"No Serial Number" message after 2.04 Update - can't connect to Metaverse

By Choralone on November 10, 2011 6:06:51 PM from

Choralone

Join Date 04/2003

The day before yesterday I downloaded and installed the 2.04 patch for Galactic Civilizations II - Twilight of the Arnor when it appeared on Impulse. Now I am unable to connect to the Metaverse. When I try, I get a message that "No serial number was found in the registry. You will not be able to submit a game to the metaverse until you register a serial number."

I have used the "View Registration" option in impulse to copy the registration number and past it into the "Update Serial" option in the game's menu, but no luck. I have tried "Re-Activating" the game through Impulse, and get a message that I cannot do so because "the activation file is locked." In the same message I am offered the option to manually remove the activation file, but I can find no such file in the path given C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Twilight\sig.bin.

I posted this to the Impulse forum, and they advised I check with Stardock first. So what are my options - uninstall, dig out my CD, reinstall, re-update, and hope I don't get hosed again by the 2.04 patch? Or find a way to reinstall the game via download instead of using the CD?

I was traveling last week and Stardock support closed my ticket because I didn't answer their email for more than 24 hours. Their recommendation was the same as what Rosco_P suggested above. However, like several other posters, I don't have a \ProgramData\stardock\gc2ul folder. I do have a sig.bin in \ProgramData\stardock\Twilight, so I've asked Stardock support if that is the file that should be removed.

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I have not opened a ticket on this. Duplicate tickets don't expedite solutions in my career field (they actually slow it down).

But for anyone who has opened a ticket... this is what support staff needs to do...

1. Fresh install of game from the downloader...GC2 then DA then TA like everyone else does...

2. Enter game and start a sandbox TA game and make sure all the graphics thingies are working and whatnot..(this is so the support staff can rule out hardware)

3. Exit sandbox and start a Metaverse TA game... At this point support staff will experience our pain and realize they really need to resolve this.

or B

substitute step 1. with a fresh install from disk and an update to 2.04

Here's another pointer...any fresh install that requires manual manipulation of windows registry values is unacceptable.

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There was an update to TA in Impulse today. I installed it but it didn't fix the problem. No email response yet from Stardock on my request to reopen my ticket.

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I also updated TA on Impulse and still have the Metaverse problem. No response even after I provided my ticket number as requested back at reply 10.

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Same result. I updated, and after the meterverse login, the game crashed as before.

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can not connect to metaverse with TA since update

can still connect to metaverse in original Dreadlords and 1st expansion Dark Avatar

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Quoting Rosco_P,

reply 22

Here's another fix for you to try:

Download http://sd.stardock.com/gc2_metaverse_remove.zip and extract that to the Twilight directory.
Then remove \ProgramData\stardock\gc2ul\sig.bin
You will need to reactivate but it should work properly after that.

Today I got an email from Stardock support that confirmed that if I didn't have a gc2ul folder, but that I did have a sig.bin in ProgramData\Stardock\Twilight, I should delete that one and follow the rest of the instructions in Rosco_P's post above.

So I removed that sig.bin, downloaded the zip file, extracted it into the Program Files (x86)\Stardock Games\GalCiv2\Twilight directory, replacing the files already there, and started GC2 TA. I had to re-enter the registration information, and then the game let me into the metaverse, select my character, and start the game with no crashes.

So, success at last for me. I hope the same solution works for some of the rest of you having the problem.

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My problem appears to be the I do not have a sig.bin file under twilight - only under Galciv2. I extract to that twilight directory but the metaverse still fails. How are you re-entering the registration? I don't seem to have that opportunity.

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Quoting taq,

reply 33

How are you re-entering the registration? I don't seem to have that opportunity.

After erasing the sig.bin and extracting and replacing the files from the downloaded zip, when I started GC2 TA it prompted me to re-enter my registration information, including email address, password, and product registration code. After doing that I was able to reach the TA main menu, and connect to the metaverse.

Note that I had previously edited the registry as suggested in Rosco's post #9 to this thread. I don't know whether that was an essential part of the fix.

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Ah, now I see where the confusion is arising. I found my sig.bin for TA under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Twilight, deleted it, got asked for my registration info when I launched the game, filled that out and all was good.

