"Spore has encountered a problem and needs to close"

Rosk · 08-09-2008, 01:07 AM

Barely bought Spore a few hours ago, installed it and was disappointed to find that only 5 seconds after launching the .EXE, it crashed. No black screen, no nothing. Just a temporary deceiving change of cursor which makes you think it's actually about to work, when in actuality it's just going to crash on you like it has been the past 5 hours. I've tried using my old video card, didn't work. Updated video card, and reinstalled directx10, neither worked. And now I'm just trying random things clinging to hopes that somehow I will discover a fix. This is incredibly irritating, I just want to play the game!

I'm running Windows XP with an ATI Radeon X1650, 2 GB of RAM and a Pentium4 3.0 GHZ Processor. The trial version worked on my computer, but the creature creator which was $10.00 didn't. Maybe there's some sort of connection.

enigmaticgnome · 08-09-2008, 08:47 AM

Im having the same problem, except mine has been working for the past couple of days... until about 30mins ago. Same message "spore has encountered a problem and needs to close", i first tried restarting the comp, seeing as how i've had it working prior, i even uninstalled and re-installed... NOTHING! Anyone got any ideas?

TrinityFive · 08-09-2008, 10:15 AM

Me too, game crashed and now I get "Spore has stopped working" everytime I try to play it.

Omni · 08-09-2008, 10:17 AM

The support team will be able to advise you on this. You can find contact details in the support centre. I would recommend attaching your dxdiag report if prompted to.

enigmaticgnome · 11-09-2008, 11:45 AM

well i hope no one else is trying to get tech support's help. I've just sent my fourth reply to them now. Each time i get someone new, who has obviously not read anything that was said in prior e-mails and are just regurgitating the same thing that they probably say to everyone else, "corrupted driver", "close unecessary programs".
When this is very clearly not the cause of the problem.

tommo83 · 11-09-2008, 11:49 AM

yup.. that's all I got back from EA, a bunch of generic tech stuff which they spam out as 'support' for all their games. Boo, EA!

Berteh66 · 11-09-2008, 11:52 AM

try uninstalling EA download manager and restarting Spore....I had a similar issue with CC and that solved it

desmark · 11-09-2008, 11:53 AM

I found that this happened to my game when the save file had corrupted.

If you have been playing and are now locked out, try moving your save file out of the relevant folder. It will mean you lose your progress, but you should be able to play some more.

Blurb · 11-09-2008, 07:39 PM

This is what happened to me, it says it could not find the default preferences and that data directory is missing or corrupt [1004]and then it starts for about 3 seconds and then comes off again saying it could not find a needed package and that the data directory is missing or corrupt [1004].

Please help me!!

dknykong · 11-09-2008, 09:39 PM

i get the same. it loads great. when i zoom out of a world to go back into space it goes black and error needs to close...so ****ed

08-09-2008, 01:07 AM	#1 (permalink)
Rosk Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 2	"Spore has encountered a problem and needs to close" Barely bought Spore a few hours ago, installed it and was disappointed to find that only 5 seconds after launching the .EXE, it crashed. No black screen, no nothing. Just a temporary deceiving change of cursor which makes you think it's actually about to work, when in actuality it's just going to crash on you like it has been the past 5 hours. I've tried using my old video card, didn't work. Updated video card, and reinstalled directx10, neither worked. And now I'm just trying random things clinging to hopes that somehow I will discover a fix. This is incredibly irritating, I just want to play the game! I'm running Windows XP with an ATI Radeon X1650, 2 GB of RAM and a Pentium4 3.0 GHZ Processor. The trial version worked on my computer, but the creature creator which was $10.00 didn't. Maybe there's some sort of connection.

08-09-2008, 10:17 AM	#4 (permalink)
Omni Forum Junkie Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: The Institute Gender: Male Posts: 3,395 Blog Entries: 7	The support team will be able to advise you on this. You can find contact details in the support centre. I would recommend attaching your dxdiag report if prompted to. __________________ Recently played: Need for Speed: Undercover Have you Met your match? Electronic Arts[/size]

08-09-2008, 08:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
enigmaticgnome Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 5	Im having the same problem, except mine has been working for the past couple of days... until about 30mins ago. Same message "spore has encountered a problem and needs to close", i first tried restarting the comp, seeing as how i've had it working prior, i even uninstalled and re-installed... NOTHING! Anyone got any ideas?

08-09-2008, 10:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
TrinityFive Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 32	Me too, game crashed and now I get "Spore has stopped working" everytime I try to play it.

11-09-2008, 11:45 AM	#5 (permalink)
enigmaticgnome Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 5	well i hope no one else is trying to get tech support's help. I've just sent my fourth reply to them now. Each time i get someone new, who has obviously not read anything that was said in prior e-mails and are just regurgitating the same thing that they probably say to everyone else, "corrupted driver", "close unecessary programs". When this is very clearly not the cause of the problem.

11-09-2008, 11:49 AM	#6 (permalink)
tommo83 Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 16	yup.. that's all I got back from EA, a bunch of generic tech stuff which they spam out as 'support' for all their games. Boo, EA!

11-09-2008, 11:52 AM	#7 (permalink)
Berteh66 Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 76	try uninstalling EA download manager and restarting Spore....I had a similar issue with CC and that solved it

11-09-2008, 11:53 AM	#8 (permalink)
desmark Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 28	I found that this happened to my game when the save file had corrupted. If you have been playing and are now locked out, try moving your save file out of the relevant folder. It will mean you lose your progress, but you should be able to play some more.

11-09-2008, 07:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
Blurb Rookie Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 14	This is what happened to me, it says it could not find the default preferences and that data directory is missing or corrupt [1004]and then it starts for about 3 seconds and then comes off again saying it could not find a needed package and that the data directory is missing or corrupt [1004]. Please help me!!

11-09-2008, 09:39 PM	#10 (permalink)
dknykong Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	i get the same. it loads great. when i zoom out of a world to go back into space it goes black and error needs to close...so ****ed