[Resolved] - Mass Effect 1 (2007) will not download on EA app

You need to uninstall EA App, reinstall an old full version of Origin, change the local.xml to prevent automatic updates and prevent EA App from being a forced install. After that, you can open Origin and download the game properly. Then, reinstall EA Desktop and the game will be in your library and playable.

It is sad that we have to jump through the hoops, but this works. Have had to do it twice in last couple days because I messed up my mod installation :facepalm:

I have posted this in a couple other threads, hope this isn't considered spamming I am trying to help and this did fix my issue.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2948118653

Follow the general instructions, ignore the stuff that is specific for BF2042

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to provide an update on this one. The team is working on an update that should help with this specific issue. There is not an ETA on when it will be pushed but it should be pushed out here soon.

We want to refrain from continuing to download Origin or modifying anything on your PC to get the game downloaded as the update can conflict with what is changed. With Origin being phased out, this is not a viable workaround for players any longer.

Once this update is pushed, you would be able to download any of the Original ME games. If for any reason after the update you are not, please let us know.

Thank you for your continued patience on this issue.

I understand wanting to refrain, but patience of this magnitude is a really big ask imo.

Meanwhile, my game is working. Even did a repair with EA Desktop, to make sure there was no compatibility hijinks.

...

Hopefully the update works out. I cannot get all of the ME3 DLC, which is likely a related issue. Thank you for the update, please post when it has been released so that we can test. If the update only makes it more difficult to use Origin as a workaround again, without actually helping the issue - RGB Cupcake Wars 2.0

I understand, but have zero sympathy. They have done this to themselves and us, for *reasons*.

They have one functional client, and one that is pretty much broken on every level. We are forced to use the broken one, again, for *reasons*.

There has been zero transparency on this, and the customer support via chat and email is entirely underwhelming. It cements further that if I buy anything again from EA, it will be small DLC for a title I have owned for a long time. I cannot support a company that abuses their customer like this. They have permanently damaged their brand name with this nonsense.

Thank you for understanding patience. This honestly isn't the time for it, this is business and they should get their act together if there is to be any grace.

EA Desktop will crash your games, if you do not LEAVE ON the overlay. What in the actual pits of hell is this? A common fix for game issues is removing overlays, thus reducing overhead on your network and system. EA Desktop? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

It is astonishingly bad. Shaking my head bad. Kind of cannot believe it, it is that bad.

So.... Sure, you can point to a day when Origin is not a solution. Today is not that day.

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@HannibalSpectre wrote:

They have one functional client, and one that is pretty much broken on every level. We are forced to use the broken one, again, for *reasons*.

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I wasn't a big fan of Origin myself because of how terribly slow it was, but EA app is on a whole other level. It's probably the second worst game client I've ever used (can't compete with Games for Windows Live).

At this point, I think they should just do what GOG does. Make the client optional, and offer exe downloaders on your profile page on the website. This could work for older games, at least. I can't imagine classic Mass Effect is raking in enough money that it requires DRM so strong you can't even install it.

@Fred_vdp- That would be a fantastic solution in my opinion. I actually use the Galaxy client to launch their games for the most part, but some games like a modded VtMB or GMDX should be launched by the included shortcut and not the client. Having the option, in particular for older games without a MP component that needs some form of anti-cheat, seems like the best way to go.

Here's hoping!

This is great news - I’ve been experiencing this issue since late last year on my old gaming PC and then all this year on my new gaming PC. 

I'm looking forward to finally being able to play through the original ME1 with Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station again. Very much longer and I’d be forced to go to storage to dig up the discs!

If there is a lesson here, it’s EA’s to learn: Your PC customers are fairly savvy, and if we say the boilerplate fixes aren’t working, then please believe us and begin work identifying root cause and coming up with a fix. Some us have been waiting the better part of a year to play ME1 again, and it was frustrating to have had no official acknowledgement of the issue and to be presented with the same set of ineffectual fixes over and over for months.

Thanks for finally acknowledging the issue and letting us know a fix is in the works.

@EA_Shepard
Hi, has the update yet been pushed? If so, I’m still unable to download ME1 (2007).

I've been trying to keep an eye, as well. Several EA App updates have happened since this thread was posted, but the error is still the same.

@MutoidMan I took a look and there is not. I requested an update on this one, so when they let me know, I will let yall know what is happening. It is getting a bit tricky now because we don't want to keep throwing out steps that players have done that didn't work or just guess at what could work you know? 

@EA_Shepard

Thank you; at least we know the update has not been pushed, which would’ve stunk. 

Looking forward to the latest news.

Thank you for the update.  I'm experiencing the same issue so I'm looking forward to a resolution.