You'll know if it's working because when you click Metaverse you will be logged in automatically instead of having to supply your handle and password.

Now just have to fix the AI and tech trees so that it's actually worth playing Metaverse.

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Finallly, that did the trick! The sig.bin was in the C:\document... directory. Why game files get scattered all over the place is beside me - let alone that tech support seems unaware of all the places that the files could hide on a vanilla Window 7 system.

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I'm having the same problem, and, after following the previous suggestions, have still run up against a crash to desktop when logging in to the Metaverse. After I reenter my product registration info, the game will still ask me for my account info because it thinks my account hasn't been verified through e-mail. The thing is, I HAVE verified it through Stardock.com. Multiple times. Granted, I purchased the game in 2008 and it is an older e-mail account. Any thoughts on how I should proceed? Thanks for the input!

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Just make sure you're emailing support@stardock.com.

Also, I think you can redownload everything at http://download.stardock.com.

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 38

Just make sure you're emailing support@stardock.com.

Also, I think you can redownload everything at http://download.stardock.com.

I just e-mailed support@stardock.com, so hopefully they will assist me. After checking your link, however, I only found a link to download my copy of Sins of a Solar Empire, not any of the Galactic Civilization II software I own. Interesting...

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I had the same problem, but once I deleted "C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Twilight\sig.bin" I had to ensure that I ran Twilight using Run As Administrator, otherwise the .sig file would be recreated without me being prompted to enter any registration information.

This is on Windows 7 64-bit.

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Thanks Quitch

running Twilight as admin appears to have been the key step

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Thank you MarvinKosh...the key for me was that....ALL USERS bit

I'm all better

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I've tried a couple of the suggestions and nothing has worked for me. In fact now I'm locked out of even starting the game from deleting my sig.bin in app data all etc for gc twighlight the game did not ask me for registration but instead I'm locked out and it's asking me to reinstal using stardock central; does that still exist even?

Would be much simpler if this just simply worked through a simple update once again perhaps reverse engineering whatever it was that caused this. Of course I'm sure the problem is once again something like a t or an i that didn't get crossed or dotted.

Thank you Stardock for your efforts. Hope all is well again soon. I haven't played gc2 for a while and just got a laptop and this could be a really good use of my time at the coffee shop Well once it gets working anyhow

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Use the launcher (you may need to run as administrator).

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I've tried... still asks me to reinstall using SDCentral. Would love to throw some magic powder on this problem and have it go away x.x

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Seems GC2 dreadlords gets the metaverse screen up fine...so does dark avatar but twighlight is now still no dice. Even restored the issue that seemed to have started my inability to even launch twighlight and of course no dice x.x

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Okay I've finally got the stardock registration screen up, i back tracked; something was preventing me from extracting that thing gc2metaverseremove.zip and what I did was moved it to a different folder, extracted copied the files myself then went to C:\ProgramData and then the Twighlight folder and deleted sig.bin Problem solved. Wonder if it's anything to do with the somewhat now annoying Gamestop "Gamestop Helper" which to be honest sounds more like malware than some honest program lol.

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Well at least it doesn't pop up an annoying paper clip on your desktop saying, 'It looks like you're trying to play a game...'

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Quoting MarvinKosh,

reply 48

Well at least it doesn't pop up an annoying paper clip on your desktop saying, 'It looks like you're trying to play a game...'

I spewed!

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The crash appears to be related to user credentials not correctly getting copied/written to HKCU registry locations.

Workaround:

Extracting the contents of http://sd.stardock.com/gc2_ultimate_2.04.2.zip to the GalCiv2\Twilight directory should also fix the crash.

More/better fix to make sure all HKCU settings keys are set properly from registration:

Start / Run / regedit.exe (will request elevation)

Delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Settings

Erase C:\ProgramData\Stardock\GC2UL\sig.bin (will request elevation)

May need to remove the sig.bin from ProgramData\Stardock\Twilight instead.

Run the GalCiv2\Twilight\GC2TwilightoftheArnor.exe and enter your Stardock account information and serial when prompted.

This will update the registry keys in HKCU that you just removed as well to cache the user credentials the Metaverse login is expecting.

If you are still having problems, please email kwilas at stardock.com directly.

Kris

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