Bad CD key\ Invalid Cd key

[Alienator (DayZ) 0]

Hey, i was reading other forums and it said that hackers cd keys were being banned. So i was tried to join multiple servers and it keeps saying that i have an invalid CD key, but im not a hacker. What should i do?

[Jgut90 71]

Have you played the game at all? Or is this your first time?

Did you download any suspicious software?

Did you try verifying your game cache in Steam?

[rekrul 91]

That message simply means that you don't have a legit cd-key. You need to buy the game to get that. The key generator you download with the illegal copy of the game only allows you to install the game, not play online. In the off chance that you have a legit copy and entered the cd-key wrong and it still was accepted, you have to reinstall ArmA2:OA. It's possible that Steam has some reinstall-cd-key or somthing though, I wouldn't know.

[piemanpm 13]

Nice jumping to conclusions there Rakrul. But it's common knowledge that if it's a STEAM version of the game, sometimes the serial number doesn't install because they didn't get enough of them and high demand for the game meant they went through their amount of keys.

Doing a complete re-install of Arma2: CO would be your best bet I think.

[rekrul 91]

Never used Steam myself, but how does Steam install the game without a cd-key?

[koekje90 0]

I had the same problem. but i had the first error at the waiting screen it said "bad serial number given in setup" so i looked on this forums for help and i found this http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/32959-bad-serial-number-given-in-setup/ so i did what the guy said and after that i tried join a game. but then its saying "bad CD key- invalid CD key" so now i am reinstalling the game and waiting for it. if it helped i will post it on here so everybody with these problems can see and i hope it will fix mine.

[AmberHelios 2071]

if you are on steam you dont need to download/reinsall the whole game

close steam

start steam in admin (right click and run as administrator)

right click on arma2 and properties then local files

click on verify integrity of game cache <-- do it twice doing this will remove all the entries from your registry

and do the same for arma2 oa

run arma2 to the menu

run arma2 oa to the menu

click in expansions

make sure the following are enabled

arma2

arma2 oa

arma2 baf lite

arma2 pmc lite

if not enable them and restart then exit the game