OK, this is just incase anyone else is having problems with their DVD drives the same way that I was.

A few original games use a copy protection system called Starforce which installs hidden devices which can cause problems, including hardware failure of DVD drives. (Starforce deny this, but it's splashed about so many forums it makes you wonder plus UBIsoft have dropped them due to problems)

This is how I lost all my photographs of my son and the puppies (especially the one that died) when I rebuilt my machine as the disks become corrupt through CRC errors.

Initially I thought that it was the drive that was knackered, so I bought a new one and this one was not working properly either, so I decided to do some research as it obviously wasn't a hardware problem.

I came upon this website.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/

and several other forums where people were having the same/similar problems.

I tried to remove the Starforce drivers, but this was not enough on it's own, it still burned disks but when they were accessed they had CRC errors on them and on the brand new drive a DVD took 50+ minutes to burn.

It appeared that the Starforce checks all disks inserted to such an extent that Windows thinks the drives are malfunctioning and sticks them into PIO mode. (I'm not techy so I don't fully appreciate this)

If the IDE channels are set back into UDMA mode through the device manager, then the DVD writer burns the same file in 10mins which isn't that bad and it has the bonus of having no CRC errors.

The reason for this post is to help you chaps be aware that if you have some original games that use Starforce to protect them and your DVD drive starts playing up in NERO then don't assume that it's your drive, also if you burning off critical files that cannot be replaced such as family photos, it's worth checking the disk properly rather than just using the verify option in NERO.

The fact that I've had this problem occur when starforce has been present on my old P4 machine and my new Athlon machine to me show it's not just a motherboard clash or chipset clash and is in fact a much wider issue.

Anyhoo, I thought I would post it here to help raise awareness incase you guys end up having any similar problems.

Cheers

EN

hmm that might explain all the errors I've been encounting.


Did a quick check, 3x starforce in non pnp.. :/


ta for the heads up m8.

No problems, on the link above there is a removal utility which gets rid of all 3 starforce non PnP devices.

Then I deleted the IDE channels from device manager, rebooted and reinstalled them and my optical drives went back into UDMA mode and everything has been peachy since. (Well since 2.30am this morning when I burned a DVD in a tenth of the time previous with no errors)

Cheers

EN

http://r-force.org/modules.php?name=For ... wtopic&t=1

Useful link there n3m about checking PIO modes etc.

EN

I've read alot about Starforce being a total screw up but cant remember the links. It's played havoc with loads of peoples systems. Publishers are ditching them now, including Ubisoft, though SF still claim theyre shit is together.

Warez ftw.