v1.03 Problem

[OldSchoolSoldier]

I started off by doing a clean install of BF2. I then patched it to v1.03 using the extracted patch files, not the normal installer, because of the "patching failed" issue. I go to run BF2 and it attempts to load, shows a black screen and then quits back to desktop.

Is it ok to go from v1.00 to v1.03. Do I need to install v1.02 first?

Thanks.

[kewl e-man]

i just installed v1.2 then v1.3. works for me.

[Bearmatic]

Have the exact same problem as you, Oldschool. When first upgrading to 1.03, the game loaded, but of course got the invalid cd-key thingie. Well, trying to resolve that issue, I uninstalled and installed BF2 1.00. Tried OK. Then installed 1.02. Tried OK. Installed 1.03 (yup, of course with the "patched failed" workaround. Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong), started the game, splash logo, black screen, back to desktop.

I've tried everything to determine the problem. Today (after working with the problem for 15 hours+, I got fed up and reinstalled the whole PC. But guess what? Same problem. Now there's only BF2 installed on the entire HDD (except for WinXPSP2).

What I don't understand is how this actually worked before uninstalling the first time. Tried patching directly to 1.03, uninstalling and reinstalling countless times in different folders, tried copy back Profiles folder v1.02 in my documents after 1.03 (in case of video.con issues). Same drivers all over the place (Nvidia 78.01 on a 7800 GTX. Also tried 77.77). No avail.

Has anyone the got the same problem? Or HAD the same problem and resolved it? I going slowly into manic depression. :(

[lcplsickoll]

Have you tried to download the patch again, maybe from a different server. You may have a corrupt file.

[Bearmatic]

Thanks for answering. I've tried the patch from 3 different locations. File size is 175.576.

[lcplsickoll]

Well, to answer the first question; Yes it's definitely OK to go straight to 1.03. I actually uninstalled, reinstalled, and patched 1.03 to avoid possible conflicts when patching over old patches. I'm not having any issues, although that doesn't help you much. The only things I may have done different is turn off all AV/ASW software and made sure nothing else was running in the background during the installation and patch. Although Bear.. that doesn't help you as you've done a REALLY fresh install with the format and XP install.

[Bearmatic]

Thanks anyway, lcplsickoll, for taking the time to answer. Appreciate it especially when you yourself is not affected with the same problem.:)

As soon as I get an answer / find out, I will post it here.

[Bearmatic]

Ok. Finally got it to work!:D

It's a bit cumbersome if you only got 1 PC, but this is the only way I could get past the post splash-screen CTD. I got the tips from the Planet Battlefield Forum by a user called remedy_. Here goes:

1. Installed BF2 and patched it directly to 1.03. No surprise, the post splash-screen CTD occured.

2. Installed BF2 on ANOTHER PC and patched this to 1.03 for testing that the patch I've downloaded actually would work. And it worked flawlessly. I got the "invalid cd-key error", but that was not my concern at the moment.

3. Then I copied the whole "program files\battlefield 2" directory from that PC to my own PC. Voila! It worked! 20 hours of agony paid off :)

4. Still had the "invalid CD-key issue". This was solved by using the BFCDKeyCheck.exe workaround mentioned here: http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33813&page=2 by Gunny. Thank you Gunny!

Well, hope this can help some of you strugglers out there. Too bad if you haven't got a second PC. Try to find a friend with a PC and DVD-burner ;)