win xp, game will not start.

[vf1000ride]

Downloaded full game version from EVGA. Installed the game and it will not start. I get the shader 4 error as expected being I can't support it. After that it drops right to the windows error message the game has failed. I have tried both sli with physics, physics alone, and both turned off with same results. My video driver is 186.18, the latest whql release. I have tried manually changing the config file from shader 4 to shader 3 with no luck. The shader 4 error goes away but the game still crashes without showing any signs of running. I tried to run the patch and it tells me the game is not installed. So I figured why not. I uninstalleed it and reinstalled with all the same problems.

Hardware specs
Q6600
evga 780I motherboard
2 gig ocz reaper
2x gtx-260 core 216 in sli

Had also tried the demo previously with older video drivers and a pair of 8800gt video cards with the same result.

Any suggestions please. As much as I got this game free with my video card purchase it still chafes me to not be able to play it.