Hello I can install PO fine on my desktop pc fine, but it is a slower computer and I am around it much less

My laptop is a Thinkpad T510 i5 2.53 ghz, 64 bit windows 7 system w/ 8gb RAM. I realize this is not intended as a gaming pc, but surely as a fairly fast and recent laptop it should be able to run PO with some settings configuration, right?

Here is the problem I keep encountering:

1. I downloaded PO. There is a PO icon on my laptop
2. When I double click that, a box states "You don't have the latest version of DirectX required by Perpetuum. Would you like to download it"
3. Clicking OK takes me to the DirectX End User Runtime Installer page for Microsoft. I then download "dxwebsetup.exe"  I then run that program
4. The DirectX setup hands for a long time at the "Initializing" screen, and then always gives me an error message that "Setup could not download the file. Please retry later or check network connection"

I did run dxdiag.exe to see what version of direct x i DO have installed, and it states I have DirectX 11. This puzzles me - I do have the latest direct x installed, even past direct x 9. So why is there even an issue?

The only other thing I can think of is, that when I purchased the laptop I ran through "Black Viper's" tweaks for a faster computer and I did turn off various services, as per his recommendation for windows 7. However my computer has been running fast and smooth until this Perpetuum issue, and I only went with the minimal tweaks recommended by Black Viper, so I don't think this is the issue. However, maybe there is something that I turned off inadvertently, and direct x needs that to function? I don't know.... help please