ntdll.dll!7c90ceea()

  kernel32.dll!7c8100be()

  kernel32.dll!7c81011d()

  gdi32.dll!77f15a05()

  user32.dll!7e4184ba()

  GC2Launch.exe!0046f84e()

  GC2Launch.exe!004174cf() 

 

And finally, the disassembled code (a small part of it) with the break point (not sure if this is any use at all, but i'm posting everything I have)

 

disassembly:

00DF12C0  jbe         00DF1335 

00DF12C2  push        dword ptr [ebp-8] 

00DF12C5  lea         esi,[ebx+198h] 

00DF12CB  call        00DEA42C 

00DF12D0  mov         edi,dword ptr [eax] 

00DF12D2  test        edi,edi 

00DF12D4  je          00DF12E8 

00DF12D6  push        edi  

00DF12D7  call        dword ptr ds:[0E10218h] 

00DF12DD  mov         esi,eax 

00DF12DF  inc         esi  

00DF12E0  cmp         esi,3FFFFFFFh 

00DF12E6  jle         00DF12EC 

00DF12E8  xor         eax,eax 

00DF12EA  jmp         00DF1302 

00DF12EC  lea         eax,[esi+esi] 

00DF12EF  call        00DFECD0 

00DF12F4  mov         eax,esp 

00DF12F6  push        dword ptr [ebp-0Ch] 

00DF12F9  push        esi  

00DF12FA  push        edi  

00DF12FB  mov         esi,eax 

00DF12FD  call        00DD10B0 

00DF1302  mov         esi,dword ptr [ebx+188h] 

00DF1308  cmp         dword ptr [esi+44h],12Ch 

00DF130F  mov         ecx,dword ptr [ebx+0Ch] 

 

 

breaks on the following line:

00DF1312  mov         edx,dword ptr [ecx] 

00DF1314  sbb         esi,esi 

00DF1316  and         esi,8 

00DF1319  or          esi,6 

00DF131C  push        esi  

00DF131D  push        eax  

00DF131E  push        ecx  

00DF131F  call        dword ptr [edx+20h] 

00DF1322  inc         dword ptr [ebp-8] 

00DF1325  lea         eax,[ebx+198h] 

00DF132B  call        00DEA416 

00DF1330  cmp         dword ptr [ebp-8],eax 

00DF1333  jb          00DF12C2 

00DF1335  mov         edi,dword ptr [ebx+1A8h] 

00DF133B  test        edi,edi 

00DF133D  je          00DF134E 

00DF133F  push        edi  

00DF1340  call        dword ptr ds:[0E10254h] 

00DF1346  inc         eax  

00DF1347  cmp         eax,3FFFFFFFh 

00DF134C  jle         00DF1352 

00DF134E  xor         eax,eax 

00DF1350  jmp         00DF136A 

00DF1352  lea         esi,[eax+eax] 

00DF1355  mov         eax,esi 

00DF1357  call        00DFECD0 

00DF135C  mov         eax,esp 

00DF135E  push        dword ptr [ebp-0Ch] 

00DF1361  push        esi  

00DF1362  push        edi  

00DF1363  mov         esi,eax 

00DF1365  call        00DD10E2 

00DF136A  mov         ecx,dword ptr [ebx] 

00DF136C  xor         esi,esi 

00DF136E  push        esi  

00DF136F  push        eax  

00DF1370  push        ebx  

00DF1371  call        dword ptr [ecx+48h] 

00DF1374  push        0E13DD8h 

00DF1379  push        dword ptr [ebx+188h] 

00DF137F  call        00DD3DFB 

00DF1384  pop         ecx  

00DF1385  pop         ecx  

00DF1386  test        eax,eax 

00DF1388  mov         eax,dword ptr [ebx] 

00DF138A  push        esi  

00DF138B  je          00DF1394 

00DF138D  push        0E15558h 

00DF1392  jmp         00DF1399 

00DF1394  push        0E15568h 

00DF1399  push        ebx  

00DF139A  call        dword ptr [eax+48h] 

00DF139D  push        dword ptr [ebx+1A8h] 

00DF13A3  call        dword ptr ds:[0E1028Ch] 

00DF13A9  mov         eax,dword ptr [ebx] 

00DF13AB  push        ebx  

00DF13AC  mov         dword ptr [ebx+1A8h],esi 

00DF13B2  call        dword ptr [eax+40h] 

00DF13B5  push        dword ptr [ebx+184h] 

00DF13BB  push        ebx