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Discussion about NBA Live 2004.
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Game will not start ...oh well

Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:34 am

Well My game Just refuses to start. I got the cd in there, the game fully installed and when i click the shortcut to start the game. The exe appears to run but soon after it crashes right to the desktop and The game doesnt even get to the EA sports logo at the beginning.

My specs are PIII
1.2 ghz
40 gig about 10 gig free
128 mb RAM
geforce mx 420 vid card

Tech support hasnt helped at all so i guess no pc gaming experience for me this year. i do have another pc but it is identical to this one without the graphics card.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:42 am

I'm somewhat in you're same shoes. My Game didn't start on my sony vaio(PIII 866, 128MB and some intel graphics card)

So I bought a GeForce2 MX 400 64 MB card for $50. Its all I could spare right now, but besides the point. The game now loads up ... only problem is that the players don't show up at all. When I try to "view players" I just see the team logos instead of players. When I choose my teams on exhibition mode the game crashes with an nba2004.exe error.

While i'm waiting for a response from EA ... only thing I can do is play dynasty on a simulation stand point(which I like so far) or play nba live 2003.

The weird thing is that before I bought the GeForce the madden 2004 & NHL 2004 demo worked for me.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:07 am

My madden and Fifa work fine as well. The crashing of the nbalive2004 exe is the samething which happens to me. Please keep in touch and let me know what technical support has asked u to do .

Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:14 am

You need to get a decent video card guys. At least a GeForce 3.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:21 am

I have a geforce 4

Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:24 am

Well my comp specs are almost the same...

1.3 GHZ
60 gig hard drive with 40 left (I have 2 this is the one I installed Live unto...)
256 MB Ram
Gefore 4 MX 420

Runs fine for me with some details toned down. I really gotta turn off the crowd animation, it REALLY helps the gameplay.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:47 am

Bredrin wrote:I have a geforce 4


GeForce 4 MXs are nothing more than GeForce 2 MXs. You need to get a better video card to experience the game the way it was meant to be.

Re: Game will not start ...oh well

Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:23 am

Bredrin wrote:Well My game Just refuses to start. I got the cd in there, the game fully installed and when i click the shortcut to start the game. The exe appears to run but soon after it crashes right to the desktop and The game doesnt even get to the EA sports logo at the beginning.

My specs are PIII
1.2 ghz
40 gig about 10 gig free
128 mb RAM
geforce mx 420 vid card

Tech support hasnt helped at all so i guess no pc gaming experience for me this year. i do have another pc but it is identical to this one without the graphics card.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?


Do you get any kind of Error mesage or alert box? Something similar happened to me before.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:06 am

Bredrin wrote:My madden and Fifa work fine as well. The crashing of the nbalive2004 exe is the samething which happens to me. Please keep in touch and let me know what technical support has asked u to do .


Hey Bredin, it might not be the answer you want ... but I went ahead and exchanged the card before for a Nvida GeForce FX 5200 128 MB. It seems like it was the graphics card.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:31 am

GF 4 MX's are essentially a GF 2 card in heart...

Try updating drivers?

Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:04 pm

i have a Geoforce 2, 32 MB and mine is working very well...no slowdown, nothing like that

Re: Game will not start ...oh well

Fri Nov 14, 2003 4:21 pm

ausar72 wrote:
Bredrin wrote:Well My game Just refuses to start. I got the cd in there, the game fully installed and when i click the shortcut to start the game. The exe appears to run but soon after it crashes right to the desktop and The game doesnt even get to the EA sports logo at the beginning.

My specs are PIII
1.2 ghz
40 gig about 10 gig free
128 mb RAM
geforce mx 420 vid card

Tech support hasnt helped at all so i guess no pc gaming experience for me this year. i do have another pc but it is identical to this one without the graphics card.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?


Do you get any kind of Error mesage or alert box? Something similar happened to me before.
No error message or anything. All I see is the splash screen with vince carter so the nbalive2004.exe seems to start but after that all i get is a direct dump right back to the desktop. I dont have this issue with any other sports video game. I figure if i can run madden 2004 comfortably I should have been able to run NBA live as well. Its torture seeing everyone else have so much fun with the game and knowing it will be very patchable yet not be able to play it. I thought of taking it back to the store but i am keeping it hoping something can be fixed.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 4:57 pm

It may be your memory... Madden needs 256 to run on Windows XP. And you can make patches but the game crashes all the time with customart1 enbled, so don't get too upset.

Fri Nov 14, 2003 6:35 pm

1) Update your graphics card drivers to the latest Detonator drivers (52.** I believe)
2) Update DirectX to version 9.0b
3) Run dxdiag to see if there are any errors
4) Check all other hardware and make sure drivers are up-to-date there too (chipset drivers etc.)

Fri Nov 14, 2003 7:30 pm

good advice, its best to use what you can to scan the system for bugs and remove them

Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:57 pm

In dxdiag try setting the hardware sound acceleration down if its on maximum. This problem happende to me with max payne 2 and a few other games and once i moved the settin down it worked fine. Its a long shot but its worth a try.

Sat Nov 15, 2003 12:41 am

I have all the latest drivers. Ive check my dxdiag. I updated my directx a long time ago and have the latest version. Dxdiag says everything is functioning properly. Everything seems in order. I changed my hardware acceleration and nothing helped. I reinstalled like 10 times. I think Ive just about tried everything from a systems stand point.

I seem to be completely screwed this year. If only they had come out with a demo I would have been able to see this issue atleast a week before buying the game. :roll:

btw thanks for the suggestions guys

Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:52 am

Hey EA told me I could send my game back to the Warranty department, since I'm in the same boat as Bredrin here, and they'll send me a new unopened box for return...

Tue Nov 18, 2003 10:28 am

any update guys???

I can't make mine run as well. But I'm sure it's my video card. My specs are: Athlon XP 1900+, 256MB, 40GB hard disk, on-board 32MB S3 SavageProDDR.

Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:37 am

it's the video card alright. I got a spare Riva TNT2 from a friend, installed it and the game worked. Cool!

Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:40 am

yea, i don't think any new games support S3 video cards any more :wink:

Wed Nov 19, 2003 11:41 am

This is so horrible, to buy a game and look forward to playing it and it doesn't work, this is bullshit, I bought a Sims game last year and the sound didn't work, I got a new unopened one, believing it was one bad cd, but same problem, it's my computer for sure, but because people buy game and copy them, then return them, people like me are stuck with a game that doesn't work, it really sucks :cry:

These big companies don't give a shit about you and me, they got are money so that's the end of it. :cry:

I feel for anyone who bought the game and it doesn't work for whatever reason, I am buying it when the Best Buy in Anaheim gets it like in two weeks, my puter is not the best, but I will ignorantly buy it and hope it works :?

Wed Nov 19, 2003 10:05 pm

run dxdiag.. see if your video card supports direct3D 9. if if does not, them we all have the same problem. i can run the dynasty and season but all the other features not.. even the training camp screws up..

but i can play the game at its lowest detail settings.

Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:42 am

that weird it should work fine with gforce mx420 friend of mine has it works fine all i can tell you is do you have the new 52.16 nvidia drivers and directx DirectX 9.0b and it should work.

it's the cd rom DRIVE man! here's the solution to ya problem

Sun Dec 21, 2003 6:32 am

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~nbalive/ph ... hp?t=11458
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