UT 2004 issue.

[Kougerai]

When ever I start up the game, I get an error that says...
"The CD key appears to be invalid. You will need to reinstall the game and enter your CD key to fix the problem."

Why is it doing this now after about 3-4 months with no problems?

[Slappers]

IM getting the same issue, but Ive only just tried to play it since picking up the Unreal deal pack, anyone else come across this and a fix?

[ka0s]

Same problem. It's been about 3 months since I played and since then I've installed Windows 7 64. I've installed and verified the game 4 times now and the same problem. I don't even see a "cdkey" file in the game folder any time it's been installed. I've even deleted the .ini file, reverified, and nothing. Deleted the system folder, re-updated, nothing. Deleted the whole game folder, re-updated, nothing. Deleted any trace of ut2004 on my system, nothing. I've contacted Steam support today and waiting on an answer.

[grimmster]

I also have this issue. Just bought the steam pack. All other UT games work but ut2k4

[TriumphGuy]

Same problem here. The game installs fine from my old retail cd's though.

[NoVaTuRiEnT]

Apparently there's meant to be a "CDKey" value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unreal Technology\Installed Apps\UT2004 registry entry. But that's for Retail.

I'm not exactly sure where it stores the CD Key for Steam. I'm yet to find this out myself.
I'd wait for a reply from Steam themselves for now.

As for me, I've never had this problem in both Retail and Steam (yet anyway) in over 6 years.

[TriumphGuy]

I ran processmon on ut2004.exe and noticed that it's looking for steam.dll in the system folder inside the game directory. I tried copying a steam.dll that I found elsewhere on my system and got a completely different error message at startup. My guess is that the problem is there.

You might try sticking the following into your registry and see what happens. You'll need a CD key though.

________________Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unreal Technology]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unreal Technology\Installed Apps]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Unreal Technology\Installed Apps\UT2004]
"Version"="3369"
"Folder"="C:\\UT2004"
"ADMIN_RIGHTS"="You need to run this program as an administrator, not as a guest or limited user account."
"NO_DISC"="No disc in drive. Please insert the disc labeled 'Unreal Tournament 2004 Play Disc' to continue."
"NO_DRIVE"="No CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive detected."
"TITLEBAR"="Unreal Tournament 2004"
"WRONG_DISC"="Wrong disc in drive. Please insert the disc labeled 'Unreal Tournament 2004 Play Disc' to continue."
"YEAR"="2004"
"CDKey"="your-cd-key-here-because-I-wont-share-mine"
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