Command Conquer Generals Zero Hour: Are you defeated from the start of the game?

Do you experience that all your buildings explode and blow up from 20-30 seconds from the beginning of the game?

Then the solution might be putting the game on Windows 2000 Compatability Mode instead of XP SP3 that fixed my problem.

The way you do this is:
1. To click the right mouse button on the icon of the game and choose 'Properties' in the menu.

2. Then click on the tap 'Equipment Compatibility'

3. From here you click the little square under 'Equipment Compatibility Mode'
4. Then you click the Scroo-Down Menu and choose to run the game in 'Windows 2000'


And then the problom should be solved :D

Source:
http://www.commandandconquer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-778.html

Do you also get the message: 'Invalid Serial Number - try another' at Command Conquer Generals Zero Hour online Multiplayer game?

Do you (also) want to play Command Conquer Generals Zero Hour online Multiplayer game but get the message: 'Invalid Serial Number - try another one'?

Then you have come to the right place.

Here is a small quick guide on how to deal with it.

(Unfortunately this is not the official EA Games method of way but it works... I have tried to deal with EA Games Support but no solution was found.)




OVERVIEW OF WHAT TO DO:
1. First you need a Serial Key that works
2. Then you have to change the Serial Key of your installation
3. And then you are ready to play online!
- It's that easy! And it works! Isn't it amazing!?



STEP-by-STEP GUIDE
1. The way I found a Serial Key that works was by Google searching with the following key words: "Serial Key Command Conquer Generals Zero Hours". (I will tell you later on how to find out if the Serial Key works in the next step.)

It gives a lot of search results with a lot of pages with many Serial Keys that don't work! But then suddenly I found a Serial Key that worked. For me it was that from this side:

Link:
http://www.serials.ws/all/?l=c&pn=9

Here I found the Serial Key by clicking on the link: "Commander & Conquer Generals: Zero: Hour :: 2006-12-04 :: 79"  
(you must wait some seconds before a pop-up window opens with the Serial Key in a white window!)
For me the Serial Key that worked is the following:
6JWE-H659-R47L-PL9F-K8LF


You can try if this Serial Key also works for you. Otherwise you can try the many other Serial Keys you can find on Google.

So this was how you find the Serial Key. Now we need to know how to replace this new Serial Key with the old one. Let's look at next step...



STEP TWO!

2. Once you have the new serial go into the 'registry' at your computer:
1. Press 'Windows Key' + R to open the run command and type in "regedit"
2. Then follow these folders exactly ==> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
==> SOFTWARE
==> Wow6432Node
==> Electronic Arts
==> EA Games
==> Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour
==> ergc

Then run 'regedit' by clicking at it, delete the old Serial Key and replace it with the new one you found in step one.


3. And then you are ready to play Multiplayer Online!

Just enter the game normally...




Sources:

Serial Key got from:
http://www.serials.ws/all/?l=c&pn=9

Guide to replace old Serial Key with new one:
http://www.cheatsguru.com/pc/cc_generals_zero_hour/questions/1981951/