Outdated video driver and letters that get stuck on the screen

You might want to call Dell Support for that then. Being unable to update drivers is a serious problem/flaw.

I have some questions for you.

Where were you trying to download the updated drivers from. Dell? or Intel?

Can you give us specifics from DxDiag about your display system? If you could save the DxDiag to disk and post these two sections, "System Information" and the first 50 or so lines of "Display Devices" it may help us find an alternate source for drivers for your laptop.

One caution: Find out what Dell's rules are for getting upgrades for drivers. If you get them from someplace else, what will it do to your warranty? 

I've tried both dell and intel drivers. Intel drivers tell me to download from dell and dell drivers simply fail.

There are threads on dell support site from people with the same problem that were started over half year ago and still no answear from dell support.

Here is my system information from dxdiag

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/7/2014, 07:18:10
       Machine name: JOLLI-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130828-1532)
           Language: Icelandic (Regional Setting: Icelandic)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
       System Model: Inspiron 5520
               BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 03.72.24A13
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
             Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8068MB RAM
          Page File: 3697MB used, 12435MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
          Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
       Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
          Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
           DAC type: Internal
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0166&SUBSYS_056A1028&REV_09
     Display Memory: 4095 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 1064 MB
      Shared Memory: 3031 MB
       Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: unknown
         Monitor Id: SEC5441
        Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (59.997Hz)
        Output Type: Internal
        Driver Name: igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumd32,igd10umd32,igd10umd32
Driver File Version: 8.15.0010.2696 (English)
     Driver Version: 8.951.9.1000
        DDI Version: 11
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 3/19/2012 20:31:54, 8087040 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: Yes
    WHQL Date Stamp:
  Device Identifier: {D7B78E66-4226-11CF-C777-6025B7C2C535}
          Vendor ID: 0x8086
          Device ID: 0x0166
          SubSys ID: 0x056A1028
        Revision ID: 0x0009
 Driver Strong Name: oem75.inf:ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1:iIVBM1ML_PROXY:8.951.9.1000:pci\ven_8086&dev_0166&subsys_056a1028
     Rank Of Driver: 00E60001
        Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeWMV9_C ModeVC1_C

Have you tryed installing the old driver first?

The awnser given here might just work for you:

https://communities.intel.com/message/225514

Note: on uninstallng graphics drivers you  might want to work in 'safe mode'

Thanks for the help. I tried following these instructions but with no success.

I think I've tried pretty much everything to update this video driver. Intel driver says this operating system is not supported and dell driver says this system does not meet the minimum requirements. It's Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 I was trying to update.

However, my laptop has 2 switchable videocards and the other is AMD Radeon HD 7670M. I have no problem updating that driver even though the information about the driver still has the old date in device manager after updating.

I also found out that in ccc or catalyst control center I can put galactic civilization on high performance and I think that by doing that I let the game run on the 7670 card insted of HD 4000.

When I don't use high performance on the game the tab letters in the game get stuck on the screen but when I use high performance all the tab letters disappear.

I saw on another thread here that more people are having the same issue.

The issue with the error message popping up because the game recognizes the secondary, in your case, the Intel unused card. Is a known issue that is on the list to address.

Ok.

But what about the missing letters problem? When I use my AMD Radeon HD 7670M(with updated driver) to run the game I can't see any letters in the tabs as I mentioned before. Will that be fixed?

As far as fonts missing I am looking into that issue now and it has been added to the list.

Thanks. Looking forward to a fix on that issue. It's difficult to test the game without fonts

for reference

when i use only my integrated Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 everything is fine.

when i set catalyst to use my Radeon 7970m i also get no fonts.

what i have had to do in the past was delete my intel and then let windowz update reinstall it.

also everyone is getting the not compatible  msg at startup it seems.

This sounds like a request to compare symptoms to hardware. So far as I have seen on this forum the only ones having this problem are those with laptops with a combination of an Intel integrated graphics and another graphics card installed. I am not seeing this problem, but then my hardware configuration is different; a desktop with an Intel I7-4770 without the integrated graphics and an NVidia GeForce GT640. 

This is interesting, found this on a dell support page.

"On AMD Enduro Switchable Graphics Intel HD 4000 graphics is counted the primary GPU.  It was engineered this way so as to not cause delays when switching between the two GPUs, the integrated GPU runs all of the time and the discreet AMD GPU will only kick on when a program that has the profile of high performance is started.  The Intel HD 4000 GPU doesn't turn off even then, the discreet AMD card renders the graphics and sends the rendered graphics to Intel HD 4000 which sends the graphics to the program."

When I updated my AMD Radeon HD 7670M video driver I used Windows updates to update the driver because other methods didn't work.
That way I successfully updated the driver to version 8.951.9.1000.
However, I lost the ability assign programs to the 7670M card. It seems to me that the driver was made for computers with only one video card.
I know this reply doesn't really belong here but other players here might have simular issues.
Maybe it's time for me to send dell support a line. I always thought I would be safe by bying a dell computer but I guess I was wrong.