Newbie making KoTOR copy - crash on startup, help requested

[HeyZeus]

I'm pretty new to making backups/copies, so I was hoping someone could provide me with some guidance. I've been trying to make a copy of Knights of the Old Republic, but I've run into some problems.

After a successful install and downloading a no-cd exe, the game crashes unerringly at the menu screen. Since my system specs well exceed the game requirements and I've updated the game and all my drivers, I'm guessing this problem is due to my own stupidity. Again, I don't even know if a no-cd exe is appropriate for this situation, but its always what I've done in the past.

If anyone could give me some advice on this issue, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[The Duke]

Again, I don't even know if a no-cd exe is appropriate for this situation, but its always what I've done in the past.

For what are you using Images & D-Tools, when you done you're job with No-CD Bullshits ??
Doesn't make any sense to me. :roll:

If you wanna back up you're Games by using & mounting Images, you have to:

1.) check what copyprotection must I handle
2.) done an Image with an appropiate Program, i.e. Blindwrite, ALC120, CloneCD, CDMate, CDRwin, NERO etc.
3.) known some Basic about copyprotections, i.e. no chance on Star-f***-Force v.3.3.x.x

GO Ahead. :mrgreen:

For KotOR:

CD1 ist protect by a new secuROM 4.8.xx oder even 5.0.xx *new*
Create your Image with Blindwrite or ALC120, using the physical Dumping (BWA-File) or DPM Measurement.


Greets

[HeyZeus]

Again, I apologize for not really knowing what's going on, but please bear with me. Thanks for the info about image creation. However, I was wondering if a problem in which the game locks up a few seconds AFTER it starts indicates an issue with the CD image? The game locks up a few seconds after it reaches the menu screen (in fact, I'm pretty sure its a specific number of seconds because if I act quickly, I can get to the loading screen. If I just sit there and do nothing, it'll crash on its own). Again, any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[,jACkdA\W]

Any comments? Well - in my KOTOR experience this has nothing to do whatsoever with either copying or the copyprotection. But then, in my KOTOR experience i never even heard of this problem at all... but then, i never had to visit Bioware's support forum, which should probably be your next step (after checking with the original .exe, probably? :mrgreen: )

[HeyZeus]

I tried the Bioware forums a little while back, though with little success. The recommendations were all along the lines of "update your drivers" or "is it overheating?" No its not overheating, and yes I have the latest drivers :shock:

It seems to me like this might be some kind of copy protection issue, and here's why: Its as if there's a periodic check for the original CD, and when the original CD is not detected, the game shuts down. As far as I can tell, the game runs just fine. In fact, if my computer were extremely fast and I could click extremely fast, I could probably get well into character creation without a crash. Hopefully someone else will have run into this problem and have some advice.

[,jACkdA\W]

Did you notice any 'periodic CD-Checks' with the physical disk and original exe? BTW, you said you used a, ermmm... No-CD exe (that's just a stupid paraphrase IMHO). And since the protection is SecuRom - i ain't an expert on it, but i never heard of *any* checks done by this protection after decrypting and running the protected executable. So if there isn't some weird custom check in the latest update - and i do doubt that - i don't believe it's a copy/protection problem.

ps. i ran into an at least very similar problem a couple of years back, with a couple of games, and back then it was an issue with the graphics card. You could try checking with another piece of hardware (if you want to, that is).