The laptop has a nvidia geforce gt 630m graphic card in it. It did work at one time, but after having had to reset to factory default setup with a full re-install of FFXIV it hasn't hasn't let me change the DirectX 11 switch at all.

I did try to install the DirectX runtime, but it said it was already there (or newer) so it didn't actually install because it wasn't needed.

I downloaded the benchmark and ran it in DirectX 11 mode and it ran ok.

This is not a real powerful machine. I only use FFXIV on it when I am away from home for an extended period to keep in touch with FC members and I don't do much even when I do get on since it doesn't really run the game all that well. But I think it should still be able to do DirectX 11. It just won't let me.