CTD on server join

[Boris]

Hi there,

Decided to throw PR back on the machine after some years away.

Problem: Clicking to join a server first results after a short delay (10 seconds or so) in error "Your connection to the server has been lost.", then a second attempt to connect to the same or other server = crash to desktop - no errors thrown up, even with fullscreen 0 in shortcut. No error log created that I can see in the BF2 dir/subdirs.

Win XP64 SP1 upto date.

Clean install of BF2 1.5.

Installed PR:BF2 v0.97 Full from the 3-part install packages (source: BitTorrent).
MD5 Part 1: 064f08f83b25c2590a8ff057773ffe09
MD5 Part 2: 98f2654906879eac32175a575b0e9d15
MD5 Part 3: e455b05e9a73fbe298400e7355445631

Fully upto date dotnet installed.

vcredist_x64 + vcredist_x86 installed.

Starting a local PR server and running around a map on my own works no problem.

Scrapped it and reinstalled again, same problem.

Deleted \My Docs\ profile folder completely, created new profiles, still same.

Nothing in eventvwr.

Running out of ideas here... need some help pinning it down.

[MaSSive]

Hardware specs please and in game video and audio settings?

Does BF2 run fine, problems with any other games, any background applications ( overlays or messengers ) running?

[Boris]

Hi there, thanks for the reply.

OK, sooo, short answer is I figured it out finally, seemed to be caused by an invalid CD-key in the registry.

In hindsight, main problem was there were no errors ever thrown up to let me know about that, just straight CTD.

-----------------------------------

Long answer (and for incase others ever hit this thread looking for ideas)...

Realised I hadn't tried vanilla BF2 mod on the clean PR install, so tried that, found it crashed out the same.

Dawned on me to add the bf2 *_r debug files to the root. Ran that, captured error (didn't ctd using bf2_r.exe thankfully):

Expression: !cdkey.empty()
Text: no cd key in registry, disconnecting now

OK, reason for this is because the fresh 'install' of bf2 1.5 i did came off a dvd i made a few years ago that contained a clean 1.5 install on it so i never had to download/reinstall those goddamn annoying patches ever again.

Anyway, new OS install since then. Only been playing offline singleplayer mode for years (bf2sp64/aix2) so i guess it didn't care about the missing cd-key, hence bf2 appeared to work fine.

Grabbed the registry details from an old registry dump backup i had here from the old os install, added them to registry (key was in a long encoded format). Still failed, soooo reinstalled bf2 again from original dvd (version 1.0.2442.0) to make it add the right key into registry, but it never added one in there for some reason after install completed, or the game was run, so joining servers continued to fail.

Ran '\Support\Battlefield 2_code.exe' manually to try again, no joy, still no key written to registry.

Searched nets, found some info about writing raw key into registry. Tried that, still not working, then came across info about adding x9392 in front of it... and it finally worked!

This whole mess reminds me how much I hated ever installing this game. Thankfully I never had to do the 1.0 -> 1.5 update too or I probably would've bashed my head in by now.

Fun and games.

Be seeing yer online then...

[Tema567]

Ok, seems that your problem has been solved. But for most people this CTDs would be unexpected and they confused because there is no any information why its crashed, while local singleplayer works fine.
Also people have similar issues on Windows x64 operating systems while they used wrong registry key instead of Wow6432Node for 32-bit only BF2.
I've written small app which can help you view, generate and change your CD-Key so easy, even if your key is wrong or purchased in Steam/Origin store.
This program currently not available (in process of small remake to follow our rules)
For some reasons Windows Seven may have issues with encryption provider which is couldn't work, and there is not solution yet. Otherwise you can only reinstall whole OS to fix that problem

- Please leave your feedback if you used my app

Have a fun and more winner games,

Cheers

[Boris]

Yeah that's what I thought, the CTD was the weird thing about it, making it difficult to figure what was going wrong. I see now though that it wasn't a PR issue as I first thought, but a BF2 problem. It's strange really that it would CTD for a minor fault (missing/broken reg key) like that though. Poor coding, I guess.

I did find some info pointing to a third-party app that promised to fix invalid key problems, but then you have the problem of not knowing whether the thing can be trusted not to be squirting your key out to some dodgy server online, only to end up on some m4d s3ri4Lz website, or worse, pack a trojan/virus.

A bit of feedback on BF2KeyMan - Thanks for the link, it sounds useful. Got it saved here and will keep hold of it, but if I could make a suggestion: There's no txt/nfo included that might help alleviate trust concerns about it, like some info that mentions what it does exactly, who made it, contact details (website/email link), etc, so it just looks a little dodgy as it is.

If I run it, will it encode the registry key again? That'd be great if it could do that.

[MaSSive]

Application is legit Ive tested it. And it works on Win7. Its reading my BF2 and SF key straight on launch.

One thing only Tema please remove keygen from it or I will remove it from here.

[Tema567]

Application is legit Ive tested it. And it works on Win7. Its reading my BF2 and SF key straight on launch.

One thing only Tema please remove keygen from it or I will remove it from here.

Ok, MaSSive, i will remake this app w/out key maker in order to correct it for forum rules and on the other side - to provide people best, fast and easy-to-use key manager which fixes wrong registry keys automatically. This tool has introduced after people asked me about why their license key are wrong in BattleField 2_Code. They purchased license on Steam / Origin and get stuck at the key entering stage. Most people having the same question and this tool i'm sure can be best solution for most of all.

[Tema567]

Allright,
Ive released new version of BF2KeyMan with minor changes based on your suggestions
Please leave feedback if it was helpful for someone

Added:
- Readme,
- Minor key checking for chars

Removed:
- "Random" button

Download: bf2keyman.rar

[MaSSive]

Works perfectly for me. Haven't had problems yet with cd key to test it, but its reading my cd key from registry immediately on launch.

Windows 7 64bit SP1 - BF2 Deluxe ( SF )

Ill add it to tutorial about invalid cd key.

[Boris]

Looks to be running fine here. I deleted the plain-text key from the registry then used bf2keyman to write it back in encoded form.

Some feedback:

Some of the fields have square characters in them before you type in if it doesn't read a key from the registry when starting it.



The text above still says "press 'Random'" for keygen.

It read the registry bf2 key and used that to fill in the special forces key on its own.

If you type a key in then hit apply, it replies with "the key is already entered" which seems a little odd.

If it reads a bf2 key when starting up, it copies that to the special forces key and states "the key is already entered" for both, but it doesn't actually write the special forces key into the registry until hitting "Apply".

Included txt is good.

App is good.

Cheers.

[MaSSive]

Tema if you're up for it I got some ideas for this tool. We can make it like complete troubleshooting, repair tool for BF2/PR. Let me know if you got time to work on it.