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View Full Version : EF, 6.5 hours trouble-shooting!


QWFreak
03-20-2006, 09:56 PM
The subject title might be mis-leading. Don't get me wrongly, I love BF2, and SF naturally. Therefore I decided to buy EF. EF is great, in trems of the map themselves. The sky is beautiful than other maps...Challenger, :eopard and all the new weapons.

But the amount of trouble-shooting during downloading and after installation is daunting. And luck is all you need to get it sorted. At the end of the day, I spent over 6 hours totally before I finally got the chance to see one of the beautiful new maps in this tiny expansion pack.

I bought the key card. Then loaded it in @ http://www.downloader.ea.com/code . Then it asked me to join the EA Online service. So I did. But the hesitation came when I was asked for a user name. I thought for a moment and entered my beloved BF2 login ID which is now characterized by a Corporal Rank with 4 unlocked weapons. But it was rejected because someone has already used that ID! WHAT?!:confused: So I used something like "Sentry", "UglyJerk", "JerryLewis"..etc. None of them were accepted because they were in use! Even JERRY LEWIS??!! I mean, don't play with me for Christ sake. At last I suffixed a chosen ID with SF and it was accepted. So my EA Online membership ID is established but it is different than that I used to login in-game. At that point, I didn't know that my in-game login ID is GameSpy registered ID. But I did feel there would be some problems later when I play online.

Then came the download. After 45% was completed, the line staled. So 45 minutes were wasted. I quickly reboot Windows XP and tried again. This time the whole thing went through but took another 2 hours and 6 minutes. But it was then the nightmare began to start.

Prior to the payment, I thought would there be a problem if I need to burn the files into a CD for later use like re-install. When the downloaded was completed, I started to realise there are more than one file. And it is not an executable. So I went to Install. Now I found the Setup.EXE somewhere inside the subfolders of the cacahe folder. Up til now I am not sure what files or which fileset I should burn onto a CD. But we will cone to that later. Anyway, I installed the files and this time the update is pretty quick, less than 1 minutes! I mean, please EA, why don't you put it ona CD and sell it at the retail outlets, I am quite willing to pay a little bit more like $15 or even $18.

After that's done, for a BF2 freak like myself, rushing into the game is the very first thing to do naturally. So that's what I did. Now came the most frustrating issue is that it constantly complained that I have not purchased the game. And I must use an Online ID to login in order to play the game. Damn, I have purchased the game and it is a legitimate copy. And I did have registered with EA. What the phuck are you talking about?

So I went to read various forums and one of the threads up here did give me some information but didn't help until I read a long one in PlanetBattlefield.com. So all that was wrongly done was the GameSpy ID I used is not linked up with that I registered with EA. So I use the EAD programme to change the Gamespy ID or the EA ID is changed I don't really care as long as it works. So it does. And it took me 6 hours!

I have another question for EA is that, why would you place this pack into the vanilla version folders instead of the SF expansion pack? If a server hosts both SF and EF, then the BF2 cursor will have to change from green to red and do you know it does take time for the program to switch between teh vanilla version and the SF version? For Christ sake can you do something to sort of merge them over?

Last but not least I am sure that BF2 is great with EF being added to the whole package, but next time, if it is all about giving us new maps, vehicles and weapons, can you put it into a CD case with a CD and a leaflet? I would appreciate a great deal if you would do that. Thank!!:mad:

AFPJ_BoooYaaa
03-20-2006, 11:16 PM
Dude! I feel your pain. I purchased the EF booster last wednesday and I haven't managed to get the thing to work yet. All I get from EA tech support is "try to reinstall the 1.21 patch", or "do you have it on more than one computer?" or the ever popular "you need to change your game spy ID." I have never been more frustrated in my entire life - over $10 lousy dollars! I'm going to try phoning tech support next and try to talk to a live person and see if that helps. You name it, I have tried it to get this thing to work. So believe me 6 hours would have been a blessing!!!!

