17 réponses à ce sujet

[CrunchTroll]

I know this question has been posed to the great & powerful of the BioWare forums several times prior but after spending hours searching (and testing resolutions) plus attempting to get something out of EA (like pulling teeth with a rusty crescent wrench), I am at my wits end. I am hyped to play Mass Effect after enjoying Mass Effect 2 for the past month or so. So here is the problem and assorted information in all its' gory detail.


Issue:
After launching game & waiting 15-20 seconds, an error message appears:
"Important Message!
The game needs access to the internet in order to verify ownership of this game.Please ensure that your computer is online and try again."


Attempted Resolutions:
1) SearchFu - BioWare SocialNetwork by issue "internet connection" & complete Tech Issue sub-forum
                       - Google "mass effect internet connection"
2) Windows Firewall - confirmed Mass Effect & Mass Effect Launcher both listed as authorized in "Incoming"
                                      - added MassEffectLauncher.exe & MassEffect.exe as authorized in "Outbound" rules
                                      - disabled firewall (both public & private)
3) EA Support - online chat ... twice (but effectively only once and that is being generous)
                          - email, still waiting but not hopeful
(why do I feel they will ask me for the info in the chats and then give me the same resolutions, or am I being cynical??)
4) Uninstalled then Reinstalled & Patched
5) Command Prompt (admin user) - ran "netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=disabled" then restarted as per EA Support webpage http://support.ea.co...etail/a_id/2257
6) Router - opened ports (TCP/UDP) 1470,15000, 47624-49672 as per EA support online chat
                  - opened ports ports 80 (TCP/UDP), 8000 (TCP), 8001 (UDP), 443 (TCP), and 18081 (TCP) as per Forum Thread http://social.biowar...58/index/359507


Game & Hardware Details:
Game Version: patched 1.02
Retail or Digital: Retail DVD (Value Games, UK version??)
Processor Manufacturer: AMD
Processor Type: Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition
Processor Core Speed: 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: Asus M4A89TD Pro/USB3 (DIY system)
Operating System / Service Pack: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
System RAM: 8.0 GB
Onboard NIC: Marvell 88E8001 Gigabyte Ethernet Controller
Direct3D APIs dated:  DirectX 11 (as per dxdiag)
Video Card Manufacturer & Model: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB
Video Card Driver Version: 260.99
Sound Card Manufacturer: Realtek onboard sound
Sound Card Model: ??
Sound Card Driver date: 2009-07-13
Sound Card Driver Version: USBAUDIO.sys [6.1.7600.16385] (USB Headphones)
DVD Type: LG DVD-RW (HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55N)
Hard Drive Type: WD Caviar Black 2TB Sata II (WDC WD2001FASS-00W2B0)
Free Disk Space: System Partition - C:\\\\ ~16GB (of 60GB); Gaming partition - E:\\\\ ~17GB (of 120GB)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 (single 12V power rail w/80A)


If there is anything that is needed to refine an answer, please ask. Do not worry about dumbing down requests or answers. I do tech support for a living (currently an ISP, previously a major computer company).

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 22 février 2011 - 06:53 .

[Bogsnot1]

You are dead on the money about EA support being as useful as mammary glands on a male bovine. I'm seriously considering sending them a bill for every issue Ive been able to resolve, and they havent.
You should be able to get your sound adaptor model from firing up either ME or ME2 launcher, hit configure, and select summary.
Are you running just the Windows firewall, or do you have another AV/Firewall package loaded as well?
Apart from having Masseffect.exe and masseffectlauncher.exe listed as trusted apps, I only have ports 80 and 443 enabled out of all the ones you have mentioned. The only extra port I do have listed for outgoing is 8080.
Unless of course it uses some POP3/SMTP weirdness for connecting, in which case I have a few extra ports listed under there. 25, 110, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995.
I use Comodo AV/Firewall and had no problems once I told it to trust ME.

Hope this helps.

[CrunchTroll]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

You are dead on the money about EA support being as useful as mammary glands on a male bovine. I'm seriously considering sending them a bill for every issue Ive been able to resolve, and they havent.

