I've been struggling with this issue too.
This only happens on a PC we have where we upgraded from Origin to EA App. We have a second device which recently had a clean install of Windows, this problem does not occur on that device and the game runs fine.
I decided to go hunting for whatever 'stuck' files must be left on the device causing this issue.
1. Close the EA app.
2. From Task Manager end any EA processes, (for me there was a single background process that needed stopping)
3. Navigate to the C:\ProgramData folder (you may need to grant yourself permission to access this folder)
4. Delete all EA folders and the PvZ folder
5. Restart the EA app and try the game again
I've attached a screen shot of the exact folders I deleted to make this work. This was probably overkill, my suspicion is there is a single file, most likely in the PlantsvsZombies folder that was causing the issue.
Not sure if this will work for others, but thought I'd share just in case.
@in2action nice you find another work around. for me and other EU player non english native speakers fix was: change language from our native to english and stop. game working as usual
Community Manager
@ImmenseBeing wrote:
@in2action Thank you so much! I figured it was only the license file so I just deleted the below file and it worked:
C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\71592.dlf
Each file is different based on the game, but this step actually works for most older titles that gen this error. I've seen this on Battlefield, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, PvZ, and a few other non-EA games as well.
Fantastic, I had a feeling there would be something buried in there somewhere :-)
@ImmenseBeing genius! deleting C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\71592.dlf works! How did you manage to figure it out?
I don't think this works for people who never got origin and got the game recently such as myself, is there a way to do it for people who got the game before the change?
Omg I have been dealing with this issue since switching over to EA from Origin and I was so sad!! Thank you this worked for me. I also found an empty origin folder chilling out in there after I thought I deleted them all already
@in2action was 100% correct. I was having this issue as well. I originally had the Origin app installed and had played Plants vs Zombies several times before. However, now it looks like the Origin app is very dead, and the old license file was causing the issue. I ensured Plants vs Zombies was closed (easy to do since it wasn't working) and then I deleted the following file
C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\71592.dlf
Then I reopened Plants vs Zombies, and it launched without issue. I went back to the folder listed above, and a new license file with the exact same name was in the folder. So it must have downloaded/activated the license from EA once it launched. This is absolutely a bug, and I would hope that EA would be looking at a way to resolve this issue.
Unfortunately for me, I'd tried uninstalling/reinstalling several times, so I have once again lost all my progress on Plants vs Zombies. Good thing this game has high replay value. Although, if it didn't, I might not have had to troubleshoot a 13 year old game :-)
Good luck everyone
Community Manager
