Starforce stopping Oblivion DVD from being read?

J

Json23

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Messages
1,380
Okay, so a while back I bought X3: Reunion. I installed, not really knowing (and at the time not caring either) anything at all about Starforce.

I have since unistalled