Ok, here is the simple way of telling which way to render it.

1. Go to the "render globals", it looks like a directors que with two dots beside it.

2. First choose "Software render" (it should be near the top of the window in a dropbox)

3. Let it render and look for particles (if not there then go to step 4)

4. Choose "Hardware render"

5. Check for particles in render.

6. If it dosent work, then just say so, well help you out.

Hope it all works out.