[NEW PROPER FIX] Activation Error-fix Patched DLL

[jamie]

Hi, I worked out what's been causing some significant portion of the EA/Origin activation issues, and am providing a fix for Battlefield 3 here!
If you're getting 'We could not activate Battlefield 3 on this computer using the Origin Account you provided', and deleting your old licenses in 'C:/ProgramData/Electronic Arts/EA Services/License/' didn't fix it, this should hopefully be the proper canonical fix for you.
I'm hoping EA will see this post and use the work to fix this, too! I felt obliged to kick this out the door after seeing this game's reviews severely impacted from this bug, which would be a really awkward thing to have its service cancellation hastened over, ya know?


DOWNLOAD:
Version 1.0[drive.google.com] (August 11 2023)
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if this triggers anticheat action. Here's what I know: I've tested it online for a few days seemingly fine, without kicks or anything, on a mix of servers. I simply don't have the power to guarantee anything here, is all.
If you're still nervous, playing singleplayer or non-PunkBuster servers until this is properly fixed should be totally safe, but it's still technically at your own risk!
(technical users, see below if you'd prefer to patch manually, same disclaimer)


INSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, replace 'awc.dll' with the one in the zip. Your next launch from Battlelog should Just Work (tm) if you were experiencing the bug.

UNINSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, extract 'awc.bak.dll' and rename it to 'awc.dll'.


Notes for technical users:
Manual patching: open awc.dll and change the byte at 0x3A55 from 74 to EB. That's it.
I had a particularly nasty case where even unlocking Origin and trying use it to activate didn't work. (This is most people's new fix suggestion as of July/August 2023)
It turns out what causes this bug is malformed motherboard IDs, and repairing this directly is probably beyond the reach of most players. (it requires OEM tools and can brick your motherboard, eep!)
The old-school activation screen appearing at all seems to be an post-mortem fail state, the UI can't ever actually solve the root problem. It's the launcher's job to make sure older titles like this are activated before actually launching them, it seems, and it's trying and missing the mark slightly.


>>NOTES FOR ELECTRONIC ARTS-- ENGINEERS, READ THIS!<<
'Machine Hashes' are not matching between the launchers creating auth files, and the client reading them.
In my case, after digging a bit and verifying how these worked a bit, bad, unloadable SMBIOS board information ('Win32_BaseBoard') caused machine-id generation to fall-back onto a different path with different ID sources (CPUID-based etc). This is likely where the old ea-core license code is mismatching versus the modern generation stuff.
On a separate machine where all these IDs were present and loaded properly, activation worked instantly with unmodified files, as expected.

I hope I used enough specific jargon/keywords, such that even an unfamiliar engineer could locate the relevant code and fix it quickly.

Everyone else, have fun playing (again)!

[fffreakyyy]

You know what I will never ever buy anything from EA f**** scam.

[Kaiser Darius]

I hope somebody in EA notices this and take action, again the community has to tell them how to fix their broken software.

[BR_Esqueff_BR]

Originally posted by jamie:

Hi, I worked out what's been causing some significant portion of the EA/Origin activation issues, and am providing a fix for Battlefield 3 here!
If you're getting 'We could not activate Battlefield 3 on this computer using the Origin Account you provided', and deleting your old licenses in 'C:/ProgramData/Electronic Arts/EA Services/License/' didn't fix it, this should hopefully be the proper canonical fix for you.
I'm hoping EA will see this post and use the work to fix this, too! I felt obliged to kick this out the door after seeing this game's reviews severely impacted from this bug, which would be a really awkward thing to have its service cancellation hastened over, ya know?


DOWNLOAD:
Version 1.0[drive.google.com] (August 11 2023)
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if this triggers anticheat action. Here's what I know: I've tested it online for a few days seemingly fine, without kicks or anything, on a mix of servers. I simply don't have the power to guarantee anything here, is all.
If you're still nervous, playing singleplayer or non-PunkBuster servers until this is properly fixed should be totally safe, but it's still technically at your own risk!
(technical users, see below if you'd prefer to patch manually, same disclaimer)


INSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, replace 'awc.dll' with the one in the zip. Your next launch from Battlelog should Just Work (tm) if you were experiencing the bug.

UNINSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, extract 'awc.bak.dll' and rename it to 'awc.dll'.


Notes for technical users:
Manual patching: open awc.dll and change the byte at 0x3A55 from 74 to EB. That's it.
I had a particularly nasty case where even unlocking Origin and trying use it to activate didn't work. (This is most people's new fix suggestion as of July/August 2023)
It turns out what causes this bug is malformed motherboard IDs, and repairing this directly is probably beyond the reach of most players. (it requires OEM tools and can brick your motherboard, eep!)
The old-school activation screen appearing at all seems to be an post-mortem fail state, the UI can't ever actually solve the root problem. It's the launcher's job to make sure older titles like this are activated before actually launching them, it seems, and it's trying and missing the mark slightly.


>>NOTES FOR ELECTRONIC ARTS-- ENGINEERS, READ THIS!<<
'Machine Hashes' are not matching between the launchers creating auth files, and the client reading them.
In my case, after digging a bit and verifying how these worked a bit, bad, unloadable SMBIOS board information ('Win32_BaseBoard') caused machine-id generation to fall-back onto a different path with different ID sources (CPUID-based etc). This is likely where the old ea-core license code is mismatching versus the modern generation stuff.
On a separate machine where all these IDs were present and loaded properly, activation worked instantly with unmodified files, as expected.

