Once upon a time, I chuckled over the news that Electronic Arts was named 'Worst Company' by Consumerist Readers for a second year in a row. Over blown? At the time, I would think so, yes. My first hand experience leads me to believe that there's more truth to this than I originally expected.
This all started with me downloading Mass Effect 2 on Origin Games. The game started without much issues but when I attempted to register the product code to BioWare's social community website, the code was rejected. Not much of a big deal, but I figured I could slip in a ticket to see if EA could lend some assistance while I plow through the game. Looking back, I probably should never have.
EA did come back with a response and after a few back and forth response and some verification questions answered, they supplied me with a new product code that BioWare's site happily accepted. What I did not realize was that they had added another copy of Mass Effect 2 in my Origin account. What's the big deal? Lots.
This new copy was wrecking havoc with the license activation in my laptop. When I launch the game, I am greeted with this "Invalid License Reason Code = Invalid Cipher (0x0006)". Well, isn't that nice?
I scoured the web for solutions. I also reopened my ticket with EA pertaining to this issue and the only thing they did was delete the ticket. Yes. Delete. Gone. Needless to say, I was infuriated by their actions and submitted another ticket. That one did not fare any better as EA just decided to close the ticket with an empty promise of coming back to me with 'expert' assistance.
I've found out that EA holds its license files at C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\*.dlf. I've tried deleting the dlf file and repairing install but to no avail. I also went through the trouble of redownloading the game which failed to make any difference. Finally, I had a eureka moment when I realized I was doing all this hullabaloo with the new and faulty Mass Effect 2 copy.
I shut down Origin. I deleted the dlf file. Turned Origin back on and then used the old Mass Effect 2 game and repaired the install. It threw a couple of errors a couple of times before finally working. The game downloaded an additional 60 MB of which I have no idea what they are. Then, the game started.
No thanks, EA. Your help site is convoluted and crappy. Your assistance broke more than fixed things. I... FIXED my problem.
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