I installed BF3 last night. When it was done I tried to play it. I can log into Origin and see my games. BF 3 is one of them. But it will not load the game. It comes up with a validation screen and asks for my product key...again...for the second time. Then it comes up and tells me my key is invalid. The game is brand new. I bought it on release day and its sat on my desk for the past 3-4 weeks while I put my new rig together.

I can't seem to find any answers on EA's site and I can't seem to find any way to contact anyone there. So, does anyone have any leads? God, EA svcks; this is my last game purchased through them.

There has to be a typo somewhere, although I have to say I'm nervous now because I have a copy of BF3 waiting to be installed too. I once had a problem with a product key myself, but I think that's because someone used one of those key generators. I never did get my free copy of Half Life 2.

There isn't a typo because it asked me to enter the product key when I originally installed it. Even so, if there was a typo how do I re-enter it? It asks me to enter it and when I click the button it just goes to validation. I hate EA so much right now. I have a legal copy of the game and can't play it.

I've had severe issues with Origin. First it wouldn't accept the password for my account as valid, in spite of typing it exactly as I had during account registration. I tried reseting my password and had it send an e-mail. The mail contained a confirmation code I was told to copy+paste into Origin, which I did and it wouldn't even accept that as valid. After several attempts it would just alternate between telling me that the code or my e-mail was invalid.
That was around 3 weeks ago, haven't bothered trying to get BF3 to work since. It's pretty amazing how EA managed to shatter my already low expectations for Origin.

I've had the same issues with Origin. I found that if you change the password on EA's site it changes it on Origin so it works fairly well that way. Otherwise, it just doesn't work at all. I've uninstalled BF3 and am in the middle of reinstalling it, hopefully that'll fix it. Doubtful.

I'd still like to contact EA. Looks like I'll have to call customer support.

Finally got in touch with someone over at EA. Explained the problem to him and after some very annoying questions and responses; this one in particular pissed me off, "Well, sir you need to connect your computer to the internet to play the game." my response to that was, "Well, I'm talking to you aren't I? How much more can my computer be connected to the internet?"

At any rate, they issued me a new product key and told me to uninstall the one I have and to redownload the game. Unfortunately for me, I just lost the "Physical Warfare" DLC because it was tied to the other non-working game. But, hopefully tomorrow when I actually download and install this game tomorrow it'll actually work this time.