Symptom:
Install BF2 and Special Forces on Vista. Launch game as Administrator and try to load into a SF map, but get the following error message when loading:
"Your CD-Key installed with Battlefield 2: Special Forces is not valid".
Cause:
For some weird EA/Vista reason, installing one of the patches (the latest one?) corrupts the registry entry instead of encrypting it.
Solution:
Click Start.
Go to Run.
Type "regedit" and hit OK button.
Click on plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click on plus sign next to SOFTWARE.
Double click on Electronic Arts folder.
Double click on EA Games folder.
Double click on Battlefield 2 folder.
-- BACKUP YOUR ERGC FOLDER BEFORE EDITING IT --
Double click on ergc folder.
Data displayed will probably have x9392 only, or possibly a x9392 followed by many letters/numbers.
Right click on it and select Modify.
Type in x9392 and then your Battlefield 2 CD key (uppercase letters)
note: don’t include hyphens.
Double click on Battlefield 2 Special Forces folder.
Double click on ergc folder.
Data displayed will probably have x9392 only.
Right click on it and select Modify.
Type in x9392 and then your Battlefield 2 CD key.
note: don’t include hyphens.
Example: x9392(your Battlefield 2 CD key here)
Remember to run SF "as administrator". This solved the problem for me.
Cheers!
