Re: Cant download and install DLC. "Download Failed".

Currently the EA mods on the forums are conveniently 'solving' all of these threads with solutions that don't do anything.  I haven't been able to play this game since July 2013, and on it goes.  My case at least has been  advanced to the studio (round 3+ weeks ago) and I haven't gotten an e-mail from anyone.

To sum it up: If you are still buying EA games, stop it.  There is no real support except the piles of guess-what that'll be shoveled in your direction.

Everyone needs to mail eaeve on this forum and keep bombarding him or her with pm's about this issue till they respond. Force the issue. Furthermore if this has gotten to studio level you need to hammer them daily, call back every 24 hours and demand a status update on the issue and ask them why they have not resolved the issue yet.

They either need to make all the DLC free and freely downloadable as a patch ... or they need to fix the issue.

Frankly, I'm thinking we should at some point organize and sue them for wire fraud if they refuse to fix this issue, and demand $5000 per person in punative damages plus court costs in a class action lawsut. They engaged in a monetary transaction with everyone that bought DLC material and did so across state lines.  Since they are failing to provide the promised goods and/or services that right there is clear cut wirefraud, and with a little research into how frequent this sort of behavior is with EA games.... well...  it could be construed to be a criminal enterprise to defraud people... which would qualify them for a racketeering charge as well.

Maybe their legal deptartment needs to have a little talk with the developers and tell them to get off their asses and fix this.

To be entirely honest, after 3 months, I am very much heading in that direction of thought myself.

And yet, thousands and thousands of players are able to regularly and easily download and install this same material.

I, for example, have had the original DAO (retail disc install) since the fall of 2009.  Then the UE retail disc install.  Then the EA/Origin download.  By the time I got the UE, the only DLC I hadn't obtained separately in the usual way was The DLC Which Must Not Be Named.  ("DSC, for the uninitiated.)

On the BSN, "Your registered game content" has always reflected all of my DLC (including TSP and RtO) for DAO, DA2, ME2, and ME3.  And I have been able to un-/re-install these games multiple times, on multiple machines, and across multiple operating systems, without ever having an authorization issue.  (I have had other, minor, issues.  Like the in-game menu showing the same DLC as being both "Installed", and "Available" at the same time.)

So, while I can appreciate that some people are having real problems, it is by no means the norm, and an extended discussion with a Game Advisor (going all the way through a re-install) will correct almost all cases.  NOTE:  Game Advisors do not work here on the AHQ.  Contact them through the Help Center.

Lastly, these forums are read by a number of EA (and volunteer!) staff daily.  The only things designated as [SOLVED] are so marked by the Original Poster unless the one-and-only fix is to contact a Game Advisor (account- or purchase-related queries.)  Not every person who added to the topic may have had her/his question answered, but the OP did. 

@Thandal

It seems your talking about manually installing the DLC rather than using the ingame downloader which is the main problem here, and not authorization.

See my response to your ridiculous statement that EA knows all and solves all in this thread.

The forums are not just for people who are having their issues solved, it is also for those who are not having them solved at all.

@siven60;

My experience over my first three years of playing DAO was with the "in-game" download and installation of all the DLC.  I only switched to the "external" (BSN Entitlements page-to-local copy) method much later.  I had, however, always kept a local copy of all patches.  That came in handy when I went through multiple full un-/re-installs trying to troubleshoot the 1.03 patch fiasco...

I do recommend getting and retaining a "standalone copy" of any DLC when that's offered by the developer/publisher (as it is in this case).

@subannisrae;  See my response in the linked thread.

The ingame downoader worked for years i agree.

Yet in the last few months, when i reinstalled the game, that i and many others cannot download any DLC from the ingame downloader. 

That is the problem people in this thread are having and want fixed.

I dont think thats asking for too much. I have already left a lot of info on it too.

Manually installing is not a fix, its a workaround.

Agreed it's a work-around.  I suspect it's a regression in either the 1.05 patch or a change in the Origins backend.

Right now the work-arounds the only thing that's worked for me.  I've had 3 support IMs and gotten nowhere:

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Dragon-Age-Origins/Why-isn-t-my-solution-for-Dragon-Age-Origins-downloaded-posted/td-p/1640139/jump-to/first-unread-message

@siven80;

Yeah, I've seen a post (by a BioWare rep) that indicates they made some significant changes to the way things work starting in August 2013.

For those of us who have got things working through our own troubleshooting (for which having the retail discs and local copiers of things has helped immensely) it's not such a big deal.

For others, I HIGHLY recommend:

a)  Verifying that all of your authorized DLC is reflected on your player entitlements page on the BSN, then;

b)  Obtaining local copies of everything, including the 1.05 patch, and;

c)  Doing a complete un-/re-install via EA/Origin, then using the local copies of any DLC that didn't get installed automagically.

How DO you get local copies of everything?  I'm working with the original discs I got years ago, before Origin was a thing, so it's not really through Origin.

And how does all this stuff work in regards to Windows 8?

I'm so confused! 😕mileymad:

@jtbehnke;

To take your questions in reverse order,

a.  Under Win8, the only things you have to know are to allow EA/Origin to "Run as Administrator", and set the game executable ("daorigins.exe") to run in "WinXP (SP3) Compatibility mode".

b.  To get/keep local copies, go to your Player Entitlements Page on the BSN, and chose SAVE instead of RUN when you download each of the DLC for which you're eligible.

c.  Oh, and if you haven't already, apply the 1.05 patch.

😕mileywink:

Thank you.  I've been tearing my hair out with this stuff for the past few days.  I'm unsure as to how to collect all the info for ease of reading and following.  I've gotten as far as:

Step 1: Install Dragon Age: Origins.

