Does it have any GPU ? Whether it is the one included on the intel CPU, or a dedicated one. Some particles effects may be set to run on the GPU by default, I don't know what their behaviour may be in absence of a dedicated GPU.
my gpu is a nvidia quadro p620 i have 2 of them in my laptop.
Sadly I have no idea what could be causing the issue, and don't have the gear needed to try and reproduce it. Sorry I couldn't help
