Spore: More faulty than Basil Fawlty - Page 2

kamakaze171 · 14-09-2008, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamielicious

Still it is just odd that three of the most recent cards: HD4870, HD4870X2 and Geforce 9800GTX+ are not listed as supported. Even though they are three of the five top performing cards out at the moment.

I think it is going to be a long wait for a solution....

i think they must have stopped focusing on card compatability after a certain point and just the game, then theres the fact they have to start producing the discs a bit before the release date. what annoys me is they knew and still let people buy it, on the basis its on their to do list for their first patch. wouldnt want to spoil the hype. i mean legally theyve done nothing wrong as the readme clearly states it not supported (yet) but when you buy one of the most popular cards out at the moment, its a bit unexpected. but it could be ati too, id keep an eye out for hotfixes from them i was so close to buying a 4870, had heard about ati's support being poorer than nvidias. (but didnt mind that, i just ended up staying with nvidia because of 'gadgets' like physx and 3D support)

mibster · 14-09-2008, 10:55 AM

Would like to bump this thread, could other users who cannot play mention there graphics card. I think it would be a good idea to gather some information, maybe then we can see if it really is an ATI problem. Three of my friends have the game running without problems on Nvidia hardware.

Jamielicious · 14-09-2008, 05:00 PM

I think someone with the 8800GTX had the same problem, but I also think he was able to run his once he used a cracked exe, which didn't work for me.

Still I am starting to think that Spore doesn't like the GDDR5 in the HD4870 and that is behind the problem. Anyone got a spare GTX280 for me to test this theory?

Jamielicious · 15-09-2008, 01:19 AM

Just to let people know, I managed to get Spore working.

How?

I created a new User Profile in Vista (I called it Spore, how original am I??).

I have it Standard access, and Spore worked. It mustn't get on with Administrator accounts.

I am at the Creature Stage at the minute and greatly enjoying it, just annoyed I couldn't find an Omnivore mouth.

What did happen though was Catalyst Control Centre crashed once I logged back into my admin account, though it didn't revoke my viseo card fan speed setting so I am not too bothered.

So it seems I have a partial solution, no doubt I will come across more issues but still... progress!

Please do try the User Profile option if you haven't so far.

Night night

mibster · 15-09-2008, 11:09 AM

Ok, I spent all weekend trying to get this blasted game to run, without luck. I finally gave up Sunday night after spending about 5 hours of my precious time, reinstalling drivers etc.. So this morning I decide to ring technical support and que up for 30 minutes. After getting through, the nice young lady asks me to try and start spore, I go through my spiel about what I have done, yabba yabba yabba etc... Then to my horror the game, instead of a black screen and cralalalala bloody loads, game working fine????????????????????????????????????

What the EA technical support told me was that the validation servers were either a) Overloaded at the weekend or b) Had crashed and no one could be arsed to reset/restart them.

Can anyone else confirm that there game is now loading

Regards and happy spore player

Setaro2008 · 15-09-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamielicious

Yep you guessed it, I get the Black Screen of Sporedom when I try to start up. I get the usual "Spore has stopped working" prompt and the execption log in the Sporebin folder has that ACCESS_VIOLATION line, just like so many other people are getting.

I fixed my blackscreen startup crash problem by finding my Spore save folder and deleting the stars.db file. Spore then loaded fine after that. If you've tried reinstalling 5 times with no result, it's probably because uninstalling doesn't remove that faulty stars.db file in your save folder. (or remove any files at all from that folder, it's left intact when you uninstall).

Bear in mind if you use this fix you will lose your saved planets (their saved files are still in the folder, but deleting the stars.db file seems to create a new galaxy in which your planets arn't accessable.)

Jamielicious · 15-09-2008, 02:53 PM

Well my original problem was it wouldn't ever start up, so I never even got to have a stars.db file (I checked and the folder was empty).

So far I have got to the Tribal stage (I knew I was right to book today off work) and still loving the game. Also I didn't get the Catalyst Control Console crash when returning to me admin profile.

It does seem like people are having to do a wide range of things to make the game work. For me it was making a User Profile, for others it's reinstalling drivers, for others its praying to the sun god.

So does the game contact the EA servers for validation every time it starts up?

15-09-2008, 01:19 AM	#29 (permalink)
Jamielicious Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 35	Update Success!!! Just to let people know, I managed to get Spore working. How? I created a new User Profile in Vista (I called it Spore, how original am I??). I have it Standard access, and Spore worked. It mustn't get on with Administrator accounts. I am at the Creature Stage at the minute and greatly enjoying it, just annoyed I couldn't find an Omnivore mouth. What did happen though was Catalyst Control Centre crashed once I logged back into my admin account, though it didn't revoke my viseo card fan speed setting so I am not too bothered. So it seems I have a partial solution, no doubt I will come across more issues but still... progress! Please do try the User Profile option if you haven't so far. Night night

15-09-2008, 11:09 AM	#30 (permalink)
mibster Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	Confused Ok, I spent all weekend trying to get this blasted game to run, without luck. I finally gave up Sunday night after spending about 5 hours of my precious time, reinstalling drivers etc.. So this morning I decide to ring technical support and que up for 30 minutes. After getting through, the nice young lady asks me to try and start spore, I go through my spiel about what I have done, yabba yabba yabba etc... Then to my horror the game, instead of a black screen and cralalalala bloody loads, game working fine???????????????????????????????????? What the EA technical support told me was that the validation servers were either a) Overloaded at the weekend or b) Had crashed and no one could be arsed to reset/restart them. Can anyone else confirm that there game is now loading Regards and happy spore player

14-09-2008, 10:55 AM	#27 (permalink)
mibster Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3	Would like to bump this thread, could other users who cannot play mention there graphics card. I think it would be a good idea to gather some information, maybe then we can see if it really is an ATI problem. Three of my friends have the game running without problems on Nvidia hardware.

14-09-2008, 05:00 PM	#28 (permalink)
Jamielicious Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 35	I think someone with the 8800GTX had the same problem, but I also think he was able to run his once he used a cracked exe, which didn't work for me. Still I am starting to think that Spore doesn't like the GDDR5 in the HD4870 and that is behind the problem. Anyone got a spare GTX280 for me to test this theory?

15-09-2008, 02:53 PM	#32 (permalink)
Jamielicious Rookie Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 35	Well my original problem was it wouldn't ever start up, so I never even got to have a stars.db file (I checked and the folder was empty). So far I have got to the Tribal stage (I knew I was right to book today off work) and still loving the game. Also I didn't get the Catalyst Control Console crash when returning to me admin profile. It does seem like people are having to do a wide range of things to make the game work. For me it was making a User Profile, for others it's reinstalling drivers, for others its praying to the sun god. So does the game contact the EA servers for validation every time it starts up?