Gitcha SecuROM de-authorization tools! Git'em ova hur!
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Apr 1st 2009 at 12:17PM } 
In the spirit of generosity, EA's giving you two options for managing your authorizations:
- Option 1: Download and install yet another "tool" in order to scan your computer for EA's SecuROM games and find out how many computer authorizations you have (or don't have) left for each title.
- Option 2: Cut to the chase and download the game-specific de-authorization tool you need.
Download links to specific de-authorization tools:
- Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Crysis Warhead
- Dead Space
- FIFA Manager 09
- FIFA Soccer 09
- Littlest Pet Shop
- The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
- Mass Effect
- Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
- Mirror's Edge
- MySims
- Need for Speed: Undercover
- NHL 09
- Spore
- Spore Creature Creator
- The Sims 2: Apartment Life
- The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
- The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff
[Via Big Download; image credit: redjar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Baron @ Apr 1st 2009 12:20PM
The fact that you can refund one of your activations doesn't change the fact that you have limited activations.
I break a lot of hard drives, how am I supposed to de-authorise games on a broken disc?
Zertoss @ Apr 1st 2009 12:25PM
The first step would probably be to stop breaking hard drives.
But yeah, I'm in the same boat as you, except that I don't want to reinstall any of those games that I own. I, as Justin puts it, solved those game tapes.
opifex @ Apr 1st 2009 12:24PM
Sort of... Pleasant.
Cosmo @ Apr 1st 2009 12:26PM
This is NOT an April Fools Day Joke right? If not, its quite good news for PC gamers, thank you EA!
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Apr 1st 2009 12:34PM
Like Baron said this is useless if your HDD fails...
aristokrat @ Apr 1st 2009 1:00PM
While I've had a couple of hard drives fail on me, it's definitely not a frequent occurence, and I'm definitely more mad about the irreplaceable stuff I've lost than some mere games. Perhaps you are buying cheap hard drives, in which case it's your fault for buying crap harware. Of all the nicer hard drives I've had, only 1 has ever failed. It's always been the crap drives that I can count on to quit early, which is why I don't use them.
Here's another protip: you shouldn't fill your HD more than 90% capacity, and it'll last much longer (I'm betting that that's your major problem).
aristokrat @ Apr 1st 2009 1:02PM
This HDD failing makes me wonder though, if you install to a mirrored RAID drive, can you remove one and play a separate instance on 2 different computers? Or de-authorize one and continue to play on another?
Slaziman @ Apr 1st 2009 3:08PM
It wouldn't work since the parts in your other computer are different
Bearxor @ Apr 1st 2009 3:21PM
I think it would depend on wether the hardware change would cause a problem for SecureROM requiring a reactivation. It would on Windows, for sure. If it doesn't, then what you're proposing is completely reasonable, provided you reactivate Windows after the hardware change.
daemon @ Apr 1st 2009 2:25PM
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember correctly, the RAID mirror drive thing aristokrat mentioned wont work, since when you install the game, it enters the information into the windows registry. There are ways around that, but it'd be difficult for a typical user to do.
Taking out a HDD and throwing it into another system just won't work, the information will be there, but anyhting required that was entered in the registry wont exist to run the game.
Will S @ Apr 1st 2009 6:53PM
I'll take you up on your offer.
Registry information has to live somewhere - it doesn't mysteriously float in some spiritual void. Assuming you have a single logical drive in the machine (be that one hard drive, this two-drive mirrored setup, or what have you), the registry information is written there as well. As is Windows, for that matter. The Windows registry is no different than anything else written to your hard drive, aside from its unfortunately ability to screw a great many things up with only minor errors and/or corruption.