More Awesome Than You!

Hi - I really wouldn't be asking this here if I had any idea where else to ask but I am at my wits end.  We have just purchased the game today and have been trying to get it running all afternoon.

Installation seems to go okay but attempting to start the game just causes the computer to restart.  We have tried it on two seperate pcs with the same results.  We have tried updating graphics drivers and uninstalling and reinstalling with no improvement.  I also downloaded the patches and installed but that also made no difference.

I cannot get any help from the offical website as I am unable to log in with starting up the game - which I can't do.

Any help at all would be appreciated.  Google suggests graphics drivers as the problem but we have tried everything suggested (upated or different drivers) with no result.

Please and thankyou

What are your computer specs and what video card are you running?

1st computer

Pentium 4 3.2Ghz
1G ram
ATi X300

2nd computer

Pentium 4 3.4Ghz
1G ram
ATi X800

Is that enough info?  Both computers have about 16G space available on HD after installation.

What's your OS? If you're on Windows XP, check if "automatic reboot" is disabled.

Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Start & Recovery - Settings - Untick "automatic reboot" checkbox
(The wording may be slightly different, I use non-English version of Windows.)

Running Windows XP on both computers.

Just tried this and attempted to launch the game.  Instead of restart I got a very pretty blue screen with the following text:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

(then some blurb about new software probably not correctly installed and to restart computer and uninstall it)

Technical Information:

***STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00420040, 0x0000002, 0x000000000, 0xA9DFF8CE)

***tcpip.sys - Address A9DFF8CE base at A9DFB000, Datestamp 485b99ad

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memor dump complete
Contact system administrator or technical support for further assistance



This message displayed on both computers.  Do you think I may have just got a faulty disk?

Resolving Windows STOP errors is tricky. Anything can trigger STOP error - faulty hardware, virus, incompatible driver - in my case the culprit was a piece of bad RAM. You may have to go through a long elimination process before you find the root cause.

tcpip.sys suggests that there is something wrong with your network connection. SimsSpore executable tries to establish connection when you start the game.
Did you run the game when connected to internet? If so, disconnect before you start the game.

If I were you, I'd start looking for the culprit first from network connection, like routers or LAN card.

Quick Google search with your STOP error led me to this MS article. May or may not relevant to your problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906882

Edited for the stupid habit. Spore, not Sims.

Thank you Lord Darcy for your help.  The network connection would have been a logical source of the problem as it is a common factor with both computers.  However, the other common factor was the game disk!  It turns out we have a faulty disk after all.   >:(

After trying many many possible solutions suggested on various threads on various sites with no luck my son borrowed another game disk from a friend.  I manually uninstalled then installed the game from the friend's disk and so far everything is working perfectly. 

I will be taking the game back to the shop tomorrow for a replacement.