Matrix Games Forums

----Below is the email I sent to support@matrixgames.com yesterday but hadn't got any reponse:

"Today I tried to play TOAW3 (haven't played it for a while), only to get this message "There is an error with your serial number as entered. Please contact support@matrixgames.com for assistance. Error Code 0

What's wrong? I just wanted to play the game I paid for & I never shared my serial number with any body. I don't know what kind of anti-piracy system you implement, but you should never ever prevent a customer to play the game he paid & installed into his OWN computer.

This is ridiculous and I demand this to be solved ASAP"


-----Below is something more I found after I sent the email above, unfortunately, I sent the second email to matrixgames@digitalriver.com

"I just reported that my paid TOAW3 game suddenly said "serial number error" and refused to load. Then I also found that my WITP (War in The Pacific) & GGAWD (Gary Grisby's World At War: a World Divided) also had the same "serial number error" issue & all refused to load!! For WITP, it gave my "error 998", for GGAWD, it gave me "error 800".

I don't know what is going on, but it must be st. wrong on your side. I know computer very well, I don't think there could be any virus/spyware/computer issue causing this problem. Besides, all 3 games I played well months ago, which means the serial numbers just work fine then.

If this issue happened just to one of those 3 games, I would say maybe it's st. wrong in your online authentication database & it's somewhat excusable (though I don't think you have right to suddenly disable my game after I paid & installed it on MY own had drive through your online infringing and manipulating). But now sb. suddenly, secretly disabled 3 of my paid games without even notifying me, this is just too offending and it's the worst I experienced in gaming.

I also seriously concern about my computer security now: recently my computer became slower but no antibirus/anti-spyware could find any problem. If sb. could secretly disable all my games on my hard drive like this, they basically could do anything harmful to my computer.

Now I not only ask you make all my games working as before, I also need a good explanation: why and how sb. suddenly disable all my paid games?! I didn't share any of those serial numbers with anybody, so there's no chance they used my serials and caught your attention.

I paid about $200 for that 3 games ( I paid you >$300 in all) and it's bad enough for me to ... If others realize that being your paid customer could mean being robbed off secretly what is alrelay paid for, probably through intruding user's owncomputer, they would definately think twice about paying you in the future."

-----After I sent those 2 emails, I uninstalled GGAWD completely from my computer & reinstall it using the digital downloaded installation file. I didn't install any updates. I even disconnected my computer from internet so there's no chance it would go through a hidden online authentication (I bought legal copy of course, but who knows what happened on Matrix system?)...but still got the exactly same "serial numbe error, please contact support@matrixgames.com for help" message!! This almost is a proof that st. had been done to my own computer to prevent me even install & play the very original copy.

I wrote this new information to support@matrixgames.com this morning, still no reponse whatsoever from them. This is WAY TOO RIDICULOUS. I hate to complain this publicaly but I have no other choice if my 3 paid games were all non-playable & my computer security is threatened.

You'll need to give support some time to verify your story, the offending serial numbers and research as to the cause of the problem. If it is indeed a problem with the serial numbers. I would recommend in the meantime, relaxing, and checking on your end as to possible problems that you might have with your system. Run a full battery of anti-virus, and spyware checks.

Completely uninstall the games. If you have no working Matrixgames games installed, then also wipe the Matrix Games directory on the C: drive. Then run a registry cleaner (be sure to back up your registry first!) and delete all references to Matrixgames and the games that are giving you trouble. Then disconnect your computer from the internet, disable your anti-virus program, and reinstall from your disks, or saved copies. Before you patch the games, check and see if you can run them. Before downloading, restart your AV program and reconnect to the internet. Download fresh copies of the most recent patches. If you can, then install the patches.

If after installing the patches you find you cannot run the games, or install the patch, because of a serial number problem, you will know that your serial number has made its way onto the blacklist. If it did, it is likely that you might have to do some explaining as to how and why it is there. Since you apparently have three different games that have been blacklisted, the preponderance of evidence is against you.

[font=arial]Below is the 3 emails I wrote to Erik last night, I think they actually pointed to st. on your end, which is explained here (also what I thought)[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]Dear Sir:[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]I just tried to shutdown Avast Protection (I don't use firewall except Windows Firewall), but still got the same thing. But I did start to use Avast Home Edition recently (Norton gave me too much trouble), so it might cause trouble.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]I would try this myself: intalling one of the 3 games in my Windows Vista, which also uses Avast now. Probably it would work and it would eliminate the possibility that my serial numbers were on a "black list" as one suggested in Matrix forum.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]Recently my computer got extremely slow (could not find anything though) after running a while, so I did disable some autoload things.Could you tell me if any Windows startup process/driver/service was needed by your game? [/font]
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[/align][font=arial]My UV still works (it's a boxed version), but WITP got error (just error number, no mention about serial number though) right after I click "play xxxxx", the same as TOAW3. For AWD things are somewhat different, I have to wait until the opening movie is over & then game loading bar reached the end to get the same error message (different error number though) as in TOAW3.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial][/font][font=arial]Anyway, I will try some things myself according to your advice. [/font]
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[/align][font=arial]Thank you for your kind help.[/font]
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[font=arial]Hi Erik[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]Good and bad news:[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]I tried to uninstall TOAW3 completely, clean registry & reinstall it, stopped my Avast protection. And it worked!![/font]
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[/align][font=arial]However, then I apply the recent patch, still stopped Avast, this time the same error appeared.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]I am about to try WitP now, I strongly feel it would work after I install the original copy but would fail after I installed the recent update.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]However, for AWD, even the first installation would not work[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]What would this tell us if that's the case? I would say it's probably an issue related to your recent-changed serial checking system. Since TOAW3 is out about middle last year, but AWD is later than that, so I would guess you changed the serial checking system and use it on TOAW3 updates as well as new games like AWD. If anything is affecting that mechanism, it only affect recet one.[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]Later I would try this on my Vista partition, that would give us more useful information.[/font]
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[font=arial]As I predicted, The original Witp works now after uninstall/reinstall (this time I didn't bother to clean registry)[/font]
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[/align][font=arial]But, right after I applied the dec 2006 update, the issue happened again.[/font]

Didn't I see someone say recently somewher that the last lot of patches from Matrix were the first to check for "pirated" serial numbers?  Hence initial loads working and latest patched versions not working is a pretty firm indication of illegal copies.

It's not looking good......

nothign further??.....[8D]