Re-Enter CD KEY after Windows Restart

[ApolloX]

Anytime I start Unreal Tournament 3 after a Windows restart, I have to re-enter the CD key. Before you all jump on possible fixes consider the following facts:

• My "My Documents" folder is not on C:. I've tried using the "-nohomedir" flag with no change. I've also tried reinstalling multiple times from suggestions on this forum with changes to how/where the "My Documents" folder is. Also does not work.
• After I enter the CD key it comes up with an error "The password is an invalid length..." and makes me re-enter my gamespy login password. I've tried creating a completely new account with a new password, also no change.
• The "invalid password" error only comes up if auto-login is enabled and always immediately after a CD key request. If I turn off auto-login, it does not come up, but the CD key request is unchanged.
• After entering the CD key, I can close and restart Unreal without having to enter it again. It comes back if the computer is restarted as does the invalid password message.

I had this problem in XP, recently upgraded to Vista. The problem occurred identically in both. I'm getting sick of it though, and this close to just throwing the game away. This makes a strong case for why people pirate games.

[ApolloX]

Not one person has seen this before and knows a solution?

[JD2]

The solution to this problem is to find your UTEngine.ini file and make sure that it is not set to read-only. Also make sure that the NTFS file permissions set for the UTEngine.ini file allow your Windows user account to write to it. Once you have done that, open the UTEngine.ini file in a text editor and find the "EncryptedProductKey=" line. Then delete that line and save the UTEngine.ini file. The next time you run the game you will be prompted for your key, but it should save the value if you enter it successfully.

[ApolloX]

Did not work. I checked the UTEngine.ini file and a new EncryptedProductKey was added to the file, but after a Windows restart, the request for the cd key still came up.

[JD2]

Then try deleting the existing UTEngine.ini file and run the game again. Enter your CD key, login, and then exit the game and relaunch it to see if it saved the changes.

The only time I have ever seen this not work is when there was another "EncryptedProductKey" entry in the UTEngine.ini in addition to the valid one, and deleting that extra EncryptedProductKey line fixed the problem.

after a Windows restart, the request for the cd key still came up

That sounds like a file permissions problem. Are you always trying to run the game from the same user account and does your user account have write permissions to UTEngine.ini?

There are two ways to run UT3. That normal way and using "UT3.exe -nohomedir". Using "-nohomedir" everyone (all user accounts) uses the same configuration files including UTEngine.ini which are stored in the UTGame\Config subdirectory where UT3 is installed. However, the user account running the game must have read and write permissions to the files in that subdirectory. You should try using "-nohomedir" to run the game, but make sure you have write permissions to all subdirectories where the game is installed. I personally don't use Vista but I think it restricts write access to everything under "Program Files" by default for non-administrator accounts so you may have to change NTFS security permissions for the UT3 subdirectory.

[KnowItAllDM]

My brother is having the same problem. If you get it fixed, let me know how.

[ApolloX]

Upgrading to version 2.0 (the black version) seemed to make it go away. Epic (as well as this forum) was useless for help though. None of the solutions worked.