Not the first time I have had to deal with them about a problem.  Even more of reason I want to limit my exposure to that kind of dumb.

You should be able to get your sound adaptor model from firing up either ME or ME2 launcher, hit configure, and select summary.

Did that. Since I use USB Headphones for the most part when playing (considerate of my neighbours, they get enough of me yelling at games).

Are you running just the Windows firewall, or do you have another AV/Firewall package loaded as well?

Windows 7 Firewall only. Most commercial firewalls are crap and most freeware firewalls are limited when it comes to configuring them (such as opening ports).

Apart from having Masseffect.exe and masseffectlauncher.exe listed as trusted apps, I only have ports 80 and 443 enabled out of all the ones you have mentioned. The only extra port I do have listed for outgoing is 8080.

UDP or TCP on 8080?

Unless of course it uses some POP3/SMTP weirdness for connecting, in which case I have a few extra ports listed under there. 25, 110, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995.
I use Comodo AV/Firewall and had no problems once I told it to trust ME.

Hope this helps.

More than EA has offered. I just do not understand why it will not run when I have tried all the standard tricks and even a few more technical. Thanks for extra food for thought.

I am starting to think there is some sort of hardware incompatibility where one little inconsequential setting is all that stands between me and not going crazy (I have experience just this issue before with a chipset and an email program).

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 23 janvier 2011 - 06:31 .

[CrunchTroll]

Added 8080 udp & tcp to the router. Firewall is set to allow any port ME & ME launcher want to use. No Joy!!!!

Frak. This is getting very frustrating.

Should definitely send a bill to EA for all my time  they have wasted because they needed to add DRM that is buggy!!!!

Why do I have the feeling by the time I get Mass Effect working, I will be able to write a comprehensive article on how to troubleshoot this issue??

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 23 janvier 2011 - 06:48 .

[Bogsnot1]

Dont know if this will help, but I just trawled through my firewall logs, and found 2 extra ports that ME2 used. UDP 53 and 1900. Dont know if they will have an effect on ME1.

The only other suggestion I can give is go to gamecopyworld and see if the no-cd fixed exe will help bypass the problem.

A computer needs DRM like a fish needs a bicycle.

[CrunchTroll]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

Dont know if this will help, but I just trawled through my firewall logs, and found 2 extra ports that ME2 used. UDP 53 and 1900. Dont know if they will have an effect on ME1.

Can't hurt. Will give it a try later. Need some rest before work.

The only other suggestion I can give is go to gamecopyworld and see if the no-cd fixed exe will help bypass the problem.
A computer needs DRM like a fish needs a bicycle.

Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ.

I was thinking the same thing about finding a non-DRM inhibited copy. Might be the only solution. And EA can go pound sand if they do not like it. They caused the problem.

[CrunchTroll]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

The only other suggestion I can give is go to gamecopyworld and see if the no-cd fixed exe will help bypass the problem..

When all was said and done, this is the resolution I ended up with. After all the effort (and no real help from EA, I had to use a "fixed"exe file. Just Pathetic. Makes me leary of purchasing anything with DRM in the future.

When I get the time, I may just sit down and write something about what can be tried. And is generally successful.

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 24 janvier 2011 - 07:41 .

[eshrafel]

Hi there. I've been running ME1 with Win7 firewall without issues so far. Due to the game making an outgoing connection, you should not have to open ports on the router either. The problem is likely elsewhere. Can you describe your network configuration some more?



If you have a reasonable idea of what you are doing (which you seem to), you may want to install WireShark and do a packet capture to see if anything is being sent in the first place, and if anything is coming back at all.

[CrunchTroll]

Ethernet connection to 2Wire 2700 HGV-B2 Modem/Router provided by ISP (I would rather they NOT use 2Wire; we hated them at Apple tech support). No fancy settings such as proxy servers or VPNs. Setup rule for ME1 to open ports (described in my first notes plus suggestions by others).

I have been thinking about doing something like what you describe for Wireshark (had a utility for just that at Apple) but not sure what to use on a PC (never had the need). Thanks for the suggestion. When I get home from work, I will swap the normal exe back & see what Wireshark finds.

