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Max Payne

Posts: 15

Posted: Wed, 11th Jan 2006 22:24 Post subject: Battlefield 2 "patch failed", source and solution

so i found this stuff today after i got tired of doing those manual patch updates..it made me laugh for a while since it's quite a dumb problem so i just sent an email to EA and see if they can sort this out on future patches/addons...

here's the email:

Quote:

Hello,

First of all i don't know if this is the right e-mail to send this information to but since i found no other address i'm just sending it here and eventually it will be re-directed to the proper staff.

This email regards an issue that many battlefield 2 players seem to be having while installing patches and even the new Special Forces expansion, since i'm no expert this contains no technical information of what the problem actually is, it just explains what seems to be the source of the "patch failed" issue and a possible solution to it, i came across this almost by accident and after running some tests i could barely believe that something like this could cause so many problems.

Here's what's causing the problem: everyone having this error is probably logging into Windows using an account that contains special or extended characters of the ASCII table, as an example: on a windows installation i made, my main account (with admin rights, of course) was "Rúben" and i got 'patch failed' while updating BF2, on a second installation i did a week after, my main username was "Ruben" and i got no problems at all, it got my wondering what i had done differently this time so i tested it on a friend's PC with the same problem and once again he had an account containing a special character in it, i created another user with admin rights with plain text and got no problems at all wich led me to this almost unbelievable and even funny conclusion.

So here's the solution: install Battlefield 2+patches(+Special Forces) using an account with words (with admin privileges) that DON'T have any special characters (ù, À, á Â, õ, ê, é, etc), just characters that don't require using the SHIFT key to add "extras" or whatsoever. If needed just create a new account with admin rights and switch users to install the game.

I suppose that most people getting this error are non-english that include these characters on their language more frequently.

Now what i don't know is if this bug is directly related to the installation software used or the operating system itself nor if this is the best solution to it but i just hope this info can be passed around and become handy to someone around there that is trying to find a more technical solution to the problem.

Tested on:
Windows XP pro+sp2 (English version with portuguese regional settings)
Windows XP home+sp2 (Portuguese version and portuguese regional settings)
All accounts had administrator privileges and contained no multiple word combinations (with spaces between them).

Didn't have a chance to try it with other languages but i suppose the solution is pretty much the same.

Best regards,

Rúben Henriques, "FaLLeN"

one last note: u will get invalid key problems while connecting to servers if u installed the game with a "valid" (as described above) windows account and switch to another account on the pc to play the game..i didn't test renaming your current windows logon account to a "valid" one and then re- installing bf2 so don't know if it'll work..this issue seems to be related to the way the game keys are encrypted into the windows registry.

i hope it helps those who had this problem Very Happy

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