Registration (SimCity.com) Solutions

[thy451 15]

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It appears that the official site has become a thing of the past...

If you're looking for the official game patch downloads, try this location.

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If you just need the SC4Update4BAT patch for night lights to function, try the SC4 Devotion site...

Use the EA Support button on the left side of the SC4Devotion home page. Then accept the user agreement to go to the Updates page. Scroll down to the BAT page link. The SC4Update4BAT patch is in the second listing.

You do need to have applied the EP1 game patch before applying the night patch. It can be found under the last link on the Updates page. However, you do not need to install the BAT or Gmax to apply the patch.

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REGISTRATION PROBLEMS AT SIMCITY.COM (OFFICIAL SITE)

The following article is created from several sources to help you if you encounter any registration problems.

1) USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATION

2) LOST REGISTRATION NUMBER

3) REGISTRATION PROBLEMS: NUMBER IN USE OR INVALID OR OTHER PROBLEMS

4) ACTIVATION EMAIL NEVER ARRIVED

5) SECOND HAND PRODUCTS

6) OTHER EA PRODUCTS

7) MACINTOSH VERSION

1) USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATIONEA Techincal Support questions - 1 Post

Site techsupport.ea.com

Email: mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com

Useful problem resolution tool - 1 Scan

SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe

Having your account activated: Priceless

For everything else there is:

http://www.Simtropolis.com

2) LOST REGISTRATION NUMBER

This refers to the event of you losing your registration number. Firstly, tidy up your room. Remember it is always locatd at the last place you search, unless you are the type of people that carries on searching even after finding the lost item.

There are three means of finding that lost registration number:

A) Product Registered

If you product registered on the official site:

- Click Register along the top of the site.

- Make sure you are logged in with your master account that has the game or whatever expansion pack you have.

- Click on add product numbers, it should show your serial number to that game.

B) Computer Registry

If you have not cleaned off the hard drive after uninstalling:

- Click Start > run > type in regedit

- In the Registry editor window

- Click: + next to hkey_local_machine

+ next to software

+ next to electronic arts

+ next to maxis(was just exposed)

+ next to the expansion pack that serial number was lost look in big window to the right. Next to word default is the serial number.

C) Fax Copy

You can copy or fax the top of the CD to Maxis and they will gladly send you a new serial number. Please DO NOT borrow friend's serial numbers. This is the legal way to get your own serial numbers.

3) REGISTRATION PROBLEMS: NUMBER IN USE OR INVALID OR OTHER PROBLEMS

Remember that registration is a two part process.

The registration process I recalled was quite complicated. If I remember it correctly, this is the process:

A) Register once on your computer by filling up the form after installation, which will then send a signal to the main site. Or if you did not register when prompted to during installation go to:

SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe

or

SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_eReg.exe

B) Then you have to register a second time also with the same key, which is at the back of your CD case at their official site.

C) Failure to do the first registration before the second will give you an error, invalid key message or maybe a comment that the number is in use.

D) Enter your email correctly and make sure it does not get directed to your junk folder. Click on the activation and you are done.

Again if you still have problems send an message to them. They solved, my problem within hours.

techsupport.ea.com

mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com

4) ACTIVATION EMAIL NEVER ARRIVED

if you did not receive your confirmation email either because it somehow was not sent or it was sent but somehow you or your computer system deleted it because they thought it was spam then simply contact EA. Activation email

should appear almost immediately, within a few minutes. If by the end of the day you still have not receive it then it is likely you need to contact EA for the activation.

Website:

techsupport.ea.com

Email:

mailto:account@Support.Ea.Com

[u[Phone: (If you are a child, ask you parents for permission)

(650) 628 - 4311 (M-F: 8.30-11.45 / 13.00-16.30 Pacific Standard Time)

You should have the EA Help utility Report printed and ready if you decide to make use of the phone call. Proceed to the main SimCity 4 location, the drive where you installed the game, rather than the on in the MyDocuments Folder:

SimCity 4 > Support > SimCity 4_EZ.exe

Snail Mail:

EA Technical Support

PO Box 9025

Redwood City, CA 94063-9025

If however you live outside the US, you should check the documentation (Install Guide) that came with the game to determine the local EA office in

your country.

