CD Key question

[a0jer]

I haven't played BF2 in about 2 years, but I reinstalled it to play this mod. Went to play online and it appears I have a punkbuster ban. Not a hardware ban just a cd key ban.

The question is can I use a BF2:Special Forces CD key instead? It is a lot cheaper to buy SF than another copy of the original game.

[Alucard]

even when you play an expansion your still playing with your original BF2 vanilla key so to answer your question no you may not you must buy a new BF2 vanilla key but if you were banned you were doing something you should not have and there for you are prolly IP banned by sites like PBBANS and punkbusted

[a0jer]

thanks, after a bit of fiddling i saw my cd key was corrupt in the registry
and after a bit more fiddling i see my cd key is banned for being a leaked key + hacking

quite cool considering i bought the game when i lived in an area with no internet access and have never played it online until now. I should probably be bringing this up on the EA forums. Sorry for wasting your time.

[biscuit123]

It happens. Sometimes your CD key will pop up in a keygen and someone else will essentially hijack it, so it's not your fault. However I doubt you'll get much sympathy from EA, they'll probably either offer you a new CD key (which you'll have to pay for) or tell you to buy a new copy of the game.