A Fix for people unable to find GA features after installing

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 04/19/2010 08:54:27

Hi, first of all you should run the application directly and not from a shortcut. Sometimes windows have default options for shortcuts, for example "disable advanced visual themes". So run the sporeapp.exe in sporebinep1 application directly. And don't just run it, but right click it and select run as administrator.

Also, the recommended install order is this:
spore>patch 5.1>c&C>ga>patch 5.1 again or robot parts.
It is important that you install patch 5.1 right after installing spore and not later. So if you haven't done that previously, you might want to try that.

How do I back up saves / How do I back up saved games?
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=20401
You should also back up My Spore Creations folder in (My) Documents!

Manually Uninstall Spore - More Thorough, Includes Registry entries
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=20380
Manually Uninstall Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=20849
Manually Uninstall Galactic Adventures
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=22476
Manually Uninstall Creature Creator
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=19880
Manually Uninstall EA Download Manager ( EADM )
http://help.spore.com/cgi-bin/easpore.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=11090

Do you have an EADM version of the game? If not, don't reinstall EADM. Patch using the standalone installer
Download the patch from Softpedia
http://games.softpedia.com/get/Patch/Spore-Patch.shtml

Thanks for the reply, Slime. I did try running it directly from the application - I even tried running it directly from the disk, but to no avail.

Is there a way to install the patch without launching the game? It never actually got far enough before crashing to get the patches. I tried to authenticate my copy for the EADM, but I was unable to. I'm wondering if it's because I have the Galactic Edition?

Yes, you can download the patch from here
Download Patch 1.05 from Softpedia
http://games.softpedia.com/get/Patch/Spore-Patch.shtml
download the installer, make sure all spore applications are closed and right click and select run as administrator.

You can't get a digital (EADM) download for Spore just like that. You'll need to contact support for that.
How to contact Technical Support - USA and other countries
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/184.page#678
however, for GA:
* Uninstall your current copy of Spore Galactic Adventures
* Follow this link https://activate.ea.com/applyentitlement.do
* Enter the Code from the Disc version of Galactic Adventures in the Product Code field
* If the code is not accepted please contact support at the number in your manual or at help.spore.com for further assistance
* Enter EA account information (Same information used to log into Spore)
* Press the Login Button
* Open the EA Download Manager and Login
* You should now have Spore Galactic Adventures available for download in your EADM

if that is what you meant. Basically if you don't have digital copies of the games, just get rid of EADM altogether. You don't need it.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 04/21/2010 04:46:16

Awesome, Slime, thanks. I'll get that patch and try installing and patching that way. As for the digital copy, I didn't realize I needed to contact support, but that makes sense. For clarity's sake, I have Galactic Edition (the special edition original Spore that came out at Spore's launch) and Galactic Adventures (the expansion). Someone in marketing didn't think too hard about those names, lol.

SporeMasterSlime wrote:Also, the recommended install order is this:
spore>patch 5.1>c&C>ga>patch 5.1 again or robot parts.
It is important that you install patch 5.1 right after installing spore and not later. So if you haven't done that previously, you might want to try that.

So far so good having installed Spore then patch then restarting, and running in admin mode.

Question: "patch 5.1 again or robot parts"? If I install robot parts again I don't need to re-patch? And is it that I don't need to, or that doing so will break it? (ie, What if I install 5.1 again and then Robot Parts later?)

Thanks yet again,
~Shards

You only need to install the robot parts; that's because they install patch 5.1 as well. The robot parts themselves are actually just one file that's about 10mbs big; the rest of the download is patch 5.1, so if you install the robot parts that's all you need to. Not that it'll hurt to install patch 5.1 first and then the robot parts.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 04/25/2010 03:46:40

Ok, now I have a solid installation of Spore and GA and am able to play. However, somehow the EADM (or the parts pack itself) thinks I have the bot parts pack installed already. I try to install it and it tells me "you must uninstall Spore before uninstalling the Robot Parts Pack".

I considered downloading the parts pack from SimProgams to see if installing it manually will bypass the issue but... 1) I'm afraid that even if it works, I might break my installation again using a download from a 3rd party site, and 2) I really want to be able to share my creatures on the Sporepedia, which I understand is impossible with a 3rd party download. I tried to go to the spore.com/view/drpepper as suggested in another thread, but I hit the 500 error everyone seems to be getting.

Any help to get over this last hurdle will be very much appreciated. Once this is working I should finally be able to get out of your hair!

EDIT: Blast. Never mind, things aren't as peachy as I'd thought. All 500+ of my creations the game knows I have show up as blank Sporepedia cards... The only other incident of this I found suggested uninstalling and reinstalling... again... I'm certain I'm coming up on my install limit. Is that my only option?

Good grief.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/25/2010 10:13:50

Ugh. I'm sorry you're experiencing so many issues. To clarify first of all, you're not using up your install limit when reinstalling.
How Many Installs do I Get? How do authorizations work?
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/20627.page#439637

The robot parts issue may be related to your white card problem. Can you locate the EADM robot parts download somehow? There should be an option to locate the download within EADM. Or you can find it somewhere around here
C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EADM\cache\{ Anonymous }
if you still can't find it there, make sure you have view hidden files and folders enabled, in addition, you can perform a search for the following file:
BP2_Data.package
once you find the file, try installing it as a mod.
How to Install Mods
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/47391.page#1642309

then run the game again. It may say updating content database, let that procedure finish. See if the problem is fixed. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 04/25/2010 20:43:10

All right, I did as suggested and after a brief glimmer of hope, ended up back at square one. At each step, it updated the content database.

1. I added the bots pack as a mod, and the game started insisting I insert my disc even though it was already in. I removed the mod.

2. I updated my drivers (which I thought already were since I just built this computer a few weeks ago, but apparently I was wrong), and the white card problem was fixed, except that only 22 of my 500 creations were showing at all.

3. I re-added the bots pack as a mod, which gave me access to the parts, but did not restore my creatures.

4. I restarted my computer, and now all 500 creations show again, but with the same white sporecards problem as before.

I will gladly reinstall, except that I have no way of knowing what screwed up the first install to prevent it from happening again. The only thing I can think of to do differently is to not re-install the patch after GA (which I did "just in case"), and just go right to the bots pack. Perhaps that's why the game thinks the bots pack is already installed, but I'm not sure it would have any effect on the white cards issue.

Any further suggestions before I do a clean wipe and try again?

You can always try something simpler instead first.
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/49216.page#1737654

Also, you can try this
"My Creations" does not have everything I created - regenerate the package files
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/0/4706.page#42185

however, if you have GA, you might lose captain experience. In addition, saved games might be messed up (wrong creatures, spaceships etc). So before doing it at all, back up the entire SPORE folder (not just certain files as it says on the link).

And if th eproblem isn't fixed after the regeneration, just delete the new one and put back the old. It's not worth it.