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I kind of found the problem. I ran a system configuration and found several programs denied access to run. It wasn't a firewall, in my case, it was just programs not being allowed to access registry information online.

And might I add that stardock was fairly prompt in their replies. Almost one a day.
 
No response received to P.M.s regarding East India Company Collection activation

Moderators ! .
Kind-hearted and most helpfull connection established - thank you !!!
(You may delete/remove this post if you wish !)
 
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Hello. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find information on this site... and I can’t find what I need. I own a copy of East India Company, which I installed and activated on my previous computer which has subsequently died. I have now tried to install the game on my new computer and it tells me I can’t because the activation code is already registered. So I will need either a full refund for the game or help in installing it on my new computer. Who do I speak to about this?!
Peter Cochrane.
 
Hello. I have wasted a lot of time trying to find information on this site... and I can’t find what I need. I own a copy of East India Company, which I installed and activated on my previous computer which has subsequently died. I have now tried to install the game on my new computer and it tells me I can’t because the activation code is already registered. So I will need either a full refund for the game or help in installing it on my new computer. Who do I speak to about this?!
Peter Cochrane.

The answer is in the first post of this very thread. You should activate with exactly the same email-address that you used when you first installed the game.

If you can't remember the email or you think you have mistyped it, you should contact Stardock support at: http://www.stardock.com/support/
 
I just bought a second-hand games East India Company but the activation key is to use another email address so I can not install it, how can I do?

i have to echo yoda's comment here, as i too have a second-hand copy of the game which cannot be activated.
i have the activation code, but of course i do not have the email it was originally registered to. how can this be fixed?
 
okay then, i see there's no interest in supporting the after-market. no more money to be gained from this consumer, so why bother standing behind your product, huh?
that's fine, but i certainly won't be buying anything else from Paradox (new, used or otherwise). and from what i've read 'Age of Sail II' is a better game anyway, so i'll just go back to that one.
pity though, as i was really interested in trying something different, and the EIC seemed like a good basis for a nautical game. i guess i'll never know, nor will anyone else who can't even load the damned thing!

thanks anyway...
 
Dude, I believe you can buy the whole collection from Gamer's Gate for something like 5 to 10 bucks. Also I am not sure but their licensing agreement may be only for the original purchaser. If you bought it from a resale place I would suggest taking it back and letting them know.
 
Hi I realise this is an old game but I bought EIC about 3 years ago and have enjoyed it
immensely usually completing it at least twice a year. Last week I had a system crash
forcing me to reinstall the game and I discovered the

"There was a problem with product activation: Serial number already registered. "

error during installation and thats how I
ended up registering on this forum and registering the game so I could post.

It looks like this has been a problem for many people and you would have thought that there
would have been something more proactive than please contact Stardock ( Did you guys ever talk to each other or how about let all the registered users register again but don't tell anyone?), which I have and they
have acknowledged so who knows it may work. But seriously what a lousy way to control use of
the game, the error says "Serial number already registered " Err yes to me, me a person not
some email address that I had or used 3 years ago. If they wanted to do it that way they
should have made you register an account of some type to make you remember or have something
to remember somethong more substantial than an email address that you do not and are not
told of its importance.. Well I went through every conceivable email I had three years ago or
so but no luck and then after reading this I realised if you did make a mistake in the
original email address there does not seem to have been any control method for this error?!
WTC .. This is so amateur.

Why not instead of asking for an email just asked for a password
and the usual repeat password to confirm then we would all have written them down probably
in the EIC DVD box and none of this problem or most of this problem would have occured. Yes you can buy the complete thing for a few dollars now but that is not the point.
 
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Hello everyone,

I've recently (yesterday actually) bought EIC. It is a used game, i.e. second hand. Of course I can't install it because of the e-mail problem. Naturally I have no idea what the previous owner's e-mail address is/was. Should I contact Stardock or can you at Paradox do something about it. Or should I just return the game?

Thank you.
 
Hello,
I have not Installed the game yet but I bought the french collection on GG, and it won't display any CD key (so i cannot register my game here on the forum).
Do i have to install it in order to get my key ?

