Bad serial key given in setup

[Ellesmere 24]

I recently installed the steam version of arma 2 combined operations, also on my system at the time is the retail non steam copy of combined operation, the reason for having both on the pc is due to the very poor internet speed that i have in my area, i bought my laptop that i currently play dayz on to a friends house in order to download combined operations for my brother, who uses a desktop. Since i downloaded the steam version of CO i have been unable to play my retail copy of the game. I have tried multiple fixes non of which have yielded any progress, is there any fix for this or will i have to buy a new copy of arma 2 CO?

[-Se7eN- 874]

What method are you using to launch dayz?

[Ellesmere 24]

Dayz Commander, it is not just Dayz i cannot start the game using an arma 2 launcher or sixcommander i have set it to launch from the non steam version on each of these.

[-Se7eN- 874]

try and run it through the directory, just run "arma2oa" not the beta patch version and see if that lets it load up.

[Ellesmere 24]

It is stating that i do not have it installed, and i cannot locate the arma2oa.exe that isnt in the beta folder.

EDIT: Located the file, this did not fix the error.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Ellesmere

[AmberHelios 2071]

the steam version has overwrote your registry entries not only the cd key the locations of the files the only way you can get it to work again is by overwriting the registry entries the only way you can do this with a retail version is a reinstall. you can then export the registry entries to save them incase steam overwrites them again

[Ellesmere 24]

the steam version has overwrote your registry entries not only the cd key the locations of the files the only way you can get it to work again is by overwriting the registry entries the only way you can do this with a retail version is a reinstall. you can then export the registry entries to save them incase steam overwrites them again

I will give this a try, will get back to you when its done, should i delete the steam copy of the game prior to the reinstall?

Edited June 16, 2013 by Ellesmere

[AmberHelios 2071]

you wont have to delete the steam copy you can just reinstall

[Ellesmere 24]

you wont have to delete the steam copy you can just reinstall

Will deleting the game on steam prevent it from overwriting the registry?

[AmberHelios 2071]

it will only overwrite the registry if you revalidate the file and then start steam as admin

[Ellesmere 24]

I have waited waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to long to reply to this but reinstalling the game immediately fixed the problem, cheers helios.  :)