Dethleffs
03-21-2006, 03:30 AM
try changing your gamespy id in your EA account to your player name ingame, that should sort things out... I had the same nervebreaking problems - and was wondering how many different email adresses and user names i had to come up with (and remember) to finally get those 3 maps to work.
this might help btw
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?messageID=471259&sls=3&lkey=RBaoIhTORfjCxYTFCmaMVAAAKDw.&threadID=54652񳃛
posted somewhere else on the forums by someone else, of which i am infinately thankfull.

regards,

Deth

NoToRiOuSmInUtE
03-21-2006, 03:37 AM
Lol; Just reading it I get ****ed as if something happened to me. Now I have another reason not to purcahse it just yet.

whoosh
03-21-2006, 06:33 AM
Would you believe EAs response to a complaint to the Better Business Bureau was.........

EA games is not aware of any problems with the downloader......


EA games has had no trouble tickets submitted nor any phone calls pertaining to problems with the downloader.....

Thats was thier response to the Better Business Bureau. .

QWFreak
03-21-2006, 11:09 AM
Dude! I feel your pain. I purchased the EF booster last wednesday and I haven't managed to get the thing to work yet. All I get from EA tech support is "try to reinstall the 1.21 patch", or "do you have it on more than one computer?" or the ever popular "you need to change your game spy ID." I have never been more frustrated in my entire life - over $10 lousy dollars! I'm going to try phoning tech support next and try to talk to a live person and see if that helps. You name it, I have tried it to get this thing to work. So believe me 6 hours would have been a blessing!!!!

I should have written down what I have set up sorry.

What I did was firstly, BF2 vanilla version installed with patch 1.03. Then, I installed the SF right away. After SF installation's been completed, I went on with the patch which is 1.12(287,389KB). Then patch 1.12->1.2(83,546KB). Then patch 1.2->1.21(14,249KB). Then I installed EF.

After that, you have the EAD auto-run upon Windows start up. Open it, observer near the top left corner, there is an option which allows you to change you GameSpy ID. Select that one, if nothing happens, open IE first. Then click the option again, and another IE will be pulled up and put you into one of EA's services. Because you are currently logged in with your registered EA's ID, when you specify your BF2 login ID, the link will be established. Once you have done that, your BF2 ID which is in fact a Gamespy ID is now associated with your EA registered ID for which you have paid. The general idea is that GameSpy can now authenticate you being the rightful owner of a legitimate copy of the EF booster pack when you join a server which is runnign one of the 3 maps of EF. It's also this authenticate thingy which has been creating so many confusions (not fair to say as pproblems).

Hope it helps.

Lol; Just reading it I get ****ed as if something happened to me. Now I have another reason not to purcahse it just yet.

You should purchase this booster pack. It is very nicely done. Talking about Great Wall map, the sky is rendered very nicely, mackeral sky, the texture is very autumn evening feel.

I don't have complaints here. What I am not happy with EA this time is that why on earth EF is placed in BF2 vanilla version? Second issue is that if server switches to SF maps, the SF executable will be switched to from BF executable which means more loading time! Why would that be arranged that way? That's all I want EA to improve.

I hope, EA will publish retail CD / DVD Pack. So far I don't have any idea as to what to back up in case I need to reinstall Windows XP.

Would you believe EAs response to a complaint to the Better Business Bureau was.........

EA games is not aware of any problems with the downloader......


EA games has had no trouble tickets submitted nor any phone calls pertaining to problems with the downloader.....

Thats was thier response to the Better Business Bureau. .

EA should be learning that too many patches are the cause of all these clumsy problems which follow an installation.

To me, the booster pack is like an add-on or patch. It's small, but still, USD 10 is okay with me. Just the distribution has room to be improved.

QWFreak
03-21-2006, 11:18 AM
Would you believe EAs response to a complaint to the Better Business Bureau was.........

EA games is not aware of any problems with the downloader......


EA games has had no trouble tickets submitted nor any phone calls pertaining to problems with the downloader.....

Thats was thier response to the Better Business Bureau. .

EA should be learning that too many patches are the cause of all these clumsy problems which follow an installation.

To me, the booster pack is like an add-on or patch. It's small, but still, USD 10 is okay with me. Just the distribution has room to be improved.

Would you believe EAs response to a complaint to the Better Business Bureau was.........

EA games is not aware of any problems with the downloader......


EA games has had no trouble tickets submitted nor any phone calls pertaining to problems with the downloader.....

Thats was thier response to the Better Business Bureau. .

EA should be learning that too many patches are the cause of all these clumsy problems which follow an installation.

To me, the booster pack is like an add-on or patch. It's small, but still, USD 10 is okay with me. Just the distribution has room to be improved.