Greetings! I pre-ordered and paid for a lifetime subscription to STO. Only a couple of weeks after launch, I was sent out on a brief deployment. Upon return, I installed Windows 7 on my computer, and did a full wipe. I attempted to reinstall STO, but when it prompts me to enter my retail key, it tells me that the key is already activated, and cannot be used again. From this point, the installation process simply hangs up, waiting for product key entry.
Has anyone found any workarounds for this? I have a few days off before returning to duty, and I was looking forward to playing STO; but it looks again, like this game is still screwed up.
Well one thing's for sure, you don't have to re-redeem your key since if you previously played the game it is already attached to your STO account. You just need to reinstall the game itself and then log in with your existing username and password.
Unfortunately I don't know how the install process from the disks works, as I bought the game digitally and installed from an old Open Beta client.
There's a few things you can try though - while installing...:
- Turn off UAC, in windows 7 go to Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control Settings -> drag the slider all the way to the bottom
- Disable your antivirus program, including any advanced defense features and ad-banner blocking
- Run the Setup.exe as administrator - to do this you'll have to run Setup.exe manually, so close down the autorun setup, instead navigate to your DVD-rom drive, r-click and select Open, then r-click on Setup.exe -> run as administrator.
I've also heard someone say that some of the hogg files may take a long time to extract/install, especially on slower systems with slower harddrives, so leave it running for a while and see if it ever gets past it.
Last thing you could try, if all else fails - assuming you have a fast net connection and no bandwidth caps - is download a client installer from the web and run that instead. I got the Open Beta installer from Gamershell and it needed quite a bit of updating, but it was all relatively fast on a 20mb internet connection. Cryptic also hosts a download on their main page under Support -> Download (i think).
Yeah. I sincerely doubt they would make you enter a key every time you install. You cannot play STO without a user/name password. However, everytime I have installed the game (I have three potential computers--two old, one good) it goes to the internet to ask for the key. Just close the window it opens and leave the install windows open. STO will still install.
Of course, I am using the US version. If you are using a different disc version, you might have a problem there.
I just did a fresh install from my retail box purchase STO DVD on a Windows 7 64bit system I built for the wife over the weekend. I went with all the defaults, ran install from the DVD when it prompted me to after insert and didn't start with administrator rights.
It prompted me to install with UAC which I allowed
I installed with the default options, including installing in c:\users\public\games\Cryptic Studios
It brought up a browser window to activate my key, I simply closed the browser since I already activated it
It continued to install the game, taking a bit of time on the large hogg files
The HOGG files are large binary files with the game data. The sheer size of these means they can take several seconds to several minutes to copy over depending on the speed of your computer/disk/DVDROM drive. So while it may seem to be hung, it is just taking awhile to move. As games get bigger and more complex, the files become a lot bigger. Nothing that can be done about that other than to play games from 1995, which isn't much fun any more.
I know its been a while but im posting for anyone who needs help in the future.
If you are trying to reinstall STO, but you try to enter your key again and it says that it is already active, don't sweat.
If you already own the game and it was accidentaly (or purposly) uninstalled, you can still install it again.
When the product activation key screen comes up, just exit out of it. Your game will continue to install just fine.
Important
Although it may seem to get hung up, it isn't. When it gets to the part where it is trying to execute a program that ends in "/SILENT", it is just waiting for the key to be entered. It will continue on the installation if you just exit out of the key activation screen.
You also may think that it is getting hung up on the .hogg files. It isn't. As stated earlier in this forum by Kineel, .hogg files are massive bianary files that can take many minutes to install. I have a pretty new (7 months) computer and it took me 15 minutes to get through the .hogg files.
Comments
Unfortunately I don't know how the install process from the disks works, as I bought the game digitally and installed from an old Open Beta client.
There's a few things you can try though - while installing...:
- Turn off UAC, in windows 7 go to Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control Settings -> drag the slider all the way to the bottom
- Disable your antivirus program, including any advanced defense features and ad-banner blocking
- Run the Setup.exe as administrator - to do this you'll have to run Setup.exe manually, so close down the autorun setup, instead navigate to your DVD-rom drive, r-click and select Open, then r-click on Setup.exe -> run as administrator.
I've also heard someone say that some of the hogg files may take a long time to extract/install, especially on slower systems with slower harddrives, so leave it running for a while and see if it ever gets past it.
Last thing you could try, if all else fails - assuming you have a fast net connection and no bandwidth caps - is download a client installer from the web and run that instead. I got the Open Beta installer from Gamershell and it needed quite a bit of updating, but it was all relatively fast on a 20mb internet connection. Cryptic also hosts a download on their main page under Support -> Download (i think).
Of course, I am using the US version. If you are using a different disc version, you might have a problem there.
If you are trying to reinstall STO, but you try to enter your key again and it says that it is already active, don't sweat.
If you already own the game and it was accidentaly (or purposly) uninstalled, you can still install it again.
When the product activation key screen comes up, just exit out of it. Your game will continue to install just fine.
Important
Although it may seem to get hung up, it isn't. When it gets to the part where it is trying to execute a program that ends in "/SILENT", it is just waiting for the key to be entered. It will continue on the installation if you just exit out of the key activation screen.
You also may think that it is getting hung up on the .hogg files. It isn't. As stated earlier in this forum by Kineel, .hogg files are massive bianary files that can take many minutes to install. I have a pretty new (7 months) computer and it took me 15 minutes to get through the .hogg files.
I hope this cleared up any confusion.