I'm halfway through the Space level and since yesterday I have been getting those weird crashes although they're not really crashes per say...

Let me explain.

I'm in orbit around my main planet where I saved last time and I have to answer to an incursion from pirates trying to loot my cities. So I zoom in and get rid of the pests, talk to the idiot ruler, get fixed and filled, take the spices from the trade window and close the dialog. As a good Commodore, or whatever is my title right now, I leave the planet to rescue yet another alien from doing their own chores... The problem is, as soon as I leave the ground where the animation takes you out on your solar system, the graphics do the rubber banding dance at a frenetic rate. I can click and try to use the tools but nothing happens. (I hear the menus opening etc.) ALT-TABBING and coming back to Spore almost fixes the game except for the ship. It refuses to move forward/backward. I can turn either side but that's it. The planet is right under my starship but the mini map shows the terrain with its cities and the spice geysers. I have no problems accessing the tools menu and the rest of the game interface but still, I'm stuck.

Yesterday, sometimes going back to the main menu or restarting Spore fixed the problem but now, after almost 10 times, it's of no use. As soon as I zoom out the planet. BANG!

Things I tried:
Not talking to the colony guy after blasting the pirates.
Talking but not taking any cargo.
Ignore the loot dropped by pirates.
Zoom-in/Zoom-out without doing anything.
Ignored the call for help but I just can't go on ignoring this for long...
Mix and match the above
All with the same result. Nothing changed.

I also rebooted; switched version of drivers (used nVidia latest w/ CUDA support).
There are no sound glitches of any kind, so I don't see why I should change those.

My specs:
nVidia 9800 GTX
4 GB RAM
SB X-fi Xtremegamer
Intel Q6600 Quad Core

NOTE: Original post and similar problems by other users available on the old board.

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NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE

Please, if you want to report that problem, post the following specifications:

CPU, RAM, Video Card, OS and resolution you were running Spore the FIRST TIME IT HAPPENED. Also, if you noticed a specific event prior to it, it might be useful.

Example:
My computer has a Q6600 Intel Quad Core with 4 GB of RAM, a 9800 GTX and using Vista x64 Home Premium. I was using 1680x1050 when it happened the first time.

I'm asking this because I'm trying to figure out if there is a common theme between us that are plagued by that bug.

Thank you.

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HERE'S A FIX!!!!!!!

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FIX!!! FIX!!!FIX!!! READ THE FOLLOWING! FIX!!! FIX!!! FIX!!!
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Alright, listen up if you have that problem!

First, zoom in on your homeworld and go into the City Manager, that's where you add buildings and stuff. Now, look around the city and ERASE/DELETE/REMOVE each and EVERY decoration you see. Trees, fountains, lamppost, EVERYTHING! Do that for each and every city. Once you're done do a second pass then a third just to make sure you didn't miss anything. Now, either ALT-TAB to exit to the desktop, or use ALT-ENTER to go in windowed mode. Then come back to the game, either full screen or ALT-TAB back to it.

The following doesn't work for EVERYONE, but continue reading please, it's IMPORTANT.

Once you're back into the game, revisit EACH city AGAIN. (Yes, I know. It takes times and it's grueling work. That stuff is small, but if you want to play, follow the instructions!) ALT-TABBING or Windowing and back should refresh the way Spore shows the stuff in your cities. From many accounts, you should have around the same number of decorations you already removed! Uh huh. That bad. Now, if, for some reason, going back and forth between the desktop and the game didn't refresh the screen properly, cross your fingers and leave the planet. You should be fine. But, do come back right away and restart the process. Look at your cities and clean it. It's the hidden Janitor Stage, a real Easter Egg... Just to be on the safe side, zoom-out and back in a couple more times. You also should visit all your colonies and dust up there too. It seems the game constantly add those things.

Don't forget to SAVE!

Hopefully that will help many people.

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/152.page

Thanks for the link but nothing in there will fix whatever is ailing my Spore. In case you're tempted to ask, yes, I have read it.

well then you apparently know how to fix it. Oh wait... you're asking for help... apparently you don't know. It says a lot.

stevenmc wrote:well then you apparently know how to fix it. Oh wait... you're asking for help... apparently you don't know. It says a lot.

wow, thats was pretty ***...

did you ever think that people might know of "fixes" or "workarounds" that you just dont know? or do you know EVERYTHING there is to know about EVERYTHING?

he is asking for help, so obviously he doesnt know the answer.

now i dont want to be mean, because that post you typed will probably help a lot of people, and you obviously know a lot about this stuff...and i do appreciate the effort you put forth for that, and im sure other people appreciate it as well.

stevenmc wrote:well then you apparently know how to fix it. Oh wait... you're asking for help... apparently you don't know. It says a lot.

AHAHAH! OMG! Man... Why don't you just ignore my posts, that'll make it easier on your ego, because of course, you have no clue who you are talking to, what I do for a living, what I've done, etc... Blah blah. You're just post whoring although I have to give you credit for your troubleshooting post.

Now, with that said, as the previous poster nicely suggested, others might have an idea what is going on and/or have a way to bypass the problem. OR, oh my god!, it might be something IN THE CODE! There might actually be a BUG in Spore! Oh noooes!

Yeah... That sums it up.

I didn't mean to be nasty. It's just when a desperate person responds in a manner like hey, that will never work, it makes absolutely no sense at all. Everything they've tried before hasn't worked, and now their asking other people to help them, and when the help is provided, they brush it off because they think they know everything. Well if they in fact knew everything, then they would be able to fix the problem by themselves. The fact is, they don't know that a suggestion won't work, unless they try it.

madjack wrote: AHAHAH! OMG! Man... Why don't you just ignore my posts... oh my god!, it might be something IN THE CODE! There might actually be a BUG in Spore!

