Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

[kamenjar]

After my "encounter" with EA support, I decided to spread the word about what happened to me. The problem I had is solved in this thread I posted (http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45792), and it's been haunting BF since patch 1.1 and continued to SF and 1.12.

Well... Here is my dialogue with the automated response systems... It's a bit lenghty, but I am sure you will get a good laugh here and there .. However, the point is NOT to make fun of customer support, even though I should because I relied on them and wasted at least 6 hours total in this mess tring to install the patch. The point is for you, and me to get a piece of mind and for this to hopefully reach their manaement and devs, so that we can actually start getting our money worth from that support!
(Sorry for typos, I'm just tired and don't have Word installed on my "clean-custom-built-box"

Support Reference #
051211-003085
(mods pls delete Ref# if I can't post this)
Customer 12/11/2005 02:50 PM
I purchased the download version of Special Forces expansion.
I am running into the same problem I was having with BF2 patches while trying to install the Special Forces expansion. With the patches, there was always a workaround for us with partitioned drives.
- My C: has the Windows installation ONLY, and it is ONLY 4GB total. There is no possibility whatsoever for me to that 2400 MB of space (The most I can free is 1GB), nor do I intend to repartition the drive.
- My TMP and TEMP are set to my X: drive, which has 28 GB of FREE space.
- The game is installed on the X: drive
Besicaly the patcher has no reason to look for free space on C: drive as it will use the X: drive for temp space and it will patch the game on the same drive.

I tried using the manual patching process I was using before (found the patch in temp, copied to game folder and ran patch.exe), but that gave me a black scren and then it just dissapeared after a few seconds. From what I experienced, this is usually the result of a bad patch. Even after it patched, there were no SF icons on the desktop.

Please provide me with a workaround ofr this issue.

Thanks,
<me>

Not actually to be honest... The "help" i got from them on the previous issue was useless too. I thought I saw the installer finish in all my tiredness, but it hasn't.
However, another totally clueless auto-response, which I'm not even gonna post here in full, but this one is a perl:

Title: Why do I get Crashes, Illegal ops message or Lock-ups when I play AOS?!?
Link: http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg...ted=1046714215
....

WTH IS AOS!?!

Response 12/11/2005 10:09 PM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts. I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with Battlefield 2 Special Forces.

You may have to perform a manual uninstall of the game to reset any game files that may have become corrupted and is not allowing the proper patching of the game. The instructions are as follows:

In order to fully uninstall Battlefield 2: Special Forces you must uninstall Battlefield 2 as well. To completely uninstall this software from your system follow the steps below.

You can manually uninstall the game by removing the files and registry keys associated with it. Be sure to follow these steps exactly as they appear to prevent accidental file/program deletion on your system.

To delete the save files:

1. Open My Documents.
2. Right-click on the Battlefield 2 folder and choose Delete.

To delete the game files (in the default location):

1. Open My Computer.
2. Open the C drive.
3. Open the Program Files folder.
4. Open the EA GAMES folder.
5. Right-click on the Battlefield 2 folder and choose Delete.
6. Close all open windows.
7. Right-click on the Recycle Bin and choose Empty Recycle Bin.

To edit the registry and remove Battlefield 2:

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type regedit in the text field.
4. Click File and then choose Export.
5. Name the file Backup and make sure the Export Range is set to All.
6. Click Save; you will now be returned to the Registry Editor window.
7. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
8. Click the plus sign next to Software.
9. Click the plus sign next to DICE.
10. Right-click on the Battlefield 2 folder and choose Delete.
11. Right-click on the Battlefield 2: Special Forces folder and choose Delete.
12. Click the plus sign next to Electronic Arts.
13. Click the plus sign next to EA Games.
14. Right-click and choose Delete on the Battlefield 2 folder.
15. Right-click and choose Delete on the Battlefield 2: Special Forces folder.
16. Click the plus sign next to Microsoft.
17. Click the plus sign next to Windows.
18. Click the plus sign next to CurrentVersion.
19. Click the plus sign next to Uninstall.
20. Right-click on the key named {04858915-9F49-4B2A-AED4-DC49A7DE6A7B} and choose Delete.
21. Right-click on the key named {50D4CB89-AF34-4978-96DC-C3034062E901}and choose Delete
22. A Confirm Key Delete window will appear, choose Yes.
23. Close the WindowsRegistry Editor.

Battlefield 2: Special Forces is now completely removed from your system.

Reinstall Battlefield 2.

After installing Battlefield 2, reboot your computer and boot into windows XP safe mode. You can consult with your system documentation for further instructions on how to do this if you are not familiar with this windows XP feature.

When you have successfully booted into windows XP safe mode install the Special Forces. If and when the Special Forces plus the patch installs successfully, then try installing the 1.12 patch since you need this patch to be able to connect and play online.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://support.ea.com)

<TechX>
EA Technical Support

I look at this.. It has no connections with the brain, but I give it a try.
After a lengthy trial, I realize that in SafeMode I can't even use the darn EA Downloader because it's not on the network and I need to log in to use it!?! Anyways.. I'm a savvy computer geek, so I run the cached files. And offcourse:

Thanks for the quick response, but you have not addressed my issue. If you would have read my problem in the first place, you would realize that your suggestion would not ework because the SF isntallateion would fail to dettect the propper "disk space check" in Safe Mode. That is exactly what happened.

As I suggested originall, please provide me with a workaround for the issue or a manual setup process.

Thanks

Now note the personalized approach... Hello <me>. However, he totally still ignores the fact that I DO HAVE FREE SPACE "on disk". And check out the comment about "free space needed by windows itself"!!?! :rofl: I almost fell of the chair on that one... I'm dealing with amateurs...

