Spore Crashing. Post your issues and fixes here.

This message was edited 45 times. Last update was at 09/23/2008 17:35:02

Post your crashing issues and crash fixes in this thread. If it is a reproducible crash, post how to repro it. If you know of fixes, post them here as well.

We will post updates to this thread as we find them.

Try these, in this order:
1) Update Graphics Drivers
2) Reduce the size of your video cache size to 512MB in the online options
3) Regenerate Package Files
4) Rename MVJCache Directory
5) Copy data from Game0.old
6) Rename Game directory.

Regenerating Package Files

If Spore is crashing when you first run it, this procedure may help.

Go to the Spore directory:

In Windows XP
\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\SPORE

In Vista
\Users\(Username)\AppData\Roaming\SPORE

The Application Data directory may be hidden. To display hidden files:

In the menu Tools->Folder Options->View
check "Show Hidden Files and Folders"

For backups, create a save directory called PackageBackup and move (not copy) all the .package files into it EXCEPT EditorSaves.package.

Restart Spore.

"My Creations" should start to get repopulated.

Enabling the "Buddy Content Only" in the online settings may enable more content to be added.

You can disable the "Buddy Content Only" after "My Creations" stops getting populated.

Note: It may take a while to redownload your content from the server, but your saved games will not be affected.

If you have trouble, you can restore all your package files to their original location to undo this procedure.

Rename MVJCache Directory
Some users have indicated the renaming this directory has fixed their crashes, but be warned that this may cause you to lose some creatures or games. Please post what effect this had on your game. This directory can be found in the same directory as the package files.

Copy from Game0.old
A more drastic step is to
-make a copy of your Game0 directory
-copy the contents of Game0.old into Game0

Rename Game Directory
And finally renaming the Game to remove all traces of old games.

DasmX86Dll.dll not found.

This is an informational message only. When the app crashes, it looks for a debugger so the dev team can debug the crash. It is not the cause of crashes, just a message indicating the debugger dll cannot be found.

Multiple Core hanging

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/spore-technical-support/337771-found-fix-sporeapp-exe-hanging.html

Update Your Graphics Drivers

Drivers that are supplied by the computer's manufacturer may work, but they will not be the latest version. Spore was tested on current drivers.

Driver updating can be undone. You can revert back to older drivers.

For NVIDIA graphics card, get them here:

From omni2226:
"And a note. The 177 Nvidia drivers are Beta. I tried them to see what happens and Spore does not work so well with the 177 for me. Fuzzy textures and land that is water etc. I rolled back to the 175 and no problems."

177.92
for XP 32 bit they are here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_177.92_beta.html

XP 64 bit
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_177.92_beta.html

Vista 32bit:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_177.92_beta.html

Vista 64bit
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_177.92_beta.html

175.19
XP 32
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html
XP 64
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_175.16_whql.html

Vista 32
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_175.19_whql.html

Vista 64
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_175.19_whql.html

ATI:

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Laptop
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/mobility-xp.html

Crash To Desktop At Cell Start for DirectX SDK Users.

For those that are not being able to start the game at all due to crashing when starting at the cell level, and have installed the DirectX SDK, please try this.

If you have not installed the DirectX SDK, then this does not apply to you.

In Win XP:
Start->All Programs->Microsoft DirectX SDK->DirectX Utilities->Direct X Control Panel

Make sure you are using the retail version of Direct X and
that Enumerate Reference Rasterizer is checked

Software Only and Enumerate Ramp Rasterizer should not be set.

NVIDIA Drivers and Laptops

NVIDIA drivers sometimes will not install directly from the setup on laptops, but you can install them using the step below.

Download and run the driver installation. If you get a message about can't install on your laptop, do this:

Assuming you are installing the 177.92 drivers.

The drivers were extracted to your hard drive in C:\NVIDIA\Win2k\177.92, but the setup did not install them.