Thx

It is possible the key shows up after you've downloaded and installed the game. I've seen that happening to several games I've bought at GamersGate lately.

Thorin :)
 
My problem seems different than most in this thread, but it seems better to post here than start a new 'activation problem' thread.

I bought the Gold (2013) version using IndieGameStudio. They offer steam activation or direct download. I chose direct download, thinking it would be less likely to be problematic (apparently not). They gave me 3 files to download one by one. I saved them with the filenames they supplied:
EIC_Setup.exe
EIC_Setup_1a.bin
EIC_Setup_1b.bin

I ran the exe, it asked for the first disk, I pointed it at the folder with the files, and it said it couldn't find "EIC_Setup-1a.bin". So I renamed the two bin files I'd downloaded to what it wanted, substituting a dash for the second underscore:
EIC_Setup-1a.bin
EIC_Setup-1b.bin

Although I got past this problem on my own, I mention it because others are sure to hit it, and I felt lucky I noticed the difference between the dash and underscore in the error message I was getting. Now for my real problem - activation:

After renaming the bin files the installation appeared to work fine. It asked me if I wanted to install direct x or the VS redistributable, which I skipped since I already have those multiple times. It asked me for an installation directory (I put the game on a second drive in its own folder to avoid problems with UAC since I'm running win7 x64). And it asked to accept the license agreement -- but nowhere did it prompt me for an email or product key.

After installation was apparently completed successfully, it offered a choice to launch the game, which I accepted. The game then put up a small dialog that prompted me for the key, which I got from IndieGameStudio and cut & pasted into the prompt. I had to cut & paste in 4 parts because the prompt provides four 4-character text boxes. I avoided retyping it so there would be no mistakes. This dialog does offer me the chance to register, but said I could do it later if I unchecked the box (which was already unchecked by default). I left it unchecked and proceeded to try to activate the key.

I chose the 'activate over the internet' choice, did not enter any proxy stuff, and got the message "Activation failed. Invalid serial number key. (Not found in activation database)."

Trying to run the game only reruns the activation. I can also rerun activation by running SerialKeyActivation.exe in the game folder. After the first attempt, the activation dialog no longer prompts me for my key, but it lets me try again to register and get the activation failed message again. While the failure message says the game will only run in demo mode, in fact all it offers is the chance to exit, so it's not running at all.

I've tried running SerialKeyActivation.exe as administrator, that doesn't change anything.

It seems very much like IndieGameStudio sold me a bad key. I had never bought anything from them before, so have I been scammed? They appeared legit and billed via paypal. I read earlier in this thread where Paradox responded that if the installer doesn't prompt for an email it must not be their installer. Well, sadly, it's not my installer either, but it is the only one I've been given. It was a very basic windows 98 type installer, no splash screen or music etc. IndieGameStudio refers all problems with activation to the developer, so here I am. I haven't tried uninstalling and reinstalling, since that might further complicate things, but will if advised.

Hoping for some help.
 
Hello Eastwind,

I am sorry you've been having these issues with the game. I've sent an inquiry internally to see if there's anything known regarding IndieGamesStudio. I have no information on that unfortunately. I do recommend reading the warning/scamming and how to check if you are dealing with a legit or malicious merchant topic of our Community Manager BjornB: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...t-where-you-purchase-game-keys!-Scammer-alert!

As for the key, we are unfortunately not able to check it as we do not have access to the key database. The activation for EIC is run by Stardock, and you should contact them instead. You can reach them by e-mail: support@stardock.com
 
I have bought the game 5 years ago to play but the computer was not good enough at the time. 5 years later I have the game and all downloaded and ready to play, and when I register the code it says "there is a problem activating east india company". I want to know how to fix this problem to play EIC.
 
I have bought the game 5 years ago to play but the computer was not good enough at the time. 5 years later I have the game and all downloaded and ready to play, and when I register the code it says "there is a problem activating east india company". I want to know how to fix this problem to play EIC.

You don´t need to register the game on the forum to play the game.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/game-registration-key-faq-look-here.547980/