If you are still seeing a specific error message, here is the translation:

. The thread was a graveyard of dead links and "me too" comments.

Released in 2008, Need for Speed: Undercover was supposed to bring the franchise back to its roots of high-speed police chases and underground street racing. However, for millions of PC gamers, the game became infamous not for its driving physics or the live-action cutscenes featuring Maggie Q, but for a single, maddening technical hurdle:

To ensure you never lose access to the game, it is highly recommended to create a of your fully patched and Generic Fixed installation folder on an external hard drive. This way, even if the servers go down for good or the key becomes invalid, you have a standalone, portable copy that will run on any modern PC.

. He’d saved for three months for this disc, but the jewel case was cracked, and the sticker with the code was a smeared blur of ink and bad luck. "Problems?"

: Older versions of the game have a limited number of "activations." If you've reinstalled multiple times, you may need to contact EA Help to have your activation limit manually reset. Critical Performance Fix for Modern PCs