Silent Hunter 3 Starforce fooling method doesn't work

[Croaticus]

Hi,

I've tried the fooling method of Starforce3 with game Silent Hunter 3, as someone described earlier in related posts. The thing is, everything looks OK, but the serial key is rejected. I wonder how is this possible, since the key should work? Is it related to Starforce protection or simply the key doesn't work, and why?
The method I used is:
1) downloaded SH3 mini-image from gcw.com
2) Started SH3.exe (original), it installed Starforce and required restart.

After the restart:
3) Mounted image with Daemon tools 3.47
4) Used Starf**k v0.83b to disable all CD drives
5) Again started the game. This time it asks the serial key.
6) Entered the serial key found on crackdb.com
7) The key is rejected - invalid.

What should I do to make this game work without overwriting the necessary files with cracked ones, because I need to apply the newest patch since the game is very buggy and crashes often? And if I wait for cracked files to become available to download, I think I'll wait forever...

Thank you in advance!