Hello <me>,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts. I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with Battlefield 2.

Unfortunately, the game still needs at the very least 2400MB of free space to be able to patch the game. And this free spaces is needed by windows itself to extract and uncompress the updates needed to play the game online.

And windows does not use the regular temp folders to extract and uncompress the patch files.

With regards to changing your temp file locations you may want to consult with your system manufacturer for further assistance regarding this matter.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://support.ea.com)

<TechX>
EA Technical Support

"And windows does not use the regular temp folders to extract and uncompress the patch files".... Ahahaha.. It puts them on the boot partition!?! It can either put them in TEMP/TMP or in the game forlder!

Soi now I go on their remark to contact the "system manufacturer"
... to be continued .... stay put ... whew tired....

[kamenjar]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Customer 12/12/2005 03:19 AM
I am the builder of my own system, and I am the the one who decides how much space will be allocated to which partition. Therefore I decide that I refuse to repartition and reinstall my own system in order to run this expansion pack, as I DO HAVE suficient disk space that is specified in the system requirements.

On the side note, I assure you that it is not "Windows", as you state it, that decides this or that. It is the Install Shield progam and the game developers. The Install Shield program has the capability to accept parameters which designate the temorary space that is needed to put temporary files or "updates, as you state. You can find this information at http://documentation.installshield.c...EXECmdLine.htm

ALSO, your own support team has provided me with a workaround to install path 1.12 on top of BF2 originally and proved that it was not "Windows", as you say, who decides byitself which drive it will use to uncompress the "updates", but rather the patch itself, whch was faulty. Even though the patch required originally 3GB of space on my C: drive, i was able to successfully install it on my system, bu following the instructions that the support team provided.

Unless you can provide me with an alternate sollution, conclusion is that the Special Forces addon is faulty because some users that meet the minimal system requirements are unable to install and run the addon.

Therefore, unless again you can provide an alternate solution, I request that you provide me with a refund for the amount that I purchased the expansion for because I can not run it or use it, and I had no means of knowing that the addon would not work with my system until I purchased it and attemted to install.

... and no response for a while.. There I dig ea.uk forums and find the workaround.

So I tell them:

You can imagine how I reacted when I actually found the solution to your problem on community forums (without the need to free up ANY space on ANY drives).

Support should be ashamed of the fact that the users have better knowledge of your own problem. Lack of communication with developers should not be an issue for this long, as the patcher had these disk space issues since 1.1 came out.

I will try to post your responses on every community forum I can get my hands on, so hopefully this reaches further than your uselesss automated responses.

So there you have it.. You can see I almost lost my nerves at one point, because I know that the installer is fuxored. Anyways.. I hope that some of you have cousins in EA/Dice development, and they read this.

Cheers!

[gunslinger2787]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

I deserve a cookie after reading all that, it was a work out. But word, thats good stuff, gotta love those automated responses.

[Slapidus]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Wow EA actually help somebody? somebody take this,print it,and frame it and hang it on the wall :laugh:

[kamenjar]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Wow EA actually help somebody? somebody take this,print it,and frame it and hang it on the wall :laugh:

No, they did not! The user community did. E.A. DID THE BEST of what was in their capacity!
Oreo [0] Cookie for Slapidus!
U can pretty much read the bolds to get the points

[Cqua]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

That gave me a good laugh!
Well done.. haha

[shafik]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Ridiculous. Can't believe the people get paid.

[shafik]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Double post. Please delete.

[big_sammy_b]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

why on earth would you have a tiny partittion virtualy full to run windows on? Thats silly have you never heard of swap files?

NTFS is designed to run large partitions you know.

[kamenjar]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Been running this setup since my first Windows 95 iinstall. My C drive will run fully defragmented most of the time because I will put my temps on another drives. Most of the time, nothing will be deleted from the drive. Also I got the flexibility to upgrade space for Program Files very easily by swapping the D: partition and copying the contents of the old partition to the new disk. As for the games disk X:, I use a temporary drive to often fully copy the files to, format the X drive and copy the files back. That makes the FS mush faster than defragmenting because the files are contigous. I do the same for with "Programs" drive D:.

The only problem witht this approach is that the more frequently used files (other than windows core files) are at the inner tracks. I wish I could put C as my last partition, but I didn't do it because in the old Windows 95 times, things could get screwed up if made a change to the partition table.

[imported_bigpappa]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

too many words, do u have any pics

[$hArp$h0t]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Never rely on technical support unless it's an issue that affects alot of players. In your case it sounds like one person was attempting to help you, and obviously failed to help you because I doubt he knows anything about the problem you had, most of the time they just look in the manual and if you don't meet system requirements they just give you an automated response saying "I'am sorry, your computer does not meet system requirements and is the reason for the problem you are encountering". The best place to first look is in forums of that company or game such as, here. You get more help and support if you look or ask other gamers cause there is a high chance that they too have experienced the problem, there's little chance a tech supporter (who probobly has never even played the game) will have support for that particular issue because they are more focused on exploits and bugs. Aksing help from them is like the windows "send error report" system, they get e-mails concerning problems if they find a reoccuring problem with alot of gamers they find a way to fix it...they do not focus on small complex issues where the problem probobly lies in the computer, they are looking for problems in the game, not the computers.

[imported_KC.JADE]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

hahahahaha well cool...

[imported_Mutrino]

Re: Just so you know that you are doing a better job than EA SUPPORT!

Far Cry has the same kind of issue. Unless the temp folder is in it's default location the installer chokes. Ubisoft's 'techsupport' was as useless as EA's.
We are stuck solving these problems ourselves or not play the game.