Hello. Basically, I am having problems with my graphics. The title menu loads ok, but after i start a new game, the graphics get all glitchy and i can hardly see anything. Maybe it's a hardware incompatibility. Or maybe I can edit something in low.ini. I have a HP dv4 laptop (not very good, but it does meet the min sys requirements).

Can u give your computer specs(graphics card especially)? I have a hp dv6 and i can say that the HP dv series = full of bullcrap garbage and this technical issues and that overheating crap.

How do I find that out?

Are you using 1.,5.26 patch btw?
You can type dxdiag in the search box
or you can type system information
There are many ways, i seemed to forget em all

and is it windows 7 u r using

i need information on the RAM, graphics card(display) and its drivers and what model it is etc. And your CPU.
What HP dv4 are you using? Do you know the Model of your hp dv4

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD.

When I start the game I can occasionally see a guy's face pop up behind it all, so it's at least partially working. Maybe if I just tweak a few graphics settings...

The intel graphics accelerator is not a gaming card. Chances are, your 'graphics card' cannot stand the load of skyrim. Because intel 'graphics card' are not for gaming.
Do you see a sticker on your laptop that says 'ATI graphics' or 'Nvidia geforce'? If you DO see it, it means you have a dedicated graphics card but your system is using the default intel chipset. You need to switch to the dedicated card.
If not, your video card cannot run skyrim.
Just a question, is it Intel HD 3000?

If you could give me the name of your laptop model e.g. Hpdv4-3029TX, i can have a look

I believe it's a DV4-2161NR
Integrated graphics.

i believe is this?
http://elaptops.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/hp-pavilion-dv4-2161nr-laptop-review.html

specs

Processor
Intel? Core? i3-330M Processor
Processor Speed 2.13GHz

Memory 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM)
Video Graphics Intel? HD Graphics with up to 1696MB Total Available Graphics Memory
Hard Drive 500GB (7200RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)

if yes,
1. The CPU is a bottleneck. It can just barely run skyrim from what i believe. But it can still run well.
2. The video card isnt powerful for skyrim. But it should actually work, but sorta laggy.

You can game to Low and try, if you havent done it. You can try updating the drivers too. As for performance tweaks, i dont really know much about it, sorry

overall, if u want to game, get a dedicated card. Always look for 'nvidia geforce' or 'ati radeon' stickers on the PC/laptop you want to buy. But of course, you have to know which of those cards are good, because some dedicated cards are just plain crap.

Bump.
I can tell the game is running fine, but it's like there are a bunch of random textures blocking my view.
When I open /data/skyrim.esm the construction set opens up ang gives me an error:
Texture Load Error!: Textures\_land_default.tga