Starforce removal

W

Wally

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
2,691
Just found out why people hate Starforce so much. I decided to buy Trackmania United because I liked nations so much, and since I installed it - and despite an uninstall and supposedly removing starforce - i'm now getting 90-100% bluescreen rate when I put a disc in my optical drive, with a 50/50 chance of the same when I start up with a disc in the drive already.

Anyone know of any steps/software that has worked for them or others? Starforce is a big fat bitch and I hate it.

64-bit Vista.
 
Are you using the latest version? I have TM too with the startforce junk but no problems. Vista Ultimate 64bit also.

I have the removal tool. Not sure where I got it but if you need it PM me and I'll send it to yah...

I also have the driver updater if you want to try it out...


Ply
 
"No drivers found to remove" when I try to run the old removal tool, which implies starforce has knobbed off. However, the symptoms are persisting - optical drive use frigging the whole computer to bluescreen.

Cheers anyway. Could there be something i'm overlooking?
 
Hmm, try this, go to device manager, right-click your cd/dvdrom drive and uninstall. Now right-click any item listed in device manager and choose Scan for hardware. That should reinstall your cd/dvdrom drive.

I've heard rumors of Starforce actually borking the cd/dvdrom drive itself, aka killing the drive. Heard this when Starforce was first on the scene. But never seen an actual posting from someone...


Ply
 
Cheers. I'll let you know if it works or not come morning - if it doesn't i'll be stuck with the 15 minutes of restarting, in and out of safe mode, until i'm finally allowed to my desktop, which i'm having no more of today.
 
I was just about to post saying how uninstalling/reinstalling my optical drive in device manager prompted another fat bluescreen, until out of nowhere it crashed again. It seems that unless I keep my optical drive uninstalled, I have a ~30 second window between login and bluescreen.

It seems it's been fucked, to be blunt. I'll see if I can find another drive to test and another computer to try the DVD-RW, but it looks like starforce has shagged my optical drive out altogether.
 
Sorry to hear that Wally. Can you try doing a system restore to before you installed TM United? I'm out of ideas...


Ply
 
My NEC CDRW/DVDRW DL Burner can no longer read or burn CD's immediately after installing the Dirt Demo, which included Starforce. One HELL of a coincidence if you ask me.
 
Wally said:
"No drivers found to remove" when I try to run the old removal tool, which implies starforce has knobbed off. However, the symptoms are persisting - optical drive use frigging the whole computer to bluescreen.

Cheers anyway. Could there be something i'm overlooking?
Click to expand...

Wally, I did some research and found that TM United uses the Lite version of Starforce. It does not put ANY drivers or such crap on your computer. It uses a cd check built into the game exe. That is why the removal tool found no drivers to remove.

I'm starting to think it was simply coincidence...


Ply
 
Maybe. Do versions vary from country to country, or is there one single version?

Also, I got the disk version, rather than the downloaded version - a friend who downloaded it instead's had no problems.

You might be right about coincidence, but the optical drive is about a week old, and the reason there were no drivers found to install is because, I think I mentioned in a PM to you, I already ran one of those two .exes you sent me. It said it had uninstalled it successfully but the problems were persisting, hence the "despite an uninstall and supposedly removing starforce" in my first post.

Thinking of actually trying to re-install it all and make absolutely sure I get the latest version of starforce, in case it's a lack of 64-bit support that's causing this.
 
I think there are three versions of starforce now.

The publisher confirmed that the version of starforce used on United does not install any drivers, registry entries, yadda yadda. It puts nothing on your system. Could still be the cd check mechanism they use though.

Yeah the Steam version has no starforce drm crap at all. I really wish starforce would just belly up, along with all other drm makers...


Ply
 
Interesting note: I just removed a stick of RAM to better get at my drive's SATA cables, and it's actually let me put a disk in with no bluescreen. It's not autorunning, but so far it seems to be jolly. Fingers crossed.
 
There are several issues starforce has known to cause with optical drives, whether it has files installed on your system or not!

It can fool the drive into thinking its not reading correctly at which point it slows its read speed down, and this can continue in a loop until the drive reads so slowly it causes hardware errors and BSODS

The problem is no one really knows for sure how to fix most of this stuff because the guys making Starforce refuse to accept responsability for it and so have no reason to let us know what Starforce is doing when these errors occur.

It may not be related to Starforce, but I think you were right to suspect that first, best of luck fixing it.
 
Damn, this is why i aint buying any games with any type of copy protection. That's why I bought Galactic Civilizations II . No protection crap at all.
 
Seems so, touch wood. it's a bit early to say for sure since the problem was on-and-off to start off with, before becoming more frequent.

It seems that somehow my RAM got tied up in all this - with 2x2gb installed, I installed trackmania, and then started getting problems with my optical drive. Uninstalled TM and what little SF stuff I could find, but every time I opened or re-enabled the drive, it would crash.

It was only by coincidence that I removed a stick and replaced it later. Seems to be running ok now, which brings into question whether or not it was starforce dicking around with my drive, or by some huge coincidence my RAM dicking with my drive in exactly the same manner people seem to find Starforce has.
 
It seems I was being too generous by saying there was a possibility that my RAM could be to blame. Reinstalled TM earlier this evening and just got another bluescreen. Without a doubt down to this software. At least I know how to get shot of it now. Solution: get my friend's downloaded .exe, and give my CD key a fat whack in there.
 
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