Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

[F[a]CE]

It seems that the application "BF2CDKeyCheck.exe" included with the Battlefield 2 1.03 patch UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES OPERATES PROPERLY UNDER WINDOWS 2000.

What the app does is take your plain text CD-Key from your registry ( HKLM\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\ergc\ ), pass it on to some remote server for validation AND/OR encryption, and overwrites the same registry value with the encrypted version.

So far I've found -no- way to make this work under Windows 2000...

Buuuuuut, that means that if you are running (haven't tested 64bit) Windows XP you will 99% be able to correct your "Invalid CD-Key" problem by...

1 - make sure to RUN the BF2CDKeyCheck.exe program that gets extracted to your %TMP% directory during patch extraction/installation if you installed the patch manually.

2 - disable firewalls. Making sure you have NO PORTS BLOCKED. The program uses ports in the (vague, sorry) 60000-61000 and 40-60 ranges from what i peeked at. I can't recall if it was tcp or udp though... whoops! in lieu of making firewall exceptions for such a huge range, you might as well disable ANY FIREWALLS! Any!

2.b - any kind of registry monitoring/protecting/spyware software needs to be off. i'm not sure what all is available as i don't use that crap, but turn it off for now to be safe.

3 - make sure your cd-key is entered properly in the registry before encryption.

4 - make sure you have the priviledges to write to the registry. (duh)

[gunner.b0b]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Might this have something to do with security settings with the "remote registry " service? i dont know im still wandering around in the invalid cdkey patch hell. Is it really just a win2k issue?

[F[a]CE]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Might this have something to do with security settings with the "remote registry " service? i dont know im still wandering around in the invalid cdkey patch hell. Is it really just a win2k issue?

nothing to do with remote registry (which you really shouldn't have running unless you have some seriously unique needs/circumstances) as far as i've seen. works fine with the service off or on for me on xp, and not at all on 2k...

[gunner.b0b]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Im wondering F[a]CE how did you find out the port connections? through netstat?, got any output?.
It seems when i tried to run this app it didnt even want to fire up a connection at all (or even try to execute) but it did change the value to x9xxx and nothing more.

[F[a]CE]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Im wondering F[a]CE how did you find out the port connections? through netstat?, got any output?.
It seems when i tried to run this app it didnt even want to fire up a connection at all (or even try to execute) but it did change the value to x9xxx and nothing more.

used packetmon, ill post some logs later today.. heading to bed for now.

[Tikigod]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Okay, the app definitly doesn't want to work on 2k, since the 5 digit registry number just doesn't seem to match with the 453 digit one you get on XP. However, I was able to get into a couple of ranked games yesterday, got my unlocks and played with them before the problem came back. So either there are times when it doesn't check your CD key (server under load maybe). Unranked servers I've had more luck getting into. Maybe a fair number of them are hacked so that they never check the cdkey...I know when I logged in on the origional unpatched game yesterday there was a bunch of servers advertising that they never verify cdkeys. What I'm getting at, is its still possible to play even if you aren't getting your new ranks and unlocks. Granted, I had to click on like a hundred servers before I found one that worked, but I was able to play some.

[gunner.b0b]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

yeh tikigod this is also happening to me .. it seems sporadic when i get in and when i dont, very unusual. Surely if it was something wrong client side it wouldnt have let me login at the beginning? or doesnt it check when you first login?

Damn i hope this is a bug otherwise its looking like i might be down £30

[AngryC4Killer]

Re: Windows 2000 and 1.03 CD-Key Encryption

Where do I find this BF2CDKEYCHECK.exe thing?The patch worked and then craped out and got the cd key thing.