WinXP Certificate authentication failed

nae22 · April 2014

Downloaded the game today (04/06/14). My OS is WinXP SP 3. (Hope to upgrade to Win7 in a couple of months). The game installs but at the point that a launcher should start I get this message: " Certificate authentication failed, please re-install to correct the problem." I have re-installed several times now to no avail. I tried disabling my firewall and virus protection (Norton Security Suite), still did not work. I sent a ticket over 6 hours ago to tech support but have not gotten a reply. Any suggestions? I have seen where some Linux and Mac's have had some problem with this but I have never used those OS's.

I was browsing my Certificates and under the heading of "Intermediate Certification Authorities" there are 2 certificates from Thawte that the expiration dates are 07/16/04. I was googling information on my problem and saw something about Thawte being the certificates for EOS? Not sure if this is true or not, just thought I'd mention it in case it was relevant.

So anyway, any help would be appreciated, thanks!

nae

antonyfrnb16_ESO · April 2014

Does the game support windows XP? (sorry not be sarcastic) also suggest upgrading to Win8.1 as update one is out tomorrow and SP1 features coming will make it more user friendly plus it will take more advantage of your hardware along with DX changes its the way to go. Also I would avoid any product under the Norton's brand causes more problems than anything in my experience.

Crazy idea take it your fully updated from windows update etc. service pack 3? some random things to try may work.

1. Remove Norton's uninstall ESO make sure you clean up any left over files
2. Reinstall ESO fresh from install media or via web installer make sure you have the new installer from the account page.
3. run chkdsk from the command prompt with the /R switch (google to make sure) defrag your HDD my suggestion is don't use the Windows built in one I remember it was temperamental in XP (remember it kept restarting) good free defrag is MyDefrag I would suggest digging though the forums for scripts.

If you have more than one HDD install ESO on the second drive make sure its not a partition on a single drive as there is no point in doing so.

Worse case solution I can think of is a clean install latest drivers etc.

nae22 · April 2014

Forgive my ignorance (I am not all that tech savvy) and I mean no slight on your suggestions but how do any of those suggestions fix Certificate errors? I can understand upgrading my OS, WinXP is dead, after all.

My husband has the exact same identical computer that I have (Same OS with same updates, MB, RAM, video card, monitor, HDD, even the same software, including Nortons) and he has absolutely no issues with installing ESO or running/playing it. We have compared everything and the only differences we have is with the Certifications with Thawte. He has 3 additional certificates than I do. Don't know how or why, it just is. Heck, I'm not even sure Thawte even is the Certificates for ESO.

ESO tech support has yet to respond to my ticket. So here I wait.

universe555 · April 2014

reset your ie options and see if that helps... certificate handing is done via the browser

nae22 · April 2014

Problem resolved! I went to Windows Update and there were no critical updates needed, as I expected. So I browsed their "optional updates" section and lo and behold there were root certificate updates. So I installed those and I re-installed, updated, patched, logged in, and am now playing. Thank you everyone that tried to help me, I appreciate it.

Ragnar_Lodbrok · April 2014

Its windows xp. As of april 1st they no longer support it. You need to get an OS that isnt 20 years old.

nae22 · April 2014

ya think? I am well aware that WinXP is dead, per my post above. Your comment was not constructive in the least. Good day to you.

Socratic · April 2014

Hard to say without being at your PC, but you could import the cert if you could find it, or maybe it was already there but disabled but glad you got it resolved.

PS, get Windows 8.1 not Win 7.