HOW TO FIX SONIC GENARATION LAPTOP VIDEO CARD PROBLEM
I managed to play the game using my NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M on my dell xps 15 l502x Laptop.
Here's how to step by step:
1 ) Open your NVIDIA Control Panel(By right clicking on the desktop and selecting the "NVIDIA Control Panel")
2 ) On the 3D Settings List, Chose "Manage 3D Settings"
3 ) On the "Program Settings" tab, add the SonicGenerations.exe and ConfigurationTool.exe in your installation folder, then force both of them to use the High Performance NVIDIA processor. (Don't forget to apply the changes)
4 ) Open your "Screen Resolution" window (By right clicking on the desktop and selecting "Screen Resolution").
5 ) Click Detect
6 ) It should display additional monitors greyed out and saying "Another display not detected". Find the one that is not Intel Integrated Graphics but your High Performance NVIDIA Graphics (Whichever it is) and select it.
7 ) On the "Multiple displays", chose "Try to connect anyway on: VGA" (it can be another slot depending on your hardware).
8 ) Apply.
9 ) Again on the "Multiple dislpays", chose "Extend these displays".
10 ) Run the ConfigurationTool.exe, it should show your NVIDIA graphics card as a graphics adapter.
11 ) Select your main display which is Intel Integrated Graphics. (Do NOT select your NVIDIA card!!! Because it is not associated with a monitor.)
12 ) Run the game normally. It should work fine now.
I believe I figured out the problem. The main problem that the game is not running is because of the optimus technology. It makes the NVIDIA GPU sleep when it is not needed. But the game however checks the GPU it will use if it exists or not. Since the NVIDIA GPU is sleeping, the game cannot detect the GPU leading to a crash. We need to have the NVIDIA GPU awake before starting the game. This is only a trick to keep NVIDIA GPU awake before starting the game.
Hope this will work for you as well.
Good luck =)