Right click on Desktop
Properties->Settings->Advanced->Adapter->Properties->Driver

//note your card type here

Update Driver

Install from a list or specific location->next

Don't search->next

Have Disk

Browse

C:\NVIDIA\Win2k\177.92
Open
OK
Select your card type from above->next

Yes to any questions about do you really want to install this.

close all windows

restart when prompted

*****************************************************

ATI mobility Radeon x1400 users having graphics issues:

Posted by DoiNkk
I was having graphics problems in game. These problems were easily seen when looking at the Sporpidia section. I was able to resolve all graphics woes by disabling the CATALYST A.I. This option can be found in the Catalyst control center in the 3d section. I was able to leave all my other graphics card options maxed out to "Quality." The Catalyst A.I. performs per-application video driver optimizations. This needs to be turned off if you want to run Spore without graphics issues!

How to turn off ATI CATALYST A.I.:
1. Right click your desktop
2. left click properties
3. left click the settings tab
4. left click the advanced button
5. left click the CATALYST (R) Control Center tab
6. left click the ATI CATALYST (R) Control Center button
7. navigate the 3D section to CATALYST @ A.I. by left clicking
8. left click the box Disable Catalyst @ A.I. in order to put a check mark in the box
9. then left click the Apply button.
10. start Spore and check to see if your graphics issues are resolved

NVIDIA SLI

Posted by bellyflop79:
Spore constantly freezing and having to reboot system, hoping that I saved the game prior. Found out that spore doesn't like having the SLI activated on my 2 8800 GTS. After updating the drivers and de-activating the SLI, only using one card. I have not had a single freeze or crash.

Reducing the Graphics Options in Game

Some people have reported that lowering the graphics settings in the game has helped with crashing problems.

OMG THANK YOU.

This Solved my problem found in this thread!

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/115.page

Thank you again! I will spread the word!

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 09/14/2008 00:20:15

You can check this enumeration value directly in the registry, if you want to.

start->run

regedit
OK

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Direct3D/Drivers

There are three values in this folder, they should be:

EnumRamp 0
EnumReference 1
SoftwareOnly 0

//////////// retail version value

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Direct3D
LoadDebugRuntime = 0

This worked. Thanks guys... had mine set to debug mode for... well work. WOW thanks again... love the game. I will let my friends know at work.

-Tim

I have been experiencing a strange but different kind of crash. Right at the end of the Cell phase, you get the oppertunity to evolve one last time before crawling onto land. If I change my Cell creature at all at that time, the game crashes and closes to the desktop. If I make no modifications to the Cell until I reach the beginning of the Creature phase proper, it will work. I'm puzzled; why is this happening?

rayndrayk wrote:I have been experiencing a strange but different kind of crash. Right at the end of the Cell phase, you get the oppertunity to evolve one last time before crawling onto land. If I change my Cell creature at all at that time, the game crashes and closes to the desktop. If I make no modifications to the Cell until I reach the beginning of the Creature phase proper, it will work. I'm puzzled; why is this happening?

This is the exact thing that is happening to me too. I try to modify the cell and the game music starts skipping then the game freezes and closes on me. I didn't know I could just skip the modifications until creature phase. But still, I wish there was a fix for this.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 09/14/2008 15:25:38

I have suffered a number of different kinds of lockups so far, but by far the most common one is to simply have my graphics freeze - the game is clearly still running in the background, as I can save and sometimes perform other actions blindly, as the sound and cursor remain responsive. This happens roughly once every 1/2 hour on average and is unrecoverable - I have to shut the game down and restart it.

This happens most frequently when opening a diplomacy dialog when my ship is over the surface of a planet - but it can(and does) happen at almost any time, in any phase of the game except the cell phase, where I have never seen it happen.

My system meets or exceeds all the specs pretty well, and the game's general performance is otherwise good.

- Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, SP2
- Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.2GHz, 1GB Ram
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (Latest drivers - 8/20)
- DirectX10 fully up to date

It looks like some kind of video card or driver incompatibility issue, but I can't say for certain.

EDIT: This graphical freeze is gradually becoming more frequent. Not sure why. Possibly because I have more allied ships with me, or because my empire/save game is getting considerably larger, but it's up to ~15 minutes per lock-up now.

