Geez, I have come to conclusion, that I hate the current "let's have über DRM and see people whine!!" -trend. Well, at least there is GoG, though. The light at the end of the tunnel :)
Anyway, I want to rant about that EADM -program (and Mass Effect, which I bought from EAStore...don't ask...)
First of all, the eadm is a pain in the arse to use and nowadays I can't even log to my game library offline. Nice one.
And Mass Effect...I downloaded it with EADM, which is mandatory btw to be on, if you wish to play EAStore's digital games, and installed the game. With great anticipation, I started the game. Crash. Yay....
The EADM doesn't patch the game automatically, as it seems, and it doesn't have a "search a patch" -function anymore. And EA's game support doesn't have a patch to digital copy of mass effect(at least I couldn't find one). So, I in my true wisdom, installed the retail patch on my own. Now the game dies whenever I push esc (to go to the options menu). It apparently doesn't like the retail patch. Great.
So, now I can't patch the game, and it won't work because it's unpatched. It has something to do with my processor being AMD one with few cores...
I'm gonna go to the nearest store today, grab myself a retail copy of Mass Effect, install it, patch it and play it. Then I'm gonna uninstall the EA's super program and laugh while doing it.
Cheers guys,
Knee

To be honest it's probably laziness. Removing the DRM isn't necessarily a foolproof task and could require some QA, especially since Steam etc. will still need custom versions to wrap their own always-present DRM into it.

KneeTheCap, I am not sure EA will mind you buying a second copy of the game to simply overwrite the first copy!
Better to not support any DRMed game or those that produce such things. I have said before that if gamers stopped buying DRM games publishers would remove it in a big hurry. They are after sales and if it is the cause of millions of lost sales it would go.
I honestly do not buy any big name titles any longer as they are all DRM laden; I buy from GOG, GG (DRM free only titles), and directly from the developer if they make DRM free games. I do not feel I am missing out on anything.

Well, I've removed some EA DRM myself and it hasn't been that problematic. :D As for Steam, not every game on Steam requires the client to run. Far Cry 2 is one example of where it was completely removed.

why didn't you just install the single core patch? btw it's not your processor being AMD as it works fine on all processors so please don't talk crap like that your only problem is you probably have a single core with a game that requires at least 2 without the patch.

Unless it's something they've recently added, you don't have to run the EADM to play once the game's installed.

From patch notes:
"fixed a crash running on certain multi-core AMD systems"
Though mainly that affected the configuration tool, but still.
And what would a single core patch help, when my CPU has 4 cores?

Some games will auto launch it during start up, but if you rename the directory it's installed to, (and the same for the directory where the cache files are located) it will no longer launch during the start up. Further to that, the game shouldn't even complain about it.

Ah, I guess the few games I've installed using the EADM didn't do that. I stand corrected.

Well isn't this nice. The retail version crashes too, even when patched.
F*ck this, I'm going home...

You could try using task manager to bind the game executable to a certain core. This trick fixes similar problems with some games. Btw this is an issue with any multicore(so also Intel) system and not just AMD ones

I've never had ME crash once, retail version on Win Vista 64 and now Win7 64. I know some people have it happen all time though... probably a driver issue.

Interesting news about EADM starting automatically. I do know with Dragon Age: Origins when you boot it up an EA process runs in the background, but that is the online verification proving you own the copy. There is also a DAUpdater process that runs when DA:O runs as well.
I haven't installed ME2 from the EADM because I still have that disc, but I have the code tied to my EA account. DA:O was a matter of when I moved in to the current place I'm living in I accidentally threw out the disc but still had the manual with the key.
Anyway can you be specific with which games launch EADM? I would like to know what to avoid if I buy any titles from the EA Store.
Thanks in advance,
-Cym

As I said earlier, as you can simply rename the EADM installation directory (which prevents the EADM from running) there's no need to worry if you don't want it launching.