Starforce

Wossi

Wossi

Wossi

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Joined
27 Oct 2003
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East Mids.
Someone mentioned to me that starforce is basically an evil entity to be feared and hated, but after reading up on it I'm not so sure. Granted it means that you have to change discs everytime you want to play a different game and it doesn't like some copy programs like alcohol. The problem is that there seems to be 2 sides to this, 1 side says that if Starforce is installed your machine will probably end up in a pile of rubble, the other side say that they have never had any problems.

So has anyone here actually had any major problems with programs/games which use Starforce copy protection?
 
never really had a problem with it, and I use daemon and alcohol fine here too, whether I actually have any starforce protected games is another matter, will have to have a look hehe
 
My copy of Trackmania Nations decided not to load the other night. I reinstalled it and it's been fine since then. Other than that I've not had problems that I could put down to Starforce. Silent Hunter 3 also worked fine for me and with a few of the programs loaded it suposedly doesn't get on with.

There are people out there that think it's full of mallware etc and should not be in public use. It's possible however that some of these people are the ones trying to hack/crack it and can't so I'm taking it with a pinch of salt at the moment. I'll keep my eye out.
 
No problems here, and got a couple of starforce games, x3, silent hunter, myst 5. Running a few bits of "dodgy" software too and its always been fine.
 
X2: The Threat totally trashed a RAID array on my secondary machine :eek:
(Windoze refused to boot full-stop, BSODs even in safe mode etc.)
Mind you, on this machine, I'm running plenty of SF games straight from images :D

-Leezer-
 
No problems as of yet with Starforce! Saying that though, just make sure you don't get one as their support forum is abysmal!

All they seem to do is blame it on your hardware/software/drivers. The fact that everything else works/plays fine is a non-existant point to them!
 
R0551 said:
Someone mentioned to me that starforce is basically an evil entity to be feared and hated, but after reading up on it I'm not so sure. Granted it means that you have to change discs everytime you want to play a different game and it doesn't like some copy programs like alcohol. The problem is that there seems to be 2 sides to this, 1 side says that if Starforce is installed your machine will probably end up in a pile of rubble, the other side say that they have never had any problems.

So has anyone here actually had any major problems with programs/games which use Starforce copy protection?
Click to expand...

Nope no problems at all.
 
i think the problem is it installs itself in the background, and overwrites cdrom drivers and other parts of a system, removing choices from the user. I find that this is uncalled for and that they dont have a right to reconfigure MY computer system, this is what the debate stems from.

Good copy protection though, but they have gone about it the wrong way, I think steam is the way forward for games, with a similar copy protection akin to itunes, something like the game will only play on the system installed to (read the processors serial number or something), but this would require a net connection etc etc
 
Combat squirrel said:
i think the problem is it installs itself in the background, and overwrites cdrom drivers and other parts of a system, removing choices from the user. I find that this is uncalled for and that they dont have a right to reconfigure MY computer system, this is what the debate stems from.

Good copy protection though, but they have gone about it the wrong way, I think steam is the way forward for games, with a similar copy protection akin to itunes, something like the game will only play on the system installed to (read the processors serial number or something), but this would require a net connection etc etc
Click to expand...
how does it over write drivers and remove choices from users?
 
it replaces the cd/dvd/rw drive drivers which as been known to then make the devices (often dvd/cd-ew combo drives) to work incorrectly, and in some cases litterally destroy them, so they never work again, by sending the wrong signals to the drives moters etc to make them work at speeds there not designed for, are starforce paying out to replace these drives? no, hence i think they should take a running jump off the nearest cliff
 
Combat squirrel said:
it replaces the cd/dvd/rw drive drivers which as been known to then make the devices (often dvd/cd-ew combo drives) to work incorrectly, and in some cases litterally destroy them, so they never work again, by sending the wrong signals to the drives moters etc to make them work at speeds there not designed for, are starforce paying out to replace these drives? no, hence i think they should take a running jump off the nearest cliff
Click to expand...

really? bloomin' heck, if that's true I'll boycott starforce games from now on
 
I found out about Starforce last night, I had heard of it before but ignored it. I've given up pc gaming ages ago, but upon close inspection in device manager, the drivers were there. So I uninstalled them and rebooted...

Now my main dvd drive is dead in XP, no media gets detected while my LiteOff cd writer is fine. I booted into Knoppix and both drives are fine in there, so I guess this Starforce crap has done something to the device drivers on XP. I downloaded the starforce cleaner which did its work but had no effect on the 'dead' dvd drive. I'll look into this issue properly this weekend.

Thank god I moved away for pc gaming to the 360. At least I don't have to put up with junk like this, I've never ever had problems with any games in the past but this just takes the pies.
 
I installed TrackMania Sunrise and iTunes wouldn't rip CDs any more, and general system performance was crap.

Uninstalled it, ran the removal tool, and took the game back to the store.

This is yet another case of pirated goods being of a higher quality than legally-purchased versions.
 
i tried to play the latest ufo game and that uses starforce, cant even play it. i run the game, and a starforce message pops up saying theres an error with my drive or something, so i insert the cd into my other drive and when run in that drive, it just says 'please insert the cd into another drive' so basicaly the starforce protection doesnt just stop ppl who pirate games, it stops ppl who buy the games too.
 
If you have Daemon Tools 3.47 installed & Starforce drivers installed then when you try to update to Daemon Tools 4.0 XP crashes with some nasty BSODs which even destroy the last know config and you may have to rebuild it. This is because Starforce will not let Daemon tools complete its install but also prevents XP from loading up the I/O drivers it needs to load. This happened to me recently and was a real PITA. Solution was that Starforce had released an update but did not exactly make it obvious where to download and in what scenario it needed to be applied. Trust me to remove Daemon tools manually from your PC is a time consuming task and needed to be done several times before I found out the problem.

Solution is:

1: Remove all Starforce drivers from your PC then reboot.
2: Install Dameon Tools & reboot.
3: You can now safely install Starforce drivers but also need to apply the update before rebooting otherwise you get the BSODs again.

Should add that these BSODs happen within XP instantly without warning as soon as you try to install Daemon Tools 4 with Starforce already installed giving you no chance to save any data. If you have Starforce installed and have manually applied the update then you will be oblivious to this issue.

Everyone else beware as this can cause a rebuild/reinstall for XP as it also destroys the last known good config as when you hit the restart buton after the BSOD and use the last know config it BSODs as soon as it reaches the desktop which then destroys the last know config profile as it is now corrupted by the half finished Daemon Tools install.

Starforce has also been know to introduce errors when you try & verify CD/DVD media with Nero & Alcohol sometimes causing coaster city.

I am amazed that they have not yet had the kind of bad PR Sony got for their rootkit as this is probably worse in that it really does cause hardware issues. When a destructive virus gets released to target this then the ***t will really it the fan as the Starforce drivers has admin level access to your PC so the virus could then take control and be hard to remove.

Shame Resident Evil4 & Devil May Cry3 + Splinter Cell4 & Far Cry2 will all use it as Ubisoft are their no1 fan/customer.
 
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