I cannot get Hot Pursuit to run. When I double-click the icon to start the game, the screen goes black and I get this "bing" sound and I can see my windows cursor. when I hit the tab-alt keys, I can see that an error message has popped up in the background. The error message says that "This machine's GPU does not support Shadow Model 3, which is required to run this game. The game will now terminate. Any ideas what to do?

sounds like maybe something is corrupted..try re-installing the game

Post the specs of your computer; this sounds like your video card is not up to snuff :\

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601.
AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core Processor, 2400mhz 4 Core(s) 4 Logical Processor(s)
ATI Radeon 2100 Graphics card
Let me know if any other info is needed.