Neverwinter nights wont load on my laptop

You really have my sympathies.  I'm in the process this very second of patching my new installation of "Neverwinter Nights 2: The Mask of the Betrayer" expansion pack.  (Yes, seriously!!) Awesome game.

That file is critical for Microsoft's application compatibility and might have become corrupted.  Were any Windows updated installed recently?  Removing update KB935280 has been known to resolve problems with this DLL, but that's for Vista, not XP.  

That's an old version of aclayers.  The newest one is 6.1 or something like that.  Are you running Service Pack 2?  It might contain the newer version.  If need be, try downloading a newer version of aclayers.dll from one of the sites that provide Windows DLLs.  Just be warned that I can't vouch for the safety of any of these links.

http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/A/aclayers.dll/6,0,1,135f/download.html

http://www.driverskit.com/dll/aclayers.dll/1.html

http://www.afreedll.com/dll/info/aclayers_dll.html

what do i do with the dll do i need to unpack it or is there a specific place to put it ? ...i started trying to load this game around 11am and finished at 11 pm ahhhhhhh  i just cant understand why it doesnt work ...and i REFUSE to give  up lol

this is the first neverwinter btw would i have much luck with the second?

IIRC there was a driver problem with NWN that caused this as well.

You can edit the nwn.ini file to disable your sound drivers (change the entry from DisableSound=0 to DisableSound=1) and see if that makes a difference to the game launch.

Do a search on your hard drive. It should be in C:\Windows\System32, but it could be elsewhere as well.  If there are multiple copies, remove or rename any older ones.  (Just look at the date on the files.)

The DLL in question deals with application compatibility, and NWN is an older game, but I don't see why that would be causing a problem.  NWN2 completely blows the original away; however, its system requirements are much steeper.  You might not be abe to get a satifcatory experience with your laptop.

Also make sure that ALL of your laptop drivers (chipset, video, audio) are up-to-date and that your version of XP is at least Service Pack 2.

ive discovered its something to do with my sound card  and ive tried to update but to no avail...so how do i change the ini file on nwn ?

Just open it in a text editor like Notepad (make a backup of the original first)
Change the DisableSound settings as above.
If it runs OK then you need to change the EAX files - can talk you through that but first check the game runs with the sound disabled.

if i disable my sound card through my devise manager the game run with out sound ...so what file do i need to go into on the nwn folder ? is it called imi ?  thanks for any advise

Make sure that you have the latest version of DirectX 9.0 installed.  Just about all Windows games are written to go through that API.  They just released their latest version in June, so you definitely want to get that installed.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/1/f/c1fb09b0-8a8b-45ba-8bb0-64f60bd23175/directx_jun2008_redist.exe

I will say this, though, Neverwinter Nights without sound is like watching "Star Wars" on a one-inch LCD watch.  The music is gorgeous and the voice acting is very, very well done.    Unfortunately, it looks like the last audio driver update for your laptop is from January 2006, so I don't know what to tell you.  

There are USB audio cards for laptops, however.  One on NewEgg is only $20 and has a very high rating.  You might want to look into one of these as an option and disable the on-board audio, if indeed the audio card is the issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000360057%201102608535&bop=And&Order=RATING

If you follow what the Bioware thread suggests when you look for those DLLs, make sure to search this way.

Start => Search => For files and folders

Click "All Files and Folders"

Click "More Advanced Options"

Make sure that "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders", and "Search subfolders" are checked, otherwise the search might skip past the directory with those DLL files.

Then go ahead and search for those files.

Oh, and if you're going to be a fighter or paladin, I recommend bringing Sharwyn along as a companion. She knew exactly what spells to cast to beef up my character in a fight.  Sometimes I didn't even know there was an enemy nearby until she cast enhancement spells on me.  :)