Forum Discussion

Anonymous

8 years ago

Solved

[PC] There is a problem connecting to the server. ME1 authorization issue.

I installed Mass Effect 1 on Friday afternoon, on Windows 7 64 bit (Home Premium, Service Pack 1), using an install disk that uses the 5 authorizations style DRM. Due to personal preference, I'm not ...

EA_Mai
8 years ago
:D You were fast!

We made some changes in order to try to fix this issue, but you didn't give us enough time to test it for all the games. 😉

Glad to hear it's working for you with Need for Speed Undercover! If anyone tries other games, please let us know how it goes!

Thanks,
-Mai

Anonymous

8 years ago

@EA_Mai @holger1405 Following up on my post here, now @beerxced79000 has explained 'paul.dll' in more detail to me 🙂 I thought I'd simplify the explanations here, so it's definitely seen on EA's side.

(Holger1405, I hope it's ok if I tag you in this? I don't know if there's any other way ensure someone at EA sees this, and you can evidently talk to them easier than me.)

As far as we understand the system from what information we have avaliable to us: To add some further information on 'paul.dll', it connects to the EA servers for the game authorization. It will then either return with a valid license and we can start our games, or, the server will return an error code. This error code (or GL code in this case, as the .dll refers to it) will then tell the 'winui.dll' linked to 'paul.dll' what error message to show to the user. The user only sees the error message, but not the code that the server returned to give us that message. But, we can find the code and the message connected to it in the 'gl.ini' file, found in the same folder as the 'paul.dll'.

The point of this post: We don't know why exactly the server is returning this code for versions 4.1.1.13 and 4.1.1.14, but not for versions 4.1.1.18 or 4.1.1.20. However, this may be something that can be found out on EA's side, which may then point to the root cause of these error messages appearing across multiple games. The GL code for this error message is "GL:5602". Or, to copy-paste directly from the 'gl.ini' file:

GL:5602="There is a problem connecting to the server. Please ensure your internet connection is active. If the problem persists try again later."

Again: this is only appearing for versions 4.1.1.13 and 4.1.1.14 of 'paul.dll' files, but NOT versions 4.1.1.18+. So while it asks us to check our internet connection, the problems isn't with our connection at all!

Is there any chance this can be escalated on EA's side, so someone who can 'translate' what this code means can see it and look into it? (I may edit/correct this post later, if I've over-simplified things. @beerxced79000 is the one who knows the most on this 🙂 )

holger1405

Hero+

8 years ago

@Jocobai

There is no problem with the tagging Jacobai. In the contrary, I appreciate it. 🙂

And because you tagged Mai as well, she will see this too, Mai is in her weekend now, but I wanted to talk to her anyway about the information we got from @XenticPL when she is back.

As for the problem. I play games on my Windows 10 gaming machine that are more than 20 years old. Games from my youth that are dear to my heart.

So there is no apparent danger that ME1 will be unplayable anytime soon, and as @beerxced79000 rightly said, there is always a solution.

But it is possible, and even likely, that EA will shut down the Securom server for the ME1 disk version at some point.

EA is providing you a method, with Origin, to continue to play the game.
If you disable "game updates" and keep Origin in offline mode, the traffic per year is low. (You have to go online and update Origin after 30 days).

Plus, while I was wrong about Mirror's edge, I am very certain that the ME1 Origin version don't uses the Securom method, because my Origin ME1 installation, that was redeemed from a Steam first week after release CD key, is not using the "paul.dll".

Anonymous
8 years ago
@beerxced79000 True! :eahigh_file: But I worry for future cases that may be affected by all this, and I worry for those who can't get their hands on the working paul.dll versions in this case. But as I said, I worry too much 😳
And also true 😃
@holger1405 Ok, reassuring to know 🙂 And good to hear you've still got 20 year old games working on Windows 10. Is a worry at the back of my mind for when I eventually have to move there myself, as a friend couldn't get some games working on it. I think there are work arounds though, just needs some investigating I hope! Why I am only just now moving fully to Windows 7 (I have run a dual-booted system with both 7 and XP for a few years), I was concerned for some games and other programs. But thankfully it has all gone smoothly so far, just one upset game that I am still working on getting to cooperate.
It certainly won't surprise me when they shut it down, but can't say I won't be disappointed 😞 But I'd hope they'd announce if they did that. Or we'd have been informed here, if this was something intentional that older DRM aren't working. So as long as it looks like it's a glitch and not intentional, I'd like to get to the bottom of the root cause 🙂
I meant to ask you a little more with regards to ME1 and Steam/Origin, but forgot 'til now. Do you have your ME1 install on Origin by choice, or are Steam versions of ME1 required to have Origin now too? I ask because on reading about ME1's DRM, I've seen it mentioned that Steam's version only uses Steam's DRM. For anxiety's sake, if I have a choice there, I think I'd rather use Steam's DRM, so I'm at least using a program I know/don't have to learn my way around a new one and its habits 🙂 (I've had some bad experiences with Uplay, so since then I've dragged my heels with adding more of these programs into the mix. I often want to play my games on there, but don't until I'm sure I have the internet to myself for any downloads ☹️ )
- Xentik95
  8 years ago
  Hi once again guys, i thought u might find his usefull. So i have added my old mass effect box (bought somwhere around 2008-2009) to origin through the cd key and i dont have the paul.dll file (+ origin gave me all dlc's). It works flawlessly.
  - holger1405
    Hero+
    8 years ago
    @Xentik95
    
    Thanks again! 👍
    
    That confirms my assumption that no ME1 Origin installation uses the old securom DRM anymore.
    
    @Jocobai
    
    My ME1 Origin installation is by choice. Mainly because of my "Job" here. 😉
    
    There is no disadvantage for a Steam installation, both versions contain the ME1 DLCs by now.