What the fuck? Dragon Age "failed to authenticate the disc"

[Vympel]

After months of playing it with no trouble, I try and run the game today and get the bullshit message that "Failed to authenticate the disc. Please insert the correct disc and try again."

What the fuck is this shit? What changed for this to happen?

A similar thing happened when I installed SWAT 4, which I got at EB for something to do, cheap, a week ago or so. Instead in that case I just cracked its dumb ass since I didn't want to bother it. Obviously I am unwilling to crack DA:O, nor do I see why I should since I fucking legally bought the game.

[DPDarkPrimus]

EA's authentication is fucking stupid sometimes. Email support and hopefully they can fix it for you quickly.

[adam_grif]

I've had similar problems with my copy of Company of Heroes in the past, but only when I've been having network issues (usually when our connection gets shaped). If your internet connection is functioning properly, then I wouldn't have a clue what the problem was.

[Vympel]

Fired off an email to support. Does this fucking game phone home every time you play it to authenticate it? The moment you hit "play" on the autorun screen?

There's nothing wrong with my connection AFAIK. Obviously, I mean ...

[Acidburns]

Dragon Age doesn't do an online check when you start it. It does have a disc check however (securom I guess). Have you installed any CD emulation software? Try disabling that, some disc checks take a fit if you have. As an alternative you can register you CD key with the EA download manager thingie and you can download a digital copy of Dragon Age and play it without needing the disc.

[charlemagne]

Obviously I am unwilling to crack DA:O

Just out of curiousity: why?

I mean, No-DVD-Cracks are the best thing ever. No need for juggling discs because every bit is copied to the HD anyways, and also no noises from the DVD drive whenever you start up explorer.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

DA is pretty heavily tied up in its online systems (achievements, DLCs, community odds and ends, etc) and a disc crack could potentially compromise that.

[Stark]

Aside from version checks, it makes no difference. Trust me.

Problems with DRM? Just crack it. It's that simple. Keep a backup of your original exe for patching etc and forget about the problems.

If the protection is Securom it's pretty easy to fix the exe yourself. Intermittent failures are a hallmark of bad DRM that annoys legitimate customers without actually stopping pirates.

[Vympel]

DA is pretty heavily tied up in its online systems (achievements, DLCs, community odds and ends, etc) and a disc crack could potentially compromise that.

That was my thoughts.

Dragon Age doesn't do an online check when you start it. It does have a disc check however (securom I guess). Have you installed any CD emulation software? Try disabling that, some disc checks take a fit if you have.

I have DAEMON tools lite, it didn't interference with DA before but I deleted it completely all the same and it didn't change anything, unfortunately.

As an alternative you can register you CD key with the EA download manager thingie and you can download a digital copy of Dragon Age and play it without needing the disc.

No way am I using up a good portion of my monthly bandwith to download a game I already have on disc and which worked just fine until it stopped for no reason

Waiting to see what EA support says. If I'm not satisified fuck it, I'll crack the fucking thing.

[Oskuro]

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From here and here.

[Vympel]

EA's response:-

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

If the disk appears to be defective, or is not functioning correctly our warranty department can replace it.

If you are within the 90 day warranty period, please send us the disk with a copy of the receipt.

If you are outside of the 90 day warranty period we will still replace the software, but a replacement fee will apply.

Our shipping address and details on the cost of replacement software can be found on the last page of the game manual or at the bottom of our warranty page; http://warrantyinfo.ea.com

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Wonderful. And what guarantee do I have that replacing the disc, which is spotless, will fix anything?