BF2S Forums Quick Question

By the looks of it, it does appear to be a little application to change your CD-key.

Somehow I doubt EA would make it so easy, but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Emil wrote:

One tip:
Download 1.41 and keep it on your computer, then you won't have to d/l it every time you have to re-install

Heh, I do keep it on my computer.

It's more the fact that it takes 20+ minutes (literally) to install the 500 (ish) meg patch despite only taking 3 or 4 minutes to install the 2 gig game that irritates me.

I get pretty impatient with slow software. :p

If it was going to be as quick as simply installing BF2 v1 I'd just go ahead and do it.

Of course, I realise that in the time it's taken to create this thread and moan about it, I could've easily done it by now. But I'd like to know if there's a quick way in the unlikely event I ever need to do it again.

fatherted13 wrote:

That key thing just renews your cd key i think and you HAVE to repatch after using it, other wise you wont connect to any servers

Really? God, I just did it too.

If only I'd waited another 60 seconds...

I don't really understand what you mean by "renews your cd-key", but I'm assuming it doesn't actually change anything.

could probably go do a regedit

This is somewhat on-topic. 

I have three copies of bf2, a vanilla version, a vanilla/SF version that I bought for my son, and a version that has all expansions that I recently bought so that I could play with my son in SF maps.  It is possible to install one version and use the disk from another version without changing the cd key.  I borrowed my son disks to play SF and gave him my disk to play vanilla back before I bought the newest version that now has all of the expansions.  I had to use his SF key when I installed it, because I only originally had the vanilla version, but he was still able to use my vanilla disk even though he did not have my cd key loaded on his computer.

Depending on what you want to do, you may not have to change the cd key.

Hope this makes sense.

I have 6 copies of diff versions of BF2/SF/AF/EF!

- MY ADVICE - TAKE IT IF YOU WANT IT - DO NOT COMPLAIN -
______________________________________________________________________________________________
For each Gaming PC (GPC) I own I have backed up everything under

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\
&
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Battlefield 2

to my archive Hard Disk Drive (HDD)... when I had a working non-problematic BF2 install.

From there I simply either uninstall with the ADD or REMOVE PROGRAMS under SETTINGS -> CONTROL PANEL
After a fresh reboot, I insert my DVD Copy of Battlefield 2 & go at it...  after install is complete I paste back
in my archived copy on my HDD...  NO PATCH NEEDED.


OR YOU CAN DO WHAT I DO FOR FASTER INSTALL ----

Manually LEFT SHIFT+DELETE <- Perm Deletion!!!
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2 & REPLACE WITH THE ARCHIVED COPY FROM
TO THE SAME GPC.  THIS DOES NOT WORK TO OTHER GPC's - only the same machine

NO NEED TO PATCH AGAIN UNLESS A NEW VERSION COMES AVAILABLE!
__________________________________________________________________________

To my knowledge in the patch sequence the CD-Key or Serial was encrypted due
to noobs revealing their code via fake keygens which ripped the regedit info & delivered
it to the thief.  I may be right - because in the past prior to v1.3 (i think) you could use
regedit.  To my hacking knowledge there is no fail safe way that consistently work to change
keygen.
__________________________________________________________________________

I NEVER use a CD/DVD to play the game.  If people want, I will spend the time to write up
anything on any topic to help new guys/newbs/noobs/etc to play this game.  DAEMON TOOLS
is a requirement as is a mini-image on your PC.

Blehm98 wrote:

regedit

should be under HOME_key or something like that, it has home in it, then go to software, EA games, battlefield 2, and you should see a string that looks like a CD key, copy paste the key out, then type in the new one, save, quit


this also can let you evade bans from servers if you want, because most servers ban by GUID, not by alias, so yeah...

edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software
Electronic arts
EA games
Battlefield 2
ergc <------  this one when  you click on it on the right has a box with the cdkey.  change this.  as i said above though, make sure you keep a backup of that string later in case something goes wrong...
edit2: meh, i think only part of it is the cdkey, so you'll have to do some experimenting on top of that...

Thank you! I've reinstalled the game now, but I'll try and remember that in case I ever need to again, +1 for you.

DAN5:14 wrote:

This is somewhat on-topic. 

I have three copies of bf2, a vanilla version, a vanilla/SF version [...]

Depending on what you want to do, you may not have to change the cd key.

Hope this makes sense.

Hehe, thank you, I already realised that, I often find myself playing vanilla with the SF cd. The problem was that I'd accidentally installed the game with his cd-key, and we couldn't join servers together because obviously we were using the same one.

san4 wrote:

I'm interested in hearing how the battlefield2_code.exe program worked.

Basically, it didn't. I tried it, and assumed everything worked fine (it gave me a message once I'd done it, but I can't remember it).

I tried to join servers and it said my cd key was invalid, despite being a legit one which was payed for. I ended up reinstalling the game to fix it.

Grover wrote:

I have 6 copies of diff versions of BF2/SF/AF/EF!

- MY ADVICE - TAKE IT IF YOU WANT IT - DO NOT COMPLAIN -
______________________________________________________________________________________________
[...]

Thanks, I might just do that.

I rarely have to reinstall BF2, it's usually 2142 that gets frequently reinstalled due to random errors. I'm assuming that trick will work with it to, so I'll probably try that.

ReTox wrote:

Revelation_Space wrote:

It's more the fact that it takes 20+ minutes (literally) to install the 500 (ish) meg patch despite only taking 3 or 4 minutes to install the 2 gig game that irritates me.

Defrag and test your drive.

Never seen a patch take that long.... ever.

I know, I've never seen it either. It's only ever ever happened with the patches for this game. I assumed it was just DICE being as lazy and shitty at making smooth running programs that was the reason, because it happens with my brother's PC, and also with my friend's. I do often degrag my PC, maybe I should free up more HDD space, it's usually at least 75% full.

Sorry for the ultra long post

Last edited by Revelation_Space (2007-07-24 14:07:05)