Direct x not noticing card

[mattpegher]

My daughter got a Dell XPS with intel HD graphics card and Nvidia Geforce 525M.
She bought Civ 5 through steam but it stops responding after the flicker when the nvidia kicks in.
Directx only notices the intel card. Could this be the problem? How do get it to recognize the two card set up.
I dont know why dell has it set up this way?

 

[ViRGE]

It sounds like Optimus (NVIDIA's graphics switching technology) isn't working right. I don't have a machine with it so I can't offer any first-hand help, but there should be a control panel setting somewhere to force a game to use the 525M. Based on your description I would think that should fix your problem.