Help Installing - Damaged DVD

[newbling]

Hi,

I have a serious problem. My DVD was damaged somehow (actually through the stupidity of a friend :\) and I don't have half life 2 installed right now.

but I want to play CS:S again, so installing it is my goal!

now the problem is, that when I log into steam with the steam id I played with, before all bad things happened, I only see half life 2 demo in "my games".

So I click on Games/"activate a product on steam" which pops up a box where I can insert my CD Key!

Here's the problem: after typing my cd key into the box I get the message
"please install half life 2 standard before continuing. Insert the DVD or CD into drive ....."


Hell! Please! I just want to activate and download it with my valid CD KEY!

how can this be done? My original DVD is irreparable

Please help.

kind regards

 

[Chris D]

http://www.scratch-busters.co.uk/euro/ -- Try this company. They may be able to repair your disc.

However, it seems as though you must have logged into the wrong Steam account. If you've installed the game before then it will always be tied to that Steam account. Log into the correct account and you should find HL2 there.

 

[newbling]

Thanks, but

Hi, Thanks for your answer.

As I tried to make clear: the DVD is irreparable. It's deformed through heat!

And I'm absolutley sure, that I used the steam account I played HL2 as well as CS:S with.

No Luck!

Any other ways? I just returned from my local video rent-store to rent a copy just for the installation - BUT HELL! They don't have HL2 anymore! only the new stuff like quake4, b&w 2, etc. etc.
So what can I do?

 

[newbling]

Just a thought: Is it possible to download the 'Half Life 2 Demo' which I see in 'my games' and then activate it to the full version with my original CD-Key?
I see that the demo needs about 4GB of disk space - that seems complete.

Any help?

 

[Tomarru]

Look, you can't pull our leg, steam works like this, you register a key once, it unlocks the games for play, those games are tied directly to the account, they dont magically disappear when you log out and back in.

If you log in with the right account the games will be there for download. The CD-Key is useless once its been registered, theres nothing to do but log in with the accound its already been tied to.

 

[Chris D]

Look, you can't pull our leg, steam works like this, you register a key once, it unlocks the games for play, those games are tied directly to the account, they dont magically disappear when you log out and back in.

If you log in with the right account the games will be there for download. The CD-Key is useless once its been registered, theres nothing to do but log in with the accound its already been tied to.

Newbling, Tomarru is right.

You DO have another Steam account somewhere that has those games on.

In Steam, if you're logged in, click on File > Change User...

When the log in box comes up, click on "Retrieve a lost account..."

Click on "I don't know my account name"

Click on "I remember the CD key I used"

Enter the CD key in and it will then send an e-mail to the registered e-mail address on the account that CD key is tied to.

Then check ALL of your e-mail accounts. Hotmail, ISP, school, work or any e-mail accounts you have. You should find an e-mail giving you the correct account name.

Use this to sign in. If you can't remember your password, follow a similar procedure to get that reset.

If it doesn't turn up in any e-mail accounts, use the other option which is "I remember the contact e-mail address I used".

Again, try your home, work, school, college, ISP, hotmail, gmail, yahoo absolutely every e-mail account you've ever used in recent years one by one. It should send e-mails to all of the ones you've ever used on Steam. See if any of these e-mails mention any account names other than the one you're using.

 

[newbling]

I'm sorry. so sorry. it's my fault.
I do have another account, I logged in, all games are there!
But here's the next problem. I'm sitting since yesterday night in front of my pc, pressing enter.
when I select "install game" I _ALWAYS_ get the message:
The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request. Please try again in a few minutes.

I tried. I waited. I tried. I waited minutes, seconds.. hours! (in 30 minutes even days!)
Always the same message.
What can I do?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

hmmmm, happens usually as a problem of your end, you may have a firewall or such blocking the steam ports to download the content for those games. Let steam through.

If this also doesn't work, delete the file in the steam folder called 'clientregistry.blob' Steam will make a new one when you restart it, and should refresh your steam server connections. Thoroughly check your firewall settings and computer protection before doing this however.

 

[newbling]

If this also doesn't work, delete the file in the steam folder called 'clientregistry.blob' Steam will make a new one when you restart it, and should refresh your steam server connections. Thoroughly check your firewall settings and computer protection before doing this however.

hey. this is great. that worked!
I just woke up to try it at 5am o'clock. no luck - But I checked the board - gooood!

so I deleted the clientregistry, started steam, entered the password and the bad message is gone. It's loading!! omg yeah.. what a feeling after nearly three days of trouble.

thank you very much for your help.
and thanks for your patience with me!
I really appreciate this.

bye

 

[Chris D]

No problem

I hope you'll enjoy your stay in the community!