Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Technical Problems NO CD KEY!

Hello,

-I'm an avid gamer, and I frequently purchase an rpg every month or so. I've done this for about 5-6 years, and only after purchasing Beyond Divinity have I run into this problem. Let me explain.


I purchased Beyond Divinity (with free Divine Divinity with it) from a reputable software store, then promptly took the box home and opened it. First, Divine Divinity wouldn't even install. Whenever it would ask for the second disc, it refused to read the drive. I screwed with my disc properties, restarted several times, all to no avail. However, I purchased the game for Beyond Divinity, not Divine Divinity.

No Big Deal.

So, I'm installing Beyond Divinity, and everything is working fine. The game is installed, and so I try to play it.

Disc Identification error.

So...no big deal, most software manufacturers use cd keys on their products. So, I begin to look for the CD Key for the software that I lawfully purchased.

One hour later, I'm still looking.

Most reputable companies put the CD Key in an easy to see location, like the cd case (Blizzard) or the Manual (Bioware). However....no cd key in the manual...no cd key on/in the case...nor on the box...nor on the cd itself...nor on the cd envelopes of Divine Divinity...no piece of paper included with a key on it (which would be highly unprofessional anyway)...nothing.

I basically bought a locked computer game without an easy to find key.

Is this the way Larian products are sold? Never before have I encountered such a frustrating purchase, and I hope that either I am blind, or there is an unknown error that I am unaware of.

Please, someone let me know where THEIR CD key was located, if there even is a CD key. Also, please let me know if this is a technical difficulty that I can solve without returning my purchase and forever refusing to purchase Larian Studios products.

Thank you for your time.

Satori

Welcome.


I have never heard of this problem before, for Divine Divinity. Really weird. I have 2 copies of it. ( singular and free ) and haven't had this problem.

Beyond Divinity, do you have the 2nd cd disc in? This caught several people unaware, myself saved because of reading of people's problems.

If not, please reply.

Unfortunately there is no CD Key as you'd normally understand it. In this case the copy protection scheme used for this game reads the second disc as the CD Key. The problem is that the copy protection sucks, and refuses to allow access if any of it's files are changed, or if it detects virtual CD software installed. At least that's the general idea I get from most posts on this subject. Some have had the problem fixed by simply turning off Virtual CD software, others have had to use a different CD drive, and others have had problems with video codec packs changing the dll files that the copy protection scheme uses. In my case, all I had to do was turn off my virtual CD software and it worked fine. And, as the other post says, make sure you have the second CD in the drive. Most companies will label the discs as install and play discs, but in this case they didn't. Good luck.

Try a different optical drive, if available.
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before trying to start the game, and did you do so before installing?

There is a manual install procedure for Divine Divinity;
Troubleshooting Tips (& manual install procedure)

If nothing else helps with Beyond Divinity, in the error message, click the 'Information' button, then when that finishes, click the 'View Report' button. Save the resulting text file somewhere, optionally zip it, and email it to Larian (support@larian.com) with a description of the problem. They can create a file the copy protection can use to check your system on startup, rather then the play CD.

The US version of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> wasn't indeed clearly labelled.

When you have a 'disc indentification error' or a 'no disc found error', please send an email to support@larian.com.