Overview
*UPDATE: Nov 2017 – It has come to my attention from some people adding me that the methods I describe here no longer work properly on Windows 10. I have stopped getting Error 101 on Windows 10 as well so this guide may be obsolete*After hours of troubleshooting I finally figured out the fast and easy way to fix the Error 101 bug that happens when you try to create an account on ESO.Conditions for this guide:-You recentely bought a new copy of Age of Empires III Complete Edition on Steam-You tried to create an ESO account and were told the CD-key was already in use but that’s impossible
Error 101 Known Causes
There are three known causes for Error 101
1. You received a bad CD-key from valve and need to acquire a new one from Microsoft Support
2. You had a previous copy of Age of Empires 3 installed and forgot the login info tor that account or lost the CD or for some reason can’t play it and that registry entry is interfering with the steam game.
3. You are not properly connecting to the ESO servers, again you need to contact Microsoft Support
Your PID, What is it? How to find it?
Your PID or Product Identifaction code is a unique ID generated by the game after you enter your CD-key. It is not the same as your CD-key.
You can find your PID in one of two ways. If you need to contact support you will have to give them this number.
1. If your game can run open the basic version of the game (not either of the expansions) and go to Help & Tools > About
A long number should appear on the screen in one of the corners, this is your PID
2. (Probably easier).
-Go to your start menu and run a program (different location depending on windows ver), type regedit.exe and push enter.
– In the left panel go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Wow6432Node > Microsoft > Microsoft Games > age of empires 3 > 1.0
– In the right panel look for PID REG_SZ : #####-###-#######-##### ., where # is the digits of your PID.
-Record this number somewhere
Fix for Cause #1: Bad CD-KEY
If you have never installed a copy of Age of Empires 3 before then this is probably the reason you cannot create an ESO account.
Before you contact support try this
– Go to the game in the steam games list, right click > proprites. go to the local files tab, click ‘verify integriy of game cache files’.
-Sometimes this has been known to resolve the issue if your CDKEY as marked as as bad key by the steam replacement key script that was implemented last December
-If it does not work go to agecommunity.com/support.aspx and follow the instructions to create a support ticket.
– Provide them with your PID and tell them that you are having Error 101 and are sure you do not have another copy of the game. Inform them you could not automaticaly recover the CDKEY throug hsteam as well.
Fix for Cause #2 – Previous Copy of AOE3
If you have previously installed a copy of AOE3 and are no longer able to play it for some reason – hence why you bought the steam version, then the steam version is looking at the old registry entry for your old copy’s CDKEY. This means that it already has an account that may be attached to an e-mail so old you can’t recover it.
Follow these steps to correct the issue.
-Exit steam and make sure AOE3 is closed.
-Go to your start menu and run a program (different location depending on windows ver), type regedit.exe and push enter.
– In the left panel go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Wow6432Node > Microsoft > Microsoft Games > age of empires 3 > 1.0
– In the right panel look for DigitalProductID | REG_BINARY | some very long number in format of ## ## ## ## ## ## – right click on the entry and select ‘Delete’, say yes to any warnings
– In the right panel look for PID | REG_SZ | #####-###-#######-##### ., where # is the digits of your PID – right click on the entry and select ‘Delete’, say yes to any warnings
– In the left panel go to HKEY_LOCAL_USER > Software > Microsoft > Microsoft Games > age of empires 3 > 1.0 – right click on the 1.0 folder and select ‘Delete’, say yes to any warnings
-Restart Steam and launch the base copy of the game – it should ask you accept the EULA and re-enter your CDKEY again.
**If for some reason this did not work, you will need to delete the local game files as well in order to re-enter your CDKEY**
Fix for Cause #3 – Cannot Contact ESO Servers
Sometimes you may not be able to make an account because while you can connect to the server you are not passing authentication.
Follow these steps to fix the problem
– Go to your control panel and open windows firewall
– Check the list of rules to see if AOE3 is in the list. If it is ensure that it has access to the following ports
o 2300-2310 TCP
o 2300-2310 UDP
o 80 TCP & UDP
-If it does not add one for both incoming and outgoing connections
** If you do not know how to use Windows Firewall go to the apporiate link for your version of Windows below**
Windows 8 – [link]
Windows 7 – [link]
Windows XP – [link]
– If this did not allow you create an ESO account then there is a conectivity problem relating to your CDKEY itself in which case you actually have cause #1 or #2, please look at those for how to fix the issue.