Kymizer: I use a program called SnagIt, from TechSmith. It's the most comfortable and easiest screen capture application I've ever had the pleasure of using - and it makes me want to go screenshot trigger happy 

Money!!!
know any free ones...ehh..off topic a little..
good luck roketjack!!! I'm sorry that it might not work on your laptop, yet maybe some good news. On my school computer (our county gives its students laptops for the school year) Planeshift worked fine on it. But it also had a Radeon card in it, so yeah....it was a dell..and way to many administrator settings on it...