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CD Key

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:08 am
by Vader
I bought Ultimate Quake over the weekend, and now when I've installed Q3A, it asks for my CD key, which is printed inside the case of the disc. However, the key printed in my case is 4 digits too long. So when I go to put it in, it overwrites the first 4 digits I put in. It always keeps asking for the CD key. What can I do?

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:35 am
by ^misantropia^
The key ought to consist of 17 alphanumeric characters. If this isn't the case, contact Activision. It might be worth checking out their Knowledge Base.

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:46 pm
by Vader
17 characters? Mine appears to be 16. And as I said, the field only seems to want to take 12, so character 13-16 scroll over and overwrite the first four.

I did also contact activision/id tech support to see if they could give me any help.

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:06 pm
by dzjepp
both my q3a and ta keys are 16 chars. hmmmm :paranoid:

dunno what weirdness you're getting with your key inputs, but fyi the key file looks like this:

LINE1ISKEYNOSPACES
// generated by quake, do not modify
// Do not give this file to ANYONE.
// id Software and Activision will NOT ask you to send this file to them.


Put this in notepad, save it as q3key (no extension, just q3key).

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:15 pm
by Vader
I can do that, where do I save the key file? In my C: drive or in the Q3A folder?

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:26 pm
by Foo
in c:\program files\quake iii arena\baseq3\

the file needs to be called 'CDKEY' and you'll need to remove the .txt file extension

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:38 pm
by dzjepp
In windows explorer go to tools, folder options, view tab, and uncheck hide extensions for known file types, hit ok.

If the file contains .txt or whatnot, remove that.

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:41 pm
by Vader
Thanks for the help guys. It is wierd, though. I went in to do some playing while I waited for that last answer, and this time, it let me put my CD key in properly and it took it. So I'm good. Apparently when they told me to restart after installing and I said I would restart later, that must have been what was the issue. Sorry I wasted your time for a problem that seemed to fix itself.

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:10 am
by ^misantropia^
Vader wrote:17 characters? Mine appears to be 16.
Sorry, typo (written in a rush).