WoW cd key help?

[tahoe51]

(NOTE: i have very bad spelling due to overuse of firefoxes spell check. im on a new computer and dont have it installed yet dont flame me for it)

Normaly i would steer clear of asking questions of any kind on most fourms due to the large ammount of trolls but i need help BAD and the escapist looks like a site thats a step above the rest. My problem (as far as i can tell) is simple. A few years ago i got vanilla WoW and the buring crusade and installed them on my older brothers computer, unfortunatly i was a horible system and crashed constantly so i eventaly gave up and quit. its been a few years now and i just got a brand new custom PC and wrath/cat but ive run into a problem. my old cd keys for vanilla and BC are now invalid beacuse they were previously regesterd. Can i just go and upgrade my current trial account via online upgrade and still use the old disks or do i have to buy totaly new ones?

thanks in advance for any help, Tahoe51

 

[SenseOfTumour]

As far as I know, the cd keys merely unlock the game to your account, so long as you have your user name and password, you'll be able to install everything then log in as normal... you don't need the cd keys after first use, they're used up when you first create your wow account.

If you're stuck for your user name or password however, you'l have to call Blizzard, and you'll probably get far further if you ever paid for game time by card, as they'll have your card, name and address on account.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

In short, last time I reinstalled WOW, I just put in the EIGHT cds and then the lich king DVD, in order, and then logged in, no need for cd keys.

If all goes well, the only bad news is the horrifying patches you'll be in stoer for, they essentially patched everyone's game to Cataclysm level, whether you own it or not

Oh and if you're on a europe server, feel free to start up again over on Aggramar, horde side, we always welcome new faces

Just /who pilots and ask for a guild invite

 

[tahoe51]

thats the thing, im on a totaly new account and have no idea what my old password was. i know theres an option to upgrade a trial account to a regualar wow account and from a regular wow account to a BC account if your willing to pay for it would that option work for me?

 

[RandallJohn]

I agree with the above, and I'd also add that if you need to contact Blizzard, don't hesitate to do so... from my experience, they've got amazing customer service.

Also, welcome to The Escapist. You're right, these forums are pretty great.

EDIT: If it's a password thing, they can recover that for you. In that case, you'd probably need your CD key, just to verify it's you.

 

[tahoe51]

yep looks like im going to be downloading thoes patches all night (darn slow internet) but im also trying to get that "recruit a friend" bounus and it would be great if i could just buy some new keys to upgrade my account from blizzard rather then try to recover a two year old account.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

If you had WOW & BC on an account, it SHOULD still be on their system, as an 'inactive' account. Try phoning them during regulr hours, you'll find the info on the oficial site, and make sure you have everything to hand, cd keys, the credit card you used to pay for game time on (if you did), that kind of thing, and a rough time of when you started and quit.

I don't know but I imagine the cd key would be enough, then you'd just need to prove you were the owner.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

It should work if you're using the same account as the one you originally used. If you forgot the password, recover it or rebuy your games.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

It's all sorts of different now. You can recover you game simply by registering on the NEW battlenet. ALl you need is whatever email you used the first time you registered wow and you can download the game client right off of the website. I just went through this all a few months ago and once I remembered what email and old password i used 6 years ago it was actually all really easy to get everything back. Worst comes to worst you can always just call and talk to a rep during business hours. Blizz staff is usually very helpful. With 11 million ppl playing im sure they deal with this all of the time, especially around holidays and with the release of cataclysm.

 

[tahoe51]

ok, so this is sort of a diffrent question now. i have been trying to recover my old account for a while now but no matter what i do it wont work. can i just go to the store, buy new vanila and BC disks and use the keys from thoes without having to reinstall?

 

[[.redacted]]

ok, so this is sort of a diffrent question now. i have been trying to recover my old account for a while now but no matter what i do it wont work. can i just go to the store, buy new vanila and BC disks and use the keys from thoes without having to reinstall?

Contact blizzard, have you ever heard someone complain about their customer service?

The reality is, they are humans, and you are a £10/month drip of money to them, it's them who lose out if they can't help you, they will do everything they can.

Good luck.

 

[tahoe51]

belive me i have been trying all day they must be swamped beacuse im geting hour long hold times every time i call. At this point all i want is for it to work without having to reinstal that gigantic pach. (witch in and of its self has been hell to install on my slow internet.) if i can just use some diffrent cd keys without having to use there disks thats fine with me. i just need to know if the keys are attached to each disk or if i can just go buy some new cd's and use there keys to upgrade my account without a massive reinstall.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Sorry to say it, but there'll be some massive, massive patches whatever you do, even if you bought the Wrath expansion...

The only way to dodge the biggest patch I'd say would be getting Cataclysm too, as that should bring you bang up to date, but without that I think you're looking at about 5gb of patches at least.

 

[Coldie]

1. If you want to install from disks, remember that each expansion includes all previous content, so start at Cataclysm and the patching will be minimal. If you start with Wrath, you're looking at 6-8 GB of patches.
2. Or you can just download the streaming client from the site. Even though the entire download will be something like 15 GB, you will be able to enter the game after you've downloaded just a fraction of that and the game will stream the rest in background. Early "Yellow" will likely be borderline unplayable, though.