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Lapinski's avatar
Lapinski
12 years ago

Red Alert 3 Cannot start game - too many machines for only one license

Hi

I've not played C & C Red Alert 3 for years but fancied a game of it the other day so I installed it on my PC. I then received this message:-

"The game can not start

For security reasons, only a limited number of machines can ever be licensed by a single purchase. This limit has been reached. Please purchase another registration code, reinstall, and then try again."

I regualry upgrade/change my PC and hardware and also my operating systems. The PC I have now is only about two years old with windows 7 pro x64. Red Alert  3 has never been loaded on this machine. The PC's in the past that have had Red Alert installed are long gone, either wiped and sold on, or cannibalised for parts. So playing the game on one of these PCs is not possible.

As I paid full price for this game on release (from Play.com I beleive) and I don't have it installed anywhere else I don't see now how my limit could be reached. Why should I have to purchase it again just to have another game of something I already own? Please can you supply me with a new license key or reset my machine limit to zero.

Regards

Lapinski

5 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago

    I had this exact problem recently with my premium edition game.

    If you still have the hard drive you originally installed the game on, you can install that drive onto your current computer and de-authorize the game from that drive. However if you don't have the drive anymore or wiped it, then you will have to go through ea support to get it reset for those future nostalgia moments 🙂

  • Lapinski's avatar
    Lapinski
    6 years ago

    Wow, 5 years have past and still no response from EA. I'm still not able to play Red Alert 3 because its installed on a PC I owned about 10 years ago, I believe I took it to the tip. Great support EA! Keep taking our money and then robbing our games from us!

    Lapinski

  • Lapinski's avatar
    Lapinski
    6 years ago

    Update - I've been a member of this forum for 5 years and EA have just awarded me with a BADGE! That's great, cheers EA, you're the best!!!!

  • mrtnptrs's avatar
    mrtnptrs
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    @Lapinski I have to say, I like your sarcasm haha. But you will have to contact EA support (best is to do it by chat) to let them deautorize your previous activations to make RA3 work again on your new PC. Go here to contact them: https://help.ea.com/za/contact-us/?product=command-and-conquer-the-ultimate-collection&platform=pc (I selected the Ultimate collection for you, as that also contains RA3.) You can tell those guys you don't have access to old installations anymore and if they would be so kind to deautorize previous activations. 🙂 Can you report back if that worked. Btw @bubblemelon already suggested this; did you do that in the past?

  • barleystew's avatar
    barleystew
    6 years ago

    I'm in the same situation... I bought this came when it came out long ago. Still have the box and cd key. Found it in one of my tubs I used to store my things when I moved. Installed it and to my surprise it won't let me play because of "security reasons" too many machines played this game. Who keeps the same computer for 10 years? NOT ME! I tried turning my internet off and it won't bypass it either. Unbelievable.

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