Invalid CD-key or bad CD-key

[YaKuZa]

has anyone else been having problems with quake 3 not accepting valid cd-keys? i have a cd-key, but sometimes when i join a server, it still says invalid cd-key or bad cd-key. then sometimes itll work fine. anybody else having this problem?

 

[bobdobolina]

It's possible that someone else is using the same code as you are. If there is a hacker that made a keygenerator or has been distributing the program as a warez version, there could be someone out there with the illegal version of your key code. Then the server would see two of the same code trying to access at the same time and disallow your attempt. I may be mistaken though since I don't play Q3. (I'm a UT'er 🙂) If, however, I am correct, there isn't much you can do. Maybe contact the Q3 tech support and ask them what you can do...

 

[Shagga]

Are you running 1.25 Point Relese. Got this from stomped so it might answer ya question.



<< id Software's Christian Antkow updated his .plan file with a workaround for a bug that has surfaced in the new 1.25 beta patch for Quake III Arena:
First off, thanks to all of you who chose to download and help test out the latest beta release.

An annoying issue was brought to light as a result of testing this evening, and rather than have bugs@idsoftware.com be inundated with e-mails about this bug, I thought it best to post an acknowledgement of the issue, and a temporary solution here.

There appears to be a problem with your baseq3/q3key file being reinitialized to a virgin state when you connect to an original 1.25p server with your 1.25y client (they are incompatible.) The result of this bug is that Quake 3 will print &quot;Invalid CDKey&quot; when you exit the game, reload it, and try to connect to servers on the net.

I was able to replicate this issue in-house and have mailed the programmers.

If you wish to save yourself some aggravation while testing this release, I would suggest the following after you've ensured that q3key contains your valid CD-Key;

- If you are an MS-DOS h4x0r, CD to your quake3\baseq3 directory and execute &quot;attrib +r q3key&quot; at the command prompt. This will make the q3key file read-only (after you are certain that it contains your valid CD key.)

- If you are not comfortable using the command prompt, open up &quot;My Computer&quot; and head over to the directory where you have Quake 3 installed. Open the &quot;baseq3&quot; directory, right click on the &quot;q3key&quot; file. Select &quot;Properties&quot; and on the bottom of the panel, you should see a &quot;Read-only&quot; check box. Check that, and hit &quot;Ok&quot; to apply the changes.

We'll get this issue resolved in the next release.

Thanks again for helping us test out this release, and please remember to mail bugs@idsoftware.com if you come across any further issues. >>

😉

 

[DocDoo]

Basically id have recently purged it's CD-KEY server. They do this from time to time. Unfortunately, the honest ones get cought up in their security server. For those that bought the game and still have this problem, you may need to call id to get a new KEY.

I only wish id would figure out a better way to validate it's customers.