Edit: I resorted to reinstalling Origin and a file to bypass it's autoupdate.  That fixed Mass Effect 2007 for me.

EA_Shepard,

Any update?

I too am experiencing the same issue.  (Did all the basic trouble-shooting, cache, chkdsk/sfc checks, windows up to date, etc., etc.)  I am not willing to rip every other EA game out to reinstall origin, get ME1 downloaded, then upgrade to EA again and then reinstall everything else.

But I am disappointed because a month has passed since you said you were going to see if there was an update and no response here.  And it's been months and months since you stated the devs were working on a permanent solution.  And nothing so far...

I'll be blunt since I work in an IT support role and have to deal with customers, train new techs, etc.  This feels like a delay, delay, delay and just hope the problem goes away situation.

I hope it's not, I hope EA gets it's act together.  I love Bioware games, but right now as I mentioned - I am seriously disappointed in any lack of resolution to this issue.

@geekwithguns I have not seen any updates so I am reaching out to see what is happening with this issue.

Same issue as the others.  Except that when I try to install Origin, the installer fails ("Whoops - the installer encountered an error").

ME2 and ME3 both were successfully downloaded, but there's kind of no point if I can't get ME1 downloaded, installed, and running.

I haven't tried other games such as Dragon Age 1 and 2, as I've seen from forum posts that those games also have had the same issue as well.

Hi @EA_Shepard; guessing no one has gotten back to you regarding an updated app that corrects this issue? 

I know you’re the middleman here, so don’t take this as aimed at you…

I’d like to know what is taking the development team so long to at least provide some information to pass on the the paying customers. This lack of communication (and the fact that it took so very long to acknowledge the issue in the first place) is concerning.

I suppose no one considers what happens if a customer buys the game today; would that person - who was eager to play ME for the first time - be stuck spinning their wheels for who-knows-how-long after EA has taken their money? Suppose ME is their first purchase using the EA app; think it motivates the person to risk buying another game that might not even install, never mind whether or not it runs?

As a lowly end-user of the client and without getting into the weeds over my frustration with the issue, it's obviously a pretty complicated middleware issue that the employees and power-users here haven't been trained to help with and are stuck trying to interpret obfuscated messages that someone on a design committee thought was a good idea to dump into the public.  Nine months of a problem would indicate that wasn't a good idea.

EA Desktop has a fairly robust log system that states the problem is a corrupt/missing header from a compressed file before causing the client to throw out the obfuscated message.  Origin downloads and installs the exact same file with no problem so the problem is not the distributed file itself but the middleware handling the decompression of that file.

Will it get fixed anytime soon?  I doubt it.

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@Skat_Man_Joe wrote:

As a lowly end-user of the client and without getting into the weeds over my frustration with the issue, it's obviously a pretty complicated middleware issue that the employees and power-users here haven't been trained to help with and are stuck trying to interpret obfuscated messages that someone on a design committee thought was a good idea to dump into the public.  Nine months of a problem would indicate that wasn't a good idea.

EA Desktop has a fairly robust log system that states the problem is a corrupt/missing header from a compressed file before causing the client to throw out the obfuscated message.  Origin downloads and installs the exact same file with no problem so the problem is not the distributed file itself but the middleware handling the decompression of that file.

Will it get fixed anytime soon?  I doubt it.

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This is probably the most informative post in this thread so far about this issue and lead me to finding the logs for the EA App myself. I can see where the error is triggering. Not that I can do anything about it, as you've stated, but it helps to have some further and solid confirmation that this is an issue that has to be corrected by EA.

So, I went through support and got the runaround with the usual "do this, do that, restart your computer" steps that have already been posted here despite telling them that I had done all those steps already.  Still had to go through 4 or more (can't remember how many) reps telling me to try the next step that I had already done.

I finally reached a rep who said that they are aware of the issue and it has been worked on and will be fixed in "no time," and asks me to be patient, sort of like what has been asked by the rep in this thread.

I also got a response from a different rep who said that, in order to help me further, I need to provide my email address and further info (which they should already have????  I have to log into my account in order to submit a support ticket, so they should have all this info already), but when I tried to reply with the requested info, I was instantly and hilariously auto-replied back with an email saying that EA no longer monitors the email address I replied to.

So yeah, looks like EA's just playing the silent game hoping we all forget about the games we can't access.

Hey All,

I have not seen an update on my end on this one yet. I did request one from the team. As soon as I get one, I will let you know what is happening with it.

I appreciate your patience on this.

Cheers!

The last update you got was in May, saying that the fix should be pushed out "soon."  This was the exact response that one of the many reps I spoke to had said, as well.

I'd really like to know on what world y'all live on where "soon" means "going on 4 months and counting" later.

I am also having this.

EA_Shepard - please allow me to summarize this thread: