Call of duty "Cd-Key in use" error.

I have a copy of Call of duty that came with my 5900xt card, which I bought about a year ago. When I installed it the first time, it said the key was valid and everything, but I couldnt connect to multiplayer games because I got a "CD-key is in use. Try again later" message every time.

Long story short, I beat it and promptly put it on the shelf because no matter what I tried, I kept getting this error message. Well after a long time I decided to try again, and the same thing happened.

I've looked at all the tech support stuff and faqs, and even got in touch with activision, but nothing help. All I got was the usual "make sure you're not behind a firewall, reinstall sp2, etc" crap. I've done all that stuff but no dice. And I know its not a simply case of a stolen cd-key, because I tried using other keys(spare me the lecture, I payed for the game I'll even send pics of the discs if you want.), and the3y dont work either. I've updated to the latest patch and everything, NOTHING WORKS.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem really is? I can only assume there's some unknown factor in my system that is causing this, but I have no idea where to start.

I get the same thing when trying to play Far Cry and I just bought it last night.

I just had this issue with Final Fantasy 11...problem is...FF11 is strickly online only...make a long story short...came to find out the vendor had "borrowed" this copy and reg. the cd key...which in turn made the FF11 copy I had useless since they would not reset the CD Key so I could play online...

Not saying this is your issue...but if there is any tattle tale signs that it had been opened and resealed...this could be the issue...

Either that or someone got lucky with a reg crack and was able to reg. your cd key before hand...

Did you tell activision your story? Can't they replace it if it was legally bought?

Of course I explained the situation, and their response was to contact the retailer I got it from, but like I said, I got it with my graphics card, so I doubt gigabyte will replace it for me(btw, it wasnt an oem version it was a retail game). Single player works fine, its just the stupid multiplayer, which is what I wanted it for in the first place.

However, as I said earlier, I tried another cd-key, and it still didnt work. I have no idea what part of my system is causing it to not work, but I heard certain isp's may interfere for some reason if they automatically block certain ports that are used for spam mailing. I dont think verizon blocks any ports though.

i had the same problem with cod. it's the cd-key in use. reason why you can play single player and not multiplayer is because when you go to connect to a server the game checks the authenticity of your key. somehow someone has already used this key and it won't let you connect. now the reason it was like this for me is because i was using a pirated copy. the way i solved this is by going out and actually purchasing the game, i learned that trying to download games does'nt work.

now in your case, you may have bad luck that someone has picked up your key somehow and has used it. don't know what else to tell you other then that it most likely has nothing to do with your system.