Mass Effect won't start

I'm also having problems.

I suspect that the answer I'm going to get is "your computer sucks." Which is true. (I've got the dreaded intel integrated chip right now).

Which I would be fine with, except that before my old laptop died, I'd been running ME1, 2, and 3 (not beautifully, but acceptably), and the specs on the laptop I'm currently using are nearly identical to my old one (If anything, this computer is slightly better).

Besides which, I can run ME3. It's got some weird graphical things happening, but no crashes.

I can't get ME1 to run at all (I haven't installed ME2).

I've tried administrator/compatibility mode, I'v uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, updated my sound card drivers, updated the game...Is the answer really "Well, your specs aren't good enough, even though they were before"? Is ME3 really less demanding than ME1? Or does it just not quit as easily? 

ETA: If it helps, the pop-up error message I get is a generic it-stopped-working sort of message. The log file says this:

[0.074] Log: Log file open, 09/09/13 11:33:38
[0.074] Init: BioWare Final Build Version: 1.2.20608.0
[0.074] Init: Command line:
[0.074] Init: Base directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Mass Effect\Binaries\
[0.601] Init: CPU Page size=4096, Processors=4
[0.601] Init: High frequency timer resolution =2.078183 MHz
[0.601] Init: Memory total: Phys=1048575K Pagef=2097151K Virt=2097024K
[32.928] Log: Shader compiling for material Nodebuddy_GOOD took 20.25s
[46.798] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'
[46.798] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'
[46.798] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'
[46.798] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'
[46.798] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'
[46.835] Log: Failed to load 'Material None.': Failed to find object 'Material None.'