I hope I used enough specific jargon/keywords, such that even an unfamiliar engineer could locate the relevant code and fix it quickly.

Everyone else, have fun playing (again)!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I thought I would never see Battlefield3 work again. I leave it on record here that now, everything is perfect! Thank you for the good will of "Jamie"!

[Odin-Senpai]

Hey there. Just tried your fix, and it didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. I've tried every other method barring downgrading to Origin as well, and I've yet to have any success. I just want to play some CTF, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[Kaiser Darius]

Originally posted by Odin-Senpai:

Hey there. Just tried your fix, and it didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. I've tried every other method barring downgrading to Origin as well, and I've yet to have any success. I just want to play some CTF, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

did you try the VU method? that one works every time

[The Flower of Battle]

Originally posted by QuantumBreaker:

Originally posted by Odin-Senpai:

Hey there. Just tried your fix, and it didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. I've tried every other method barring downgrading to Origin as well, and I've yet to have any success. I just want to play some CTF, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

did you try the VU method? that one works every time

I tried the fix from this post as well as your suggestion for VU. Nothing worked so far. The only fix I have left is this one:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2996510257

I'm hesitant to delete EA App and install Origin because I play Dragon Age Origins on EA App. I'm afraid that it'll affect the installation for it.

[Odin-Senpai]

Originally posted by QuantumBreaker:

Originally posted by Odin-Senpai:

Hey there. Just tried your fix, and it didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. I've tried every other method barring downgrading to Origin as well, and I've yet to have any success. I just want to play some CTF, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

did you try the VU method? that one works every time

I also tried the VU method, yeah. Nothing seemed to bypass the "failed key authentication" error.

[Kaiser Darius]

Originally posted by Odin-Senpai:

Originally posted by QuantumBreaker:

did you try the VU method? that one works every time

I also tried the VU method, yeah. Nothing seemed to bypass the "failed key authentication" error.

you need to be persistent with it, keep clicking VU icon after applying the argument and it'll eventually launch VU and your problem will be solved.

[fffreakyyy]

No I don't want to fix it why would I? It should work by default they just want to force people to play that cringe ass BF 2042 LMFAO !

[Kaiser Darius]

Originally posted by Itsfreakyyy:

No I don't want to fix it why would I? It should work by default they just want to force people to play that cringe ass BF 2042 LMFAO !

this happens mostly on new hardware if you run the game on an era-appropriate machine it works seamlessly fine. the some pieces of the game code need to be updated

[F888]

Originally posted by jamie:

Hi, I worked out what's been causing some significant portion of the EA/Origin activation issues, and am providing a fix for Battlefield 3 here!
If you're getting 'We could not activate Battlefield 3 on this computer using the Origin Account you provided', and deleting your old licenses in 'C:/ProgramData/Electronic Arts/EA Services/License/' didn't fix it, this should hopefully be the proper canonical fix for you.
I'm hoping EA will see this post and use the work to fix this, too! I felt obliged to kick this out the door after seeing this game's reviews severely impacted from this bug, which would be a really awkward thing to have its service cancellation hastened over, ya know?


DOWNLOAD:
Version 1.0[drive.google.com] (August 11 2023)
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility if this triggers anticheat action. Here's what I know: I've tested it online for a few days seemingly fine, without kicks or anything, on a mix of servers. I simply don't have the power to guarantee anything here, is all.
If you're still nervous, playing singleplayer or non-PunkBuster servers until this is properly fixed should be totally safe, but it's still technically at your own risk!
(technical users, see below if you'd prefer to patch manually, same disclaimer)


INSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, replace 'awc.dll' with the one in the zip. Your next launch from Battlelog should Just Work (tm) if you were experiencing the bug.

UNINSTALLATION:
In your 'Battlefield 3/Core' folder, extract 'awc.bak.dll' and rename it to 'awc.dll'.


Notes for technical users:
Manual patching: open awc.dll and change the byte at 0x3A55 from 74 to EB. That's it.
I had a particularly nasty case where even unlocking Origin and trying use it to activate didn't work. (This is most people's new fix suggestion as of July/August 2023)
It turns out what causes this bug is malformed motherboard IDs, and repairing this directly is probably beyond the reach of most players. (it requires OEM tools and can brick your motherboard, eep!)
The old-school activation screen appearing at all seems to be an post-mortem fail state, the UI can't ever actually solve the root problem. It's the launcher's job to make sure older titles like this are activated before actually launching them, it seems, and it's trying and missing the mark slightly.


>>NOTES FOR ELECTRONIC ARTS-- ENGINEERS, READ THIS!<<
'Machine Hashes' are not matching between the launchers creating auth files, and the client reading them.
In my case, after digging a bit and verifying how these worked a bit, bad, unloadable SMBIOS board information ('Win32_BaseBoard') caused machine-id generation to fall-back onto a different path with different ID sources (CPUID-based etc). This is likely where the old ea-core license code is mismatching versus the modern generation stuff.
On a separate machine where all these IDs were present and loaded properly, activation worked instantly with unmodified files, as expected.

I hope I used enough specific jargon/keywords, such that even an unfamiliar engineer could locate the relevant code and fix it quickly.

Everyone else, have fun playing (again)!

thanks

[AUGU$TO CE$AR™]

im gona try this ngl.

[-𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚔]

dudeeeee no way!!!!!!!! I LOVE U SO MUCH

[TRGLou]

finally something that really works, thank you so much. embarrassing for EA they cannot fix their own game

[gab]

Thank you so much, you really saved my game!!