If you get “patching failed”:then
1.start the patchinstaller.
after selecting language, press next, and leave it at that.
go into run menu in start menu, type %TEMP% click OK. Now a Windows_Explorer window opens up where you have to look in the top folder and locate the patch.exe file, when you've found it you should hit start>run>cmd and then drag the patch.exe file into the cmd window, now you have the patch info in the cmd window so now you only need to add the location of your BF2 installation looking like this: “C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2” you leave one space in front of the gamepath and you also have to use the quotes“”>>>Now hit ENTER and wait patiently for the magic to happen…Once it finishes then finist running the patch from the desktop where you left off, now the game should be working but if you get a cd key error when you try to join a server then here is a solution that worked for me:


The CD-key is in fact encrypted now in the registry, which is a good thing as cd-key steeling malware will not be able to use it. .

If you get the invalid cd key after patching try this:

start the patchinstaller.
after selecting language, press next, and leave it at that.
go into run menu in start menu, type %TEMP% click OK.
Now a Windows_Explorer window opens up, search for BF2CDKeyCheck.exe and run the .exe (just run it, it's not supposed to open a second window or anything).
now finish running the patchinstaller and start the game.