And no, I do not own a Mac computer.

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 24 janvier 2011 - 09:38 .

[CrunchTroll]

eshrafel wrote...
If you have a reasonable idea of what you are doing (which you seem to), you may want to install WireShark and do a packet capture to see if anything is being sent in the first place, and if anything is coming back at all.

Installed Wireshark and ran it several times, noting which lines it was at when I launched ME1 and when the error message comes up.

Nothing jumps out indicating an issue. I can see requests coming and going between the computer and Bioware but probably need to read the user guide more to interpret the results I am getting.

Oh, and EA tech support is being as useful as .... well I can't think of anything they are as useful as. Sad, really.

[Daedalusxxx]

If you can't launch me1, try this: rename the file paul.dll to paul.bak for example, doesn't matter (or move it to a backup folder). Then put the cd into the drive and play. That's how I got it to work.



Hope this helps, cheers.

[CrunchTroll]

Tried deleting it. But looks like it was recreated. Will try renaming when I get around to trying some more of EAs stupid ideas (need to swap out the cracked DRMless exe and put in the normal DRM'd exe).

[eshrafel]

Well, the fact you are receiving from Bioware/EA indicates it's not a firewall issue.



A couple things to look at - tomorrow I can run a packet capture on my working copy and I suppose the logs could be compared to see if anything is obviously missing. Secondly, and rather awkwardly, you could encapsulate over a proxy via a remote server to see if it's an internet routing issue. For an encrypted/safe proxy, on the PC this would involve using PuTTY with an ssh tunnel to the remote server, then using a tool such as SocksCap to encapsulate the traffic over the local socks5 proxy. I wouldn't do this over an unsecured proxy because it is presumably sending your game key to BioWare/EA. Remember you'd be encapsulating MassEffect.exe and not the launcher. If you were desperate (and comfortable with trying it) I have a server on a 1Mbit link in the UK.



Also, I guess you've tried all the compatibility modes already, though I do not know why they'd help.

[CrunchTroll]

EA finally admitted that the issue cannot be resolved with there standard troubleshooting, claiming it could be either a hardware incompatibility (highly unlikely but possible, I have seen it before) or something missed during correspondence. This is most likely as they appeared to not read previous notes (at least 3 times told me to bypass my router when I told them up front and every bypass request it could not be bypassed as it was modem/router provided by my ISP).

Why does this end result not surprise me in the least?

When I get a chance I will be distilling everything tried for future reference by others. Maybe they will have better luck.

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 15 février 2011 - 12:44 .

[CrunchTroll]

WOO HOO!!! Found the problem. And it was Microsoft that helped me find it troubleshooting a completely unrelated issue. Mwahahahahahaha!!!

I was having issues getting Games for Windows Live to login in correctly either from in-game or from the application. Called their tech support, the guy took about 5 minutes to do some research and had me look up a couple of MS articles - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357 to reset the tcp/ip protocol (using the 'Fix It' option), restart the computer and then http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259 to determine and reset Winsock2 corruption (also using the 'Fix It'option).

I have been able to run ME and install Bring the Sky Down without any issues. And the call took under 40 minutes including about 10 minute wait for an agent. I have never had any problems with MS tech support when I have called. My issues have been resolved very quickly and the agents were great.

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 22 février 2011 - 06:53 .

[Bogsnot1]

Congrats. Good to see an answer finally come of a weird and wonderful problem. The big question is what caused the tcpip/winsock corruption in the first place?

[CrunchTroll]

Who knows?? I was not having any internet issues other than speed a little slower than what I could be getting. But as a support tech for an ISP, all internet packages have their speeds listed as "Up To".

What kills me is that EA could not come up with the fix in over 4 weeks of troubleshoot. A tech for MS Games for Windows Live figures it out first shot. I give MS kudos for having excellent support and the ability to contact it by phone.

Modifié par CrunchTroll, 23 février 2011 - 12:11 .

[ayutthayan]

Great work! Thank you!