Invalid Serial Number

Overview

A quick fix for the “Serial Number is incorrect” error.

What Happened?

Sometime during Steam’s change to the ACF format, Steam forgot how to write serial numbers in the correct place. End result is that the game cannot validate your key. Put simply, Steam screwed up, but the fix is fairly simple.

The Easy Fix

As always, it is important to note that you should be VERY CAREFUL about editing your registry. Only do a change if you understand what you are doing and understand that making a mistake can be detrimental to your machine. You do this at your own risk.

• Click Start.
• Select Run if using Windows XP.
• Enter “REGEDIT” with no quotes and hit enter. You can use the searchbar in Windows Vista or Windows 7
• • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeTechlandXpandRally (For 64-bit Systems)
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareTechlandXpandRally (For 32-bit Systems)
• Right-Click on (Default) and select MODIFY
• Copy the contents of “Value Data” and paste them into notepad.
• Right click on empty space in the main window and select NEW then String Value
• Name the new entry as “SerialNumber” with no quotes.
• Right-Click on “SerialNumber” and paste your key in.

Should you not have a key listed in the (Default) string, you can also use the following key provided by Techland instead: LCWCR-EXEW7-TXCL9-XCK49-XRFWY

The above key was provided by Techland in the event that newer purchasers didn’t get one when buying the game. Since the game is no longer buyable (at least in the North American region), this shouldn’t be the case for most people.

By doing it this way, you don’t have to worry about keeping a support e-mail from Techland around every time you want to install it, and Steam (albeit half-***ed) still stores your own legally licensed key.

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