Spore crashing (possible solutions).

[eroticfishcake]

With so many technical difficulties plaguing Spore I thought it may be a good idea to post up some solutions since I had some and found them incredibly frustrating. Hope it helps...

Starting Up
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1)Make sure your PC can run the game at all since the requirements are genreally overlooked. Just to make sure, use this site. Link-> Can You RUN It?

2) Apparently the EA Download Manager can prevent Spore from starting up so if it asks you to install it, don't do it at all. If you already have it installed, get rid of it. If that doesn't work. Uninstall Spore and EADM then reinstall Spore but not the EADM.

3) Running the game under Compatibility Mode under Windows 95 *may* work. Right click the Spore icon, then the Compatibility Mode, tick the box and choose Windows 95 from the drop down menu.

4) Cleaning up the hard drive and registry may also help. Use C-Cleaner to do this. Link-> CCleaner - Update . Handy for general maintenance as well anyway.

5) Uninstall the Creature Creator aswell! Don't worry about your creations, they left well alone.

Crashing
--------------------

1) If the game crashes/freezes from time to time it may be your graphics drivers (or soundcard/motherboard). Make sure to update to the latest ones.

For nVidia users; Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

For ATi users; Drivers & Software

If crashes/freezing still occurs try using the Omega drivers;

OmegaDrivers.net - Home of the ATI & NVIDIA Omega Drivers. Drivers Main Page (For both nVidia and ATi).

Uninstall your current drivers before installing these.

NB: The Omega drivers stopped the crashing for me but I'm getting weird graphic artifacts. Their uncommon though.

2) If your graphics card is over heating try lowering the graphical settings and/or increase airflow to the computer by buying better fans and placing the computer in a more aerated space.

3) If your computer is over clocked, try reseting the computer to it's default factory status. Some games have been known to be very sensitive to over clocking (such as TES 4).

Others
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1) Logging in to your account (as of now) isn't very likely to happen as EA are having problems (not surprisingly ) with servers. Some people are having problems with validating thier account. The option to resend the validation e-mail is no where to be found so far though. Check your spam filter or your junk folder to see if it's there. Also, supposedly Hotmail doesn't really work with the validation mail so it may worth using a different e-mail account (G-Mail for example).

2) Spore is a big game (about 6GB I think), so defragmenting your hard drive might reduce stuttering.

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So far these are solutions I've found. Any more are welcome. Sharing is caring people!

[eroticfishcake]

Anybody with working results so far? I sorta need to know which ones work (or not) otherwise I'll be misinforming people.

[LordZeon]

Sorry eroticfishcake, there's simply no way of knowing what works and what doesn't. Personally nothing works for me; I've had no luck whatsoever with any setting or deletion/closing programs.

Removing EA Download Manager has proven to be a solution for many, as well as updating drivers, but not in every case.

[lizwicker28]

I had been having a problem with space crashing and after about 8 hours of sitting here going insain and updating every driver there was to update i decided to play it again only this time i started on a different planet and the game ran fine played for over 6 hours and not one time did it crash! Saved the planet...went onto my other planet not in it for more then 3 minutes and it crashed again...some how and i dont know how but it seems like the problem is in the saved game file. So i deleated the planet and am now playing the other one with 0 problems... So if this is your problem that may be what you need to do..... I sill belive ea needs to patch tho...because maybe this can some how be prevented!

[eroticfishcake]

Originally Posted by LordZeon

Sorry eroticfishcake, there's simply no way of knowing what works and what doesn't. Personally nothing works for me; I've had no luck whatsoever with any setting or deletion/closing programs.

Removing EA Download Manager has proven to be a solution for many, as well as updating drivers, but not in every case.

Sorry to hear none of them work so far. Actually, have you tried installing the latest Direct X drivers? I've noticed that no one has mentioned them so far (maybe because they're irrelevant). Let me know if you do get anything.

[Harkole]

To aid in having all the fixes in one place...

SLI Fix fix for sli issue 10012
Space Crash {possible fix} Cannot zoom out of home planet - Gamebreaker bug

[LordZeon]

Originally Posted by eroticfishcake

Sorry to hear none of them work so far. Actually, have you tried installing the latest Direct X drivers? I've noticed that no one has mentioned them so far (maybe because they're irrelevant). Let me know if you do get anything.

Sadly yes, I've tried a great many things (Let's just say this isn't my first run-in with dysfunctional games). I just made a new thread calling for those who are suffering from similar problems to see if we can put our heads together and figure it out (It's called 'Spore Crashes on Startup').