5) SECOND HAND PRODUCTS

If you happen to purchase a second hand product. Make sure you get the account details from the person you purchase it from. I am not too sure whether would EA create a new account for you. I think you need to convince them that you are the true new owner of the product. Look above for the various means of contacting them. But ultimately remember this warning caveat emptor.

Remember it is your right to get the account from the seller because the

EULA specifically states that when one sells the product, one must sell it

with everything and not retain any portion of it, including the account.

6) OTHER EA PRODUCTS

I believe at least you can access the SimCity site and perhaps download (not too sure about the download part) stuff from SimCity site if you have purchased, registered and created an account for another Maxis product, for example The Sims.

7) MACINTOSH VERSION

If I am not wrong, Macintosh users can register and use the BBS. However, as far as I know, at this point, EA does not allow you to download the add-ons. Your best bet would be to hope that Aspyr to come out with their downloads.

Edit: Mac users can use the add-ons. Please see the "Get your Maxis files here" thread in the Mac forum. ~zel~

  Edited January 11, 2013 by CaptCity  

[Vlad788 13]

Thanks Thy451!

 

I'll keep that in mind.

 

The_New_Vlad

 

[mike3775 2]

Thanks for the info.

It sure will help others alot, like they helped me originally.

[huskerman007 26]

thanks that helped me

[John Skinner 0]

THX!, thy451

[SimAnt 4]

The confirmation email never arrived for me, and after waiting several weeks, I told EA to cancel my account so I can make a new one using the same serial number and the next day, it worked fine.

I guess a request for closing your account (provided there arn't any other game serials in there) then creating a new one without getting a new serial number will help others with registration.

[simbuilder 1]

Thanks for the info, even though i had no problems registering. But has anybody been able to use the terrain generator thingy, because i can't

[Frogshi 0]

For me? Thank you!

[Fit Fire 0]

Well I still havent gotten my confermation email for registering at EA. Nor my activation email for my account at simcity.ea.com so I can become a product member. Just gota wait it out, or probably buy another copy of simcity to get a new CD Key.

[-00-Matt 0]

Yeah that happened to both me and my friend where the conformation email was not sent. So I sent the tech support an email. They asked me a few simple questions and activated my account. I told my friend to do the same. With-in 3 hours we both had our accounts ready to go. I think maxis/ea should look into that email bug.

[Fit Fire 0]

At least EA's tech support is good and quick compared to others. I was surprised at how fast it took them to fix my problem.

[+Guest]

This post was done by accident.

[Lady of the Roses 0]

Aahhh!!

thanks that was actually just the information I needed!!

[Ben E Gas 0]

this was a very useful thread. It saved me from ripping out my hair. The simcity.com website needs a lot of work. That site gives you no help what-so-ever. Thank you, THY, for helping us out with the correct info. The EA staff was very quick to respond, and solved my problem. But trying to find how to reach them was a headache until I saw this thread.

thanks,
Ben E. Gas

[pajamas 0]

Can i just register my Rush Hour Game without registering with tje original game?

[bobhiltner 2]

As a Mac user, thy451

[ChrisNewton 0]

found this thread to be very useful
HOWEVER, cant register at all
SimCity 4_EZ appears to report game errors only
still filled it in, but it wont send the email, needs MAPI application or something

Also, if I try to email account support my email just gets bounced back saying they no longer accept free web-based email (ie. Hotmail and Yahoo) and I have no other email accounts

So is there any work arounds for the email problem? (ie. anyone know of a free email service that ea will allow thro)

One frustrated and annoyed
ChrisNewton

[LegodragonXP 0]

I found that if I registered with the website, but not using my game keys, it worked. If I added my game keys in the setup of the account I never got the email.

-Lego

[tri 3]

Apparently they don't accept "free form e-mail", which I assume means they don't allow folks to e-mail them anymore, I guess. That's silly. Nothing here has worked, and I really would like the Lot Editor. This is frustrating.

[thy451 15]

When 'web-based' emails are not allowed, it usually means that the larger and more popular ones such as yahoo or hotmail are not allowed. Just search around and try to look for a less well known web-based email. They are unable to program in all web-based only emails given the huge amount. So search for a less well known account.

[simmax 0]

It was really helpful .

Thanks. Merci. Gracias. Grazie.

[a0z1 3]

thank you thank you thank you! ive been waiting a month for confirmation email....