Sorry I tried to help. You are right, I don't know who you are, or what you do, but I DO know that you can't fix your computer. I made a suggestion, and if you don't want to try it then fine, but to say that it won't work, when you didn't even try it... well that's a bit much.

Oh, and yeah, you're right, could be a bug in the code, but then I'm using the same exact code as you, and I've NEVER had any problems running this game. There are lots of people that don't have any problems running this game. How can my code and your code be different?

Apologies accepted.

Just so you know, I've been fixing computers and their problems for around 25 years. I know what I'm talking about for the most part. If you reread my earlier post you'll notice that I wrote: I have read it. I might have missed something along the way when I diagnosed and tried to fix and read it in your post, but but sadly I didn't find anything that could help.

That's it.

ok truce. I'll stay out of your business. Good luck with your computer problem.

stevenmc wrote:Oh, and yeah, you're right, could be a bug in the code, but then I'm using the same exact code as you, and I've NEVER had any problems running this game. There are lots of people that don't have any problems running this game. How can my code and your code be different?

Steven, I know you're trying to help but if you're half as smart as I think you are, you should know that the odds of you having the EXACT SAME computer as me are pretty darn close to nil. What if the bug pertains to computers with a 9800 GTX coupled with g.Skill memory? Or if you have X service running? Or the logitech mouse driver? It can be ANYTHING, even me. So, yes, you're running the same code but that's it.

It's not because we fuel our car with the same gas that we drive the same car.

madjack wrote: Steven, I know you're trying to help but if you're half as smart as I think you are, you should know that the odds of you having the EXACT SAME computer as me are pretty darn close to nil. What if the bug pertains to computers with a 9800 GTX coupled with g.Skill memory? Or if you have X service running? Or the logitech mouse driver? It can be ANYTHING, even me. So, yes, you're running the same code but that's it.

It's not because we fuel our car with the same gas that we drive the same car.

geez man, no need to get personal. IF there is in fact a conflict between the Spore code, and say a Soundright 5320... then trying what I suggested would in fact expose the problem. Lets say you pull or disable the Soundright 5320, and suddenly the game works fine... viola, you found the problem.

Sorry if it sounded personal, it wasn't my intention.

As I said, I have tried a lot of things and up to now it points to a bug in the code. Also, in the original post's replies on the other forum, the specs were mostly different except for the X-fi which, even if it's different, could be the problem. We all know how good Creative's drivers are... Disabling the sound card could work but its drivers would still reside in memory and frankly, opening my computer to remove my sound card then uninstalling/cleaning all that crap is something I'm not willing to go through. Not because of a single game that's barely out and will have bugs. They all do. That's the price to pay for bleeding edge, if gaming can be called that.

madjack wrote:...Disabling the sound card could work but its drivers would still reside in memory

here I go again knowing everything. I'm not suggesting you try anything, just going to point something out because I'm pretty certain... actually I know it's wrong but I'm trying to be diplomatic, anyway, if someone else reads it and decides to act, or not act, based on what they've read, then it would be tragic.

The point of disabling a device, and then rebooting, is so that the drivers for that device will NOT be loaded into memory. If it's a driver issue, or a resource conflict, disabling the device is a good way to see if thats the problem. It might not work at all, but it could help you eliminate one more possibility, which is still enourmously helpful. You don't even have to open up the case, or uninstall anything.

There was a big huge thread on the planet-to-space crashes, with exception report summaries, here: http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=427334&tstart=30

The crashes were happening inside Spore's exe, not inside other dlls.

MaxisAndrew posted that:

The missing DasmX86Dll.dll is just a red herring. It has nothing to do with any game crash, it just reflects that a development time DLL that provides disassembly in crash dumps is not present.

Initial investigations of this crash suggest it's to do with the graphics card running out of resources for some reason. If you run at a lower resolution, it may help with that. Also, given it seems to be occurring on Vista, I would try minimizing Windows' use of the graphics card by setting compatibility mode in the application properties, or even disabling AeroGlass altogether.

(People on XP do experience the crash as well, though.)

(Several people then tried lowering the resolution, but reported that it didn't seem to prevent the crashes from occuring)

And then one person (ahollida) posted:

Well...that's really a bit long to wait, I'm not kidding about the crashes every 15 minutes, it's turning something enjoyable into something that's going to sit on my shelf....

Update: As a test I tried applying a "patched" EXE (I own the game, so sue me ) to use a DRM free file after I tried the basic "just reinstall the game" deal. Problem goes away... Put the original file back.... problem comes back. Downside: No community content if you do it that way.

stevenmc wrote:Oh, and yeah, you're right, could be a bug in the code, but then I'm using the same exact code as you, and I've NEVER had any problems running this game. There are lots of people that don't have any problems running this game. How can my code and your code be different?

So, I have a question for you, stephenmc:
Are you using a "patched" exe which has SecuROM disabled? Or, if not, have you made Spore not go online? Not to be accusatory, I'm just wondering whether it really is something that only happens on some computers, or if it's actually caused by either SecuROM or by the online functionality (which the aforementioned "patch" supposedly also disables), and if you're running it online with a completely normal exe (with online features enabled) then it's definitely only hitting some people.

Of course, I'd expect many more bug posts if it was hitting EVERYONE... But who knows, maybe EA's phones and email addresses and support ticket systems are being jammed instead.

Personally, I haven't gone and gotten it yet. I might actually wait until the first patch to see how Maxis+EA does with it... If I can stand to wait that long.