Hmmm everything was working fine until....

Help needed people...

I was one of the lucky ones who bought the game and managed to install no problems.

Then after the latest patch it would not play so i had to search for hours to find a solution and discovered that it now needed to be played windowed.

So, after sorting that and taking Newcastle to the top of the Prem, 7 games into my fourth season, i saved and shut down the computer.

Woke up the next day and now its saying the product needs activating.

Hmmm....

Tried to activate when i clicked on STEAM and it says no need to activate it already is.

When i try to load it takes me to the online activation and gives me error code 51.

Help please....

I really do hope lessons have been learnt this time around, the people who actually bought the game are the ones suffering, all this hassle just takes the shine off the game.

How do i get my legal copy of FM to work now, what now do i need to do to get this once working fine game, working fine again.

This whole STEAM thing and protection issue just spoils the game for hardcore fan who like myself have bought this game since Amiga days, every year.

Anyway...what is wrong now? any ideas? what does the error code mean now and how do i get it to work again?

Thanks

hope this helps

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=63556&highlight=error

Error: You are receiving the Error [-51] / [-52] message

Fix: You need to delete the certificates and re-activate the game

1) On receiving the error, please uninstall the game

2) Please navigate to the following directory:

XP users: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009 Certificate

Vista users: C:\Program Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009 Certificate

3) Please ensure that it is the \certificate directory you are located in

4) Delete all content

5) Reboot the machine

6) Re-run the installation program and retry activation - ensuring you have 'verified' your key using the following website: http://keylookup.fm2009.softanchorinsight.com/

7) You should now be activated

Note: If the above does not fix it – please check the following:

* C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data is not set to read only.

* Also check that C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sports Interactive and C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009 Certificate are not set to read only!

To check if a file or folder is read only, please right click the folder and select ‘Properties’ from the dropdown, you should the see a box at the bottom called Attributes – please ensure this is unticked or does not have a green square inside.

* Another way it could happen is if there is another instance of FM.exe or Activator.exe holding onto our certificate. In this case - the user should check the process list to see if another instance of FM.exe is open. If so - close it first.

To do this you need to open Task Manager (right click TaskBar, or CTRL+ALT+DEL), sort the Image Name column by clicking on it and identifying if Activator.exe or FM.exe are running. If they are highlight and click ‘End Task’

Cheers for reply mate, tried but no joy, spent just as much time trying to play this game as i have playing.

Is there a customer support number ?

This is sickening me to death all this messing on.