Can starforce kill a dvd-burner?

[Kutusov]

Hi,

Im new at this and until today I would think that this was a silly question. I just heard of starforce after reading a review against a game because it uses this driver. So I made a quick google search on the subject and I found some people complaining that starforce killed their dvd/cd readers/burners.... Is this possible? The thing is I had in a 3 drives that stopped working. One DVD reader, a cd-burner/dvd reader combo and a DVD burner. They were all LGs... The burners would start having buffer problems on Nero and after awile, they wouldnt be able to read anything... they just chewed on the discs and couldnt find them... I've just checked my hidden drivers and yes, starforce is there... (one "environment 1.x" driver and a "helper driver 2.x"). I've always found the dieing LGs thing strange and no one I talked to about it had a clue about what could had been happening.... I still don't know what starforce is exactly and what it does, but I had never a reboot for trying to burn anything.... Any thoughts? Another thing.... the game I was talking about is Silent Hunter 3 from UBI and it seams it uses the starforce thing... I ordered it online and it hasn't arrived yet... Should I install it? My 2 drives are both LGs dvd-burners....

[DavPL]

sure it's possible. many ppl are boycotting that protection and this is one of the reason

[AnalCobra]

Yeah, Silent Hunter is Starforce 3.4.71.19 protected.
Did you try uninstalling the Starforce drivers?:

http://onlinesecurity-on.com/downloads/sfdrvrem.zip

Exec. the program and Reboot. Then try burning sth.
I have an LG DVD-Writer too, and i havn't got any problems yet.

[joeboy]

I have seen many postings claiming this.

The claim is that their drives are forced into PIO mode which causes the drive to slow down & work incorrectly, gradually causing permanent damage.

Check your IDE Channel Properties & make sure your drives are not running in PIO mode

[al1uk]

I have seen many postings claiming this.

The claim is that their drives are forced into PIO mode which causes the drive to slow down & work incorrectly, gradually causing permanent damage.

Check your IDE Channel Properties & make sure your drives are not running in PIO mode

my drive was knocked into pio mode after playing pop:t2t. now the game is collecting dust, but my drive is fixed after following 13thHours instruction.

[Kutusov]

Yeah, PIO mode

, thats exactly what happened to me now that you mention it. Im really pissed off, finding that such a thing trashed 3 hardware components and only realizing now where that came from. Probably from Neverwinter Nights I dont think I own any other game with straforce. Its also shameful that a game development company accepts this kind of threat to a client. Man, sometimes I really miss the zx spectrum days Anyway, a big applause to Bethesda for their Oblivion. It seams they dont use any copy protection, just a cd check.. I know Im going to buy that one, original copy! (This info is here on this forum in another thread.) Im a little tight on time right now so Im postponing this. Morrowind took my life for a 3 or 4 months and Oblivion seams to be even better.

Analcobra (thats an odd name ), no I havent uninstalled the thing. Ive read somewhere that doing that causes some issues but I dont remember which were they I need to investigate a little more. But if I take the basted thing away what happens?

I dont have any problem now but I dont burn as much as I used to. I manly burn movies and photos on DVDs I use Nero 6 ultra for burning and DVD decrypter and DVDFab decrypter for ripping, DVD Shrink for encoding and editing. My two LGs seam to be holding fine but Ive noticed that sometimes one of then has that problem chewing on a DVD and not finding it Im really praying now.

Anyway, and since Im really looking forward to Silent Hunter, do you think I can install it, remove the starforce drives and be able to play the game with no problems? (btw, remember I said Im tight on time? Lol)

[sheff dave]

I don't know if it can kill it but it can cause damage.
I was having problems with my drive reading normal Cd's and installing software, thinking it was corrupt etc.

Turns out it was in PIO mode, so I completely uninstalled starforce and reset it to whatever it should be.

Works fine now

[al1uk]

if its stuck in pio mode, go here, and follow the instructions.

[Nil Einne]

While I'm strongly against most copy protections, I personally doubt the stories of Starforce, or anything killing a drive. What they do do is completely muck up your computer frequently preventing you from using it (including drives) and software properly and they also can pose a security risk.

A reinstall of Windows will solve the problem but any data lost, time wasted and coasters made due to insidious copy protections can't be recovered...

[sittingduck]

I have had to get a new burner after having starforce on my system for 3 months or so , cant say for sure that it was star force that did it but it seesm odd that all was ok until i installed x3

(what is pio mode and how do i check )

[joeboy]

(what is pio mode and how do i check )

PIO = Programmed Input/Output

Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager / IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers / IDE Channel / Properties / Advanced Settings / Transfer Mode = should not be set to PIO

[Kutusov]

Update

I know Im old enough not to play with matches but SH3 arrived and I just couldnt resist installing it. Great, great game, btw So now I have updated starforce files buried in my system and I havent had a problemuntil now. Like I said before, my two drivers are both DVD burners, both with their firmware updated. So now, one of them refuses to burn DVDs at a speed superior to 2x, despite the fact that it has a 16x DVD in its belly IDE is ok, ultra DMA 5 or what ever. BIOS is ok too and I havent installed anything new lately. Oh, apart from some windows updates, I have the thing to automatically sort itself and it has pulled some files from the net the last week. So, any thoughts on this or should I just start thinking in ordering another coffin?

[Reef]

Have you tried removing the Starforce drivers?

[Kutusov]

Well, no... I still have the other burner (works fine) and I want to play the game.... It's just strange this all thing... Why now? Maybe it has nothing to do with starforce, I dont know...

[Pyromancer]

Can some one mail me the StarForce Removal Tool cause i can't get to the net as easily as you.(mail at pyromancer@rediffmail.com)