Step 2: Install Dragon Age: Awakening.

Step 3: Apply the 1.05 patch.

Step 4: Download everything from the BSN Page, using Firefox, as some links don't work properly on Chrome, my normal browser.

Step 5: ?????

Step 6: Profit!

Sir, Please allow me to clarify some points for you.

You state

"For those of us who have got things working through our own troubleshooting (for which having the retail discs and local copiers of things has helped immensely) it's not such a big deal"

Allow me to point out to you, sir, that while you, or perhaps even I, are more than technically competent to obtain our own local copies of the DLC this is NOT let me repeat this NOT the agreed upon methodology that was created for users to obtain and install them. The correct and appropriate methodology is via the DLC download screen in program. The fact that this does not currently WORK is a big effing problem. It's a big effing problem because it is Bioware and it's parent company EA games reneging on a financial transaction to provide the paid for DLC in a manner agreed upon by the contractee (the purchaser) and then contractor (EA games and Bioware) to whit... via the aforementioned DLC download screen.

Requiring users to make use of manual download and install IS a big deal... so please keep this in mind.

Next you state.

"

For others, I HIGHLY recommend:

a)  Verifying that all of your authorized DLC is reflected on your player entitlements page on the BSN, then;

b)  Obtaining local copies of everything, including the 1.05 patch, and;

c)  Doing a complete un-/re-install via EA/Origin, then using the local copies of any DLC that didn't get installed automagically."

This is is not a FIX or a SOLUTION. This is a work around. Meaning that you have identified that there is a problem that is interrupting the standard workflow ... the proper methodology that was designed to work... is not working.

The fact that EA games is refusing to fix this in a timely manner (180 days is an unreasonable amount of time) puts them in breach of contract and therefore I think a charge of Wirefraud might well be warranted http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343 And that falls under racketeering. They made a promise to provide a service and transacted moneys over wire and are failing to provide the promised service. Hence Wirefraud.

I point this out because it seems to me that you have the mistaken preconception that this issue has been fixed. It clearly has not. And since nothing on my end has changed... it must therefore be a server issue, and therefore EA Games responssibility.

Oh and just FYI.. who the HELL marked this as SOLVED? This is not solved. The server continues to not download the promised DLC and workarounds do not count as a solution.

EAGAMES, I'm suggesting you simply roll your DLC servers back to before whatever you did broke this feature. Do that and we'll all be happy.

The server problem is NOT solved!! I can't se any available content, it will noit download any addins I already owned I had to install them manually and after trying all resolutions suggested I still don't get The stone prisoner or return to Ostagar!! Something happened to the server in the past week becuase all was fine before that, could see available content then, could downloaf addins but NO MORE!! Please fix this!

Bumping for the exact same problem. I don't wanna deal with a workaround and shouldn't have to.

Edit: I downloaded manually. They still don't work for me.

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@ifuritasfan wrote:

Sir, Please allow me to clarify some points for you.

You state

"For those of us who have got things working through our own troubleshooting (for which having the retail discs and local copiers of things has helped immensely) it's not such a big deal"

Allow me to point out to you, sir, that while you, or perhaps even I, are more than technically competent to obtain our own local copies of the DLC this is NOT let me repeat this NOT the agreed upon methodology that was created for users to obtain and install them. The correct and appropriate methodology is via the DLC download screen in program. The fact that this does not currently WORK is a big effing problem. It's a big effing problem because it is Bioware and it's parent company EA games reneging on a financial transaction to provide the paid for DLC in a manner agreed upon by the contractee (the purchaser) and then contractor (EA games and Bioware) to whit... via the aforementioned DLC download screen.

Requiring users to make use of manual download and install IS a big deal... so please keep this in mind.

Next you state.

"

For others, I HIGHLY recommend:

a)  Verifying that all of your authorized DLC is reflected on your player entitlements page on the BSN, then;

b)  Obtaining local copies of everything, including the 1.05 patch, and;

c)  Doing a complete un-/re-install via EA/Origin, then using the local copies of any DLC that didn't get installed automagically."

This is is not a FIX or a SOLUTION. This is a work around. Meaning that you have identified that there is a problem that is interrupting the standard workflow ... the proper methodology that was designed to work... is not working.

The fact that EA games is refusing to fix this in a timely manner (180 days is an unreasonable amount of time) puts them in breach of contract and therefore I think a charge of Wirefraud might well be warranted http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343 And that falls under racketeering. They made a promise to provide a service and transacted moneys over wire and are failing to provide the promised service. Hence Wirefraud.

I point this out because it seems to me that you have the mistaken preconception that this issue has been fixed. It clearly has not. And since nothing on my end has changed... it must therefore be a server issue, and therefore EA Games responssibility.

---

Stripped of bogus legal jargon, the "work around" is accurate advice, and will solve most players' issues.

Don't want to go through the hassle?  Don't have to.

Want to play the game?  Then here's a way to do so.

Want to claim "fraud", or any other pseudo-contractual breech?  Remember that the total limit on any court-imposed "remedy" is to refund the purchase price.  And you still won't be able to play the game!

It's not about the amount, it's about the principle.

If enough people demanded their full purchase price back EA would get real interested real fast.

So long as we as a community do nothing, we are allowing ourselves to be treated in an unfair way.

Holding EA accountable would show other companies they cannot get away with this and gamers don't want online activation that has zero benefit to us. If they want to take away what their customers paid for, they can pay us back.

And here I thought it was about being able to play the game.  Silly me...

Exactly... it is... a lot of people can't right now because EA did something that only benefited them and now will not maintain it properly.

End result... people are having a hard time playing the game they paid for.