FSX Product Key - Damaged Disc Dilemna...Please Help!

[Guest Scratch1964]

I wondered if a fellow AVSim member might be able to advise me over a query I have with FSX discs and the 25 digit product key/serial number.I am the proud owner of FSX deluxe, which I bought back in March from a licensed eBay power seller in Singapore. The product is made in Singapore, perfectly genuine, arrived sealed, registered online and worked fine. However, I noticed one very frustrating thing with disc number one. There was two small cracks in this DVD disc running from the centre hole out towards the foil playing surface. I more or less ignored it at the time as I only neede disc one for installation, and bearing mind that everything installed OK plus the consideration of cost involved in shipping the discs, case etc from UK to Singapore. I decided to stick with it.Over the weekend I had to reinstall FSX due to upgrading to Vista. Only the second time I ever had the FSX DVD out of the case and the crack seems to have spread just to the edge of the foil playing surface, thus rendering it unreadable.Got in touch with the guy in Singapore..."No problemo" he said. "Send it back to me and i'll replace the defective disc. The question is, if I get only disc one replaced and keep disc two and the serial number of the old product will I be able to install as before, or will I receive an error of "Wrong serial number" or "Wrong Disc" etc? How about registering online too? If I send the whole DVD boxed product to Singapore it will cost several Bucks to do so.Other than that can I deal with it via Microsoft, or any other body/retailer in UK?What should I do here?Please adviseScratch1964

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

Wait until you get the new disc from this guy and you'll be all set. Product Key is independent of pressed discs as long as you have the correct product to go with your key.

[victorwest2 0]

How did you manage to install it originally without disk 1?I would contact MS UK and let them know the situation. I'm sure they will try their best to be helpful

[soaring_penguin 428]

Hello,I would be very suspicious.This is not normal behavior for genuine software CD/DVDs, looks to me like you have a pirated copy in your hands.1. it is very rare cracked DVDs leave the factory. Scratched, yes, (HALO III scratched in the box) but cracked disks should not pass the checking.2. I can confirm formally (4 installs now) : you need disc 2. If you don't need any of both disks, this is fishy.3. I believe in such cases, the reseller would send you to Microsoft to get a new copy, not change it himself (just happened with me, I have some bad memory and had to contact the manufacturer directly to get it exchanged).4. eBayOf course, I could be wrong. I hope you get this solved.Jan

[soaring_penguin 428]

reread your post, forget point 2, you probably meant you need that disc 1 at only one time : during installation. Of course you needed both discs ... .But that does not change anything about my other remarks.Jan

[Guest Scratch1964]

The cracks in disc one are actually as a result of placing the disc back on to the spindle in the DVD case. They are always a tight fit at the best of times, but this particular disc must have split when it was pressed on to the spindle. Unless, of course, this is damage that occurred in transit.I may try to contact Microsoft in UK to resolve the problem. I just want to take the simplest and cheapest option ideally.Scratch1964

[vgbaron 3,612]

>I may try to contact Microsoft in UK to resolve the problem. I>just want to take the simplest and cheapest option ideally.>I think this is your best bet. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. They may offer a free or low cost replacement. They may tell you to contact the vendor. They might tell you that your copy is a forgery. Either way, you are ahead of the game.VicQ6600 G0 CPU 2.4 o/c 3.6Evga 680i A1 with P30 BIOS 2G XP2-8500 DDR2 1066FSB Mushkin 996535 RAM 5-5-4-12-2T320G 7200 HD partitioned for XP/Vista/Programs 2 - 74G Raptors in RAID0 500G 7200 HD for backup SATA DVD burner Evga 8800GTS 640 PCIx Kandalf LCS case w/ built in liquid cooling 850W Thermaltake power supplyVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-supporter-sigbanner.jpgRadar Contact Supporter: http://www.jdtllc.com/

[Guest Scratch1964]

Have contacted Microsoft UK and am currently awaiting their reply.I must say, however, the copy I have I would by extremely surprised if it is a counterfeit. They guy that sold it, sells thousands of games and claims to be an authorised seller of Microfsoft products. The one I received was sealed with the original Microsoft seal of authenticity, and has all trademarks of an original product.It appears that either the DVD was damaged in transit or has been split by applying pressure, or "forcing" it on to the DVD spindle. I have many EAgames titles at home and I often find they are very stubborn when removing them from their cases. The CDs/DVDs sem to fit so tightly in some cases that one almost has to bend the disc to remove it. Nonetheless, I have never actually seen a disc split from the centre outwards like theis before.Scratch1964

[Guest tmilton]

I have had one previous experience of having a DVD disk cracked in the same manner as you mentioned. I bought a game from Best Buy last year and when I opened it at home, I discovered a crack running from the center hole and running about one fourth of the length to the outside edge of the disk.When I attempted to take out the disk from the spindle to examine it further, it was wedged so tightly on the spindle that I could see the crack start to spread when I tried to apply a bit more force in order to free it.Afraid of increasing the damage to the disk and possibly even completely cracking it, I gave up and returned the DVD to Best Buy. They promptly gave me a replacement. The replacement DVD had no crack, and this time was easy to take out of its spindle.So I think you're definitely right, a tight fit on the spindle can increase pressure on the disk construction material and even cause cracks.

[jkeye 152]

Similar story to tell.My year old FSX copy (disc 2) got discoloured and wouldn't install on my new PC.took the PC and disc back to pc world.They tried another disc-still wouldn't install!Finally only a third set of discs worked (new serials).Said some batches of discs are faulty.get new discs and serials -in case you need to activate twiceregardsJay

[Guest Scratch1964]

I sympathise with you guys experiencing problems. Unfortunately, in my case the only item of sotfware I buy from outside Europe turns out to be faulty. I still have the offer to return it to the guy in Singapore, but may wait to hear from Microsoft and see what they offer to do.Isn't it horrible being without FSX!!!!!!Just as well FS9 is still a good sim. Will have to catch up with some of my favourite old addonsScratch1964