[mctommyp 0]

Thank you
so the solution is basically NOT to use a webmail account? (doh!)

[Charizard 284]

Can you give us some websites that are not free form e-mail sites to maxis?

[MKenseth17 0]

I have a Verizon ISP and email account, which is not to be confused with yahoo or hotmail, and I still haven't been able to register becasue the confirmation email never came. So I have no clue what's going on, but I sent a nice polite email to the email address that was mentioned in the original post (thank you very much), we'll see what happens and if they try to fix it for me. This is actually my second copy, the first one, I bought a year ago and couldn't register that one either but I forgot and gave up on it. Now, I bought the Deluxe, even though I only needed the Rush Hour, just to be able to register it, and I still can't. Pretty frustrating.

[TreverSlyFox 0]

If your frustrated with EA Games Tech Support you'll love this!

I registered SimCity4 Deluxe when I loaded the game with their online link. I registered at SimCity4.com on the 14th of November. I still hadn't received the SimCity4 site activation e-mail on November 16th so I contacted EA Technical Support with SimCity4_EZ.exe that's supplied with the game. On November 17th I got an Auto-reply e-mail that acknowledge my request for support and said I'ed be contacted within 24 hours. Then waited cause I need to download that one .dat file so some buildings show up.

Yesterday, November 22, I got a Customer Satisfaction Survey from EA Games wanting to know how I rated their Technical Support in their handling of my problem. Needless to say I rated them at the LOWEST marks because I've NEVER been contacted by a Technical Support Representative yet and it's been 6 days. They give you a comment section at the bottom of the survey form and I explained that Technical Support HASN'T contacted me yet and the problem STILL continues.

I also sent a reply to the Technical Support Auto-reply e-mail, there's a place to update your Support request, telling them about the survey and my answers and response to it.

Now we'll wait and see if anything happens, if not my next step is going to be a snail-mail to the main office of EA Games.

NOT a Happy Customer of EA Games!

Edited UPDATE: November 23, at 6:05 PM Just received an e-mail that my account has been manualy activated, tried it and it now works. Hmmmm maybe the comments on that Customer Satisfaction Survey worked.

[iMacWin95 0]

----------------

On 8/14/2003 10:08:26 AM thy451 wrote:

Computer Registry

If you have not cleaned off the hard drive after uninstalling:

- Click Start > run > type in regedit

- In the Registry editor window

- Click: + next to hkey_local_machine

         + next to software

         + next to electronic arts

         + next to maxis(was just exposed)

         + next to the expansion pack that serial number was lost look in big window to the right. Next to word default is the serial number.

 

----------------

I'll state this in the only way I can show the importance of this:
DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE VALUES IN THE REGISTRY! DOING SO COULD DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER! And there's my twenty dollars (

[rdu-steve 0]

Well, I am now in the same boat as SlyFox.  I want to use the awsome lots that are on this site, but cant without the files from Simcity.com.  I go there and get the run-around on "product registering"; it says my key code is invalid or already in use.  Of course it's in use, BY ME!!!  I know I have done this stuff already, because I download the RH patch.  So if I wait about a week, they'll send me a survey to complain on so they can burn their tech support guys.

 

Something weird about the tech support site, Simcity is not mentioned at all, anywhere.  It's like Simcity is their forgotten red-headed step-child.  Very annoying, but I guess they know we're addicted to their great game and we'll buy whatever they put out.

[rdu-steve 0]

Well it seems that they have updated the EA tech support site to include Simcity.  But they will not respond to my emails.

 

They originally sent an auto-response saying they would not respond to my yahoo address, their email volume reason is BS; they know that people like me use that as a registration email to avoid spam.  So I email from my regular email (not a freebie email) and they send me back a form to reply with all my account info.  Now Im getting happy, thinking I might get somewhere.  I fill out their form and send it back; today I get the same response of  "Unfortunately, we do not answer email directly from this email address"  THEN HOW DID YOU SEND ME THE FORM

 

I know some of you have gotten good support from EA but after two weeks of just auto-response crap, all I can say is their support sucks.

[Ash 0]

Is it possible for some one else to use your games code thingy and say it is theirs.Because for my copy of the sims i could'nt get on the ea site. That is what i suspect has happened im never going to use their site for the sims because someone else is me!