I actually had Spore freezing between loads from a stage.

I just uninstalled Spore. Updated my video drivers. And at the reinstall I didn't install the EA Updater. It works great now. No problems at all.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 09/14/2008 19:19:06

Having an odd crash with Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit edition. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the game. Space stage is awesome, except for this crash. Here's what happens: I go around in space just fine, then an alien attacks my colony/home world at the same time, no biggie. I always fight the aliens on the colony first and have no problem, I then proceed to my home world and successfully fight off the attackers there. The major problem is that so far 9.5/10 if I collect any of the fallen loot/repair any of my cities then it prevents me from being able to leave my planet. I don't know what happens, but it just sits there stuck with the spore busy symbol. I can then alt-tab back to the desktop, then back to Spore which allows me to fly back down on the planet, however after flying around a bit and then trying to re-exit, the same thing happens. Ultimately I have to exit the game without saving (since you have to be off the planets surface to do so), and loose any awesome work I had previously accomplished. This error only happens when trying to leave the home world as well, never when I leave a colony, or another race. Anyone running into a similar experience?

forgot my specs, they are as follows:

CPU: AMD X2 4200+
Video: ATI AIW X1900 (latest drivers installed)
Ram: 6 GB
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit edition
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Delux

Think that's all that's needed.

I have an odd problem....

The game loads, but I don't even get to the title screen before a full black screen shows up and crashes.

I've reinstalled.
Updated Drivers/DirectX
Ran in compatibility mode.

Other games (Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, the now Uninstalled Creature Creator) all ran fine.

I can post my DxDiag if needed, but I didn't right now because I don't know if it'd be too much clutter.

I gave my youngest daughter my old computer. When I did the initial install of Spore, it was my disk. I discovered that she couldn't access her spore account from the game.

After buying another game, uninstalling the old version and installing the new, she experienced crashes when she accessed the tribal attire. I noted that the NVIDIA 6800 card was still using a driver from 2004. I went to the NVIDIA site and downloaded the latest driver. Now Spore works fine.

I'd recommend if you have an old machine that hasn't had drivers and such updated in a while AND the game is crashing, check that.

cottontail73 wrote:

rayndrayk wrote:I have been experiencing a strange but different kind of crash. Right at the end of the Cell phase, you get the oppertunity to evolve one last time before crawling onto land. If I change my Cell creature at all at that time, the game crashes and closes to the desktop. If I make no modifications to the Cell until I reach the beginning of the Creature phase proper, it will work. I'm puzzled; why is this happening?

This is the exact thing that is happening to me too. I try to modify the cell and the game music starts skipping then the game freezes and closes on me. I didn't know I could just skip the modifications until creature phase. But still, I wish there was a fix for this.

Same problem as you here. Happened many times, all at the same spot. Each time I rebooted and restarted the game at creature stage and load the creature I created pre-crash and it load okay. Looks like some sort of transitional issue between closing the creature creator, closing the cell stage, and opening the creature stage at the same time.

Unable to save after the first time I save.

Example: Start playing from last save (or the very beginning, doesn't matter) I can save once, but the next time I do I get a message stating something along the lines of "Save game failed - spore will now exit." This occurs every time and I've updated drivers and have uninstalled and reinstalled. Any ideas?

Specs:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6700 @ 2.66GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1100MB used, 3242MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 09/14/2008 06:38:42

i'm using windows vista 32 bit and my preformance number thing is 3.4 for sound: sigmatel high definition audio CODEC and for the video card: mobile intel(R) 965 express chipset family. i'm having a problem that nothing can seem to fix. i start up sproe from the ea download manager, the screen goes blank as usual. and then when the cursor changes from the windows one to the spore one it closes and a window pops up saying it stopped working.

i've tried updating drivers, installing stuff, uninstsalling and reinstalling the spore. and it worked fine for the first week while all the normal backround programs were running so i don't get what it is.

please help. it's getting really frustrating

I'm on my 5th planet with zero problems.

Then, I start planet 6 and every time I try to transition from cell to creature it crashes.

I've done no changes to my system but yet it's happening now.