[drag777]

Just a thought for starting Spore problems. I found if i installed Spore in Safe mode, restart normaly and start the game again it seemed to solve the start up crash on two computers so far. As for updating drivers that fixed minior problems but i'am still having random crashing, nothing i've done has seemed to fix it.

[zengonzo]

Mine is crashing in creature mode whenever I encounter hostile beings.

I can socialize, hunt and kill, mate and all else - but get within stone's throw of a hostile and the game goes straight to desktop.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the visual effects connected to the anger radiations. Is there a way to cut effects entierly in config?

[LordZeon]

I can confirm that for those of us who crash on startup no matter what you change on your machine, it appears that one fix is to uninstall Spore and copy directly off the DVD the Data, SporeBin, and Support folders into the Spore Directory it will work! You will need to go into the Support folder and run SPORE(TM)_Code.exe and input your CD-key there, but it will work!

[NoodlesAngel]

Spore crashes for me right after I name a planet, it pans off then Spore just closes. I meet all requirements

[amandla36]

I've been trying to update my Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 drivers for two days. Im about the throw my laptop out the window . Ive got the patched creature creator trial and im getting the freezing problem, i press ctrl + alt + del and go back into the game, only to have it freeze a few seconds later... 'sigh'. Can anyone help me with this?
Im running on Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit.

[MadMel_1st]

so far none of the above solutions has helped me get my game loaded any further than the black start up screen...i checked the reports and apparently my problem revolves around files such as 278c_appcompat.txt or 23A_appcompat.txt or random temp files like that..i checked my temp folder and they dont exist..

i also get a warning message that says that the files in c:\Documents and settings\ME\applicationdata\spore\game\game0 are corrupted...

anybody know what this means and what i can do to solve it??

[MrKittles]

Hey there, I have the issue where it crashes when I try to zoom out of my homeworld.

To be specific, the game crashes when I am attacked, clear the planet, and try to leave (or even just try to leave while it's under attack)

I read in another forum that if you sell your turrets, or some of them, you can leave, well I sold almost all of my turrets, and sure enough, I could leave the planet's surface and return to it. However, when I rebuilt the turrets, it repeated the exact same crash, even though I wasn't in combat anymore.

Im going to try updating my drivers (again), and a few other fixes I read on, because obviously I'd enjoy turrets on my homeworld.

[SaintCreator]

Hi i just wanted to post this because i had a former problem with Civ/Space stage crashes. What i did was to uninstal spore and EADM then i reinstalled Spore again just this time i didnt install EADM and i chose another language (Had it on Danish first, now i have it on English) and dont know what of it but something seemed to have solved the problem, i dont get crashes anymore... Just thought you should know, since it was a possible solution atleast for my problem...

[Deza007]

Just for those who are expering crashing. When the game crashes press Ctr Alt Delete and the cancal - if it unfreezes you are prone to what I call the Ctr Alt Delete or CAD virus. May god have mercy on you.

[Deza007]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
everything is gone everything evreything.
all my saves poofff all my creatures poofff.
nooooooooooooooooooooo dam u ea dam the world. This can not be.
what did i do.what did i doooooo?

[Deza007]

ohh good there back now

[HESKIMO]

thats alot of big writing


for anyone with an ati card-
spore started crashing when i left planets the other day (admittedly this is in the beta version on windows 7) i turned off overlcocking in the ati catalyst, now it stopped crashing and the transition out of space is smoother, so i turned overclocking off in vista and the transition is smoother in vista too,

then it occured to me- the catalyst overclocking actually lowers the gpu clock when not using a 3d application (most noticable in the chess in vista, the clock drops inbetween every move-and when i move a piace its all jerky, but not with the overclocking off as it stays at 725mhz [on my card atleast])

post back and lets others know if it worked for you

[pnichols]

Hi, I can play about 8 hours of spore and then it begins crashing when I get the symbol for an incoming message from a planet, either from a biodisaster or to tell my I can buy the planet. I click on the dish symbol and instantly I have a screen to send in my error information.

I have a fast machine and everything is up to date.

Thanks for any help!

Peter

[Yhivu]

Ok, Ive been reading alot of "Fixes"... None of them work... So when I open Spore (Any directory, safe mode, windowed mode and all differant combapabilities) the screen goes black and about 3 seconds later it closes. No sound, nothing. So any idea i tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it, I bought the instant download when spore first came out and now im reinstalling it on my comp and it doesnt work. However EA's website and Spore website say I didnt buy it, but I have it. So Im confused... T_T please helps

[supersoulllama]

Please could someone help me, the game crashes whenever i die in creature stage! PLEASE HELP :'{