Why won't Spore work on my friend's laptop?

There may be a video-driver problem. I would first check the Spore literature to see if there are any known driver issues. You may be able to upgrade the driver. This is not as the entire answer, it’s just the first educated guess. I think it’s worth investigating.

I agree with @dpworkin. Most likely a driver problem. However Spore sometimes doesnt work on Vista for unknown reasons. When you installed it did you also install the EA download manager? If you did try updating it.

Given that it is a Dell laptop, it may well have an integrated video card. Most integrated video cards do not support the level of rendering required by Spore. I had that problem, myself with my little Acer. I’ll be upgrading to a desktop as soon as I can, honestly. It’s easier to get a decent desktop for a good price, as well as upgrade it as technology progresses. The problem with laptops is that they are more pricey and more difficult to upgrade (if you can upgrade at all).