Had the same issue, read LOTS of different fixes on LOTS of different forums/message boards, none of them worked for me so I had to get creative.
Here is what worked for me:
Tried to run dxsetup.exe in "Battlefield 3\__Installer\directx\redist" and it kept giving me an error at the very end of the install when it would say 'Finalizing' which would cause the entire install to fail. After looking at the DirectX log located at "C:\Windows\DirectX.log", I noticed during the failed install there were a lot of the following types of errors for various files when the DirectX installer was trying to copy those files to my system:
infinst: Installing C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\DXCBA8.tmp\X3DAudio1_3_x64.inf [DefaultInstall]
infinst: GetFileVersionInfoBlock(): Unable to get FileVersionInfoSize, file: C:\Windows\system32\X3DAudio1_3.dll, reason: 1812.
infinst: Unable to get Version on target file C:\Windows\system32\X3DAudio1_3.dll
infinst: Currently C:\Windows\system32\X3DAudio1_3.dll is newer than the one being installed.
That struck me as odd and potentially being part of the problem so I [u][b]moved[/u][/b] (cut/paste) all of the following files located in "C:\Windows\System32" to a temp folder:
D3DComplier_33.dll - D3DComplier_38.dll
d3dx9_24.dll - D3DX9_38.dll
d3dx10.dll
d3dx10_33.dll - d3dx10_38.dll
x3daudio1_0.dll - x3daudio1_4.dll
xactengine2_0.dll - xactengine2_10.dll
xactengine3_0.dll - xactengine3_1.dll
xinput1_1.dll - xinput1_3.dll
Then I reran the dxsetup.exe and it completed successfully!!!
I then fired up BF3 and DID NOT get the "Invalid license. Reason code = Missing DLL (Asian Lettering) Error: 0x0000007e." pop up box. In fact, a browser with Battlelog popped open and I was able to join a game of BF3 multiplayer!
I really hope this helps someone else that might be experiencing this issue because I haven't been able to find this particular fix that worked for me anywhere on the Internet.
