Copy protection has failed

I've just installed patch 9.2 via Steam, loaded FM2009 via Steam, and tried to reload an old saved game (not my most recent). As soon as the game finishes loading, a warning box appears with the title 'Copy protection has failed'. The full message states "The copy protection system was unable to verify your copy of Football Manager. Please ensure you have a valid DVD in your drive when the game starts". I click on ok, the game exits. I have been playing for over a month without once encountering this problem before. What's worse, I now get this message when I try to load ANY of my saved games.

I do, of course, have a valid DVD in my drive when the game starts, and I activated my Steam account back on the 15th November. What's going on? :confused:

there is same problem I am

Weird. I thought we didn't even need the DVD to run FM09?

lol this is wad happens when ppl try to get fancy and sophisticated(sp??) with their product. good thing ive not updated my fm.

You don´t need a dvd in the drive when you registered and activated your game. Try to launch the game without the dvd in the drive. You may also try to launch the game directly and not via steam. Double click the fm.exe in the directory steam/steamapps/common/footballmanager/

You don´t need a dvd in the drive when you registered and activated your game. Try to launch the game without the dvd in the drive. You may also try to launch the game directly and not via steam. Double click the fm.exe in the directory steam/steamapps/common/footballmanager/

Do we have a real solution for this problem?

I'm getting this.

I installed from STeam. Product activated fine. Logs say it's all good. But, I get this 'no dvd' error every time I try to actually start a new game.

Have you tried launching from outside Steam?

I do, of course, have a valid DVD in my drive when the game starts, and I activated my Steam account back on the 15th November. What's going on? :confused:

Why would you need to activating Steam if you have a disc?

Because when you install from a DVD it asks you if you want to activate via steam or unlicoc. Even though you had the disk you still need an activation route. I picked steam personally but havent had the problmes the the OP has encountered.

Ah right, thanks.

Just had this error;

The copy protection system was unable to verify your copy of Football Manager. Please ensure you have a valid DVD in your drive when the game starts.

The other day when I went to load my game.

The game has worked perfectly fine since I got it and I only just played it a few days ago.

I've uninstalled, deleted every trace of FM, reinstalled and what not, patched back up to 9.03 and still get the same error.

Done this around 5 or 6 times now.

FM now looks to be bricked.

Like Matt said above for the issue a while back, have you tried running the game outside of Steam?

Yes, always have.

I've read over the thread, nothing works and its only just happened all of a sudden.

Game has worked fine from day dot, now its basically bricked.

I have given up playing FM09 on my PC all together - twice it has completely frozen up the PC (PC far exceeding recommended spec) and Windows will not restart afterwards - causing much frustration and reinstallation of Vista and all applications.

I have been able to play the game on a mac without trouble (just need to keep the disk in the drive - what a novel idea)

I've been playing CM/FM since version 1 on Atari STe - and this one really sucks - I'll probably try the next version but if there's not much improvement I'll think I'll give up on FM.

I have given up playing FM09 on my PC all together - twice it has completely frozen up the PC (PC far exceeding recommended spec) and Windows will not restart afterwards - causing much frustration and reinstallation of Vista and all applications.

I have been able to play the game on a mac without trouble (just need to keep the disk in the drive - what a novel idea)

I've been playing CM/FM since version 1 on Atari STe - and this one really sucks - I'll probably try the next version but if there's not much improvement I'll think I'll give up on FM.

I agree that the measured needed to play the game are ridiculous via activation methods. Defo the worst system ever used in the series.

FM 2010 is a make or break for myself as well, however none of it really applies to this thread nor the problems on hand. So best served elsewhere.

Is there a solution for this at the end of the day?

Cant really be bothered ****-farting about trying to get it to work when the issue seems to be activation, due to poor implementation.

I've done pretty much everything suggested around the place, numerous times. Still ends up being the same result.

Guessing no help then?

The installation and start up for FM2009 is absolutely ridiculous. It tooks me 4 hours to get FM working from when I go it out of the box. Stopping the game being pirated is fair enough but these massive failings for paying customers is inexcusable.

I've just installed patch 9.2 via Steam, loaded FM2009 via Steam, and tried to reload an old saved game (not my most recent).

I do, of course, have a valid DVD in my drive when the game starts, and I activated my Steam account back on the 15th November. What's going on? :confused:

If you have a valid dvd why are you having to load through steam?:confused: I also have a dvd and mine works fine and I don't even have steam installed. Have you tried downloading and installing the 9.3.0 patch instead of the 9.2.0 one?

I've just recently encountered the same problem with the copy protection which closes the application. I've tried a clean uninstall and subsequent reinstallation. Since the last cluster of replies to this thread, has anyone found or been given a solution to this problem, or is this another one which will remain unresolved?

Just add the key to steam and download the steam version that's already pre-updated.

I'm having the following problem with my Steam downloaded copy:

"The copy protection system was unable to verify your copy of Football Manager. Please ensure you have a valid DVD in your drive when the game starts."

I've read through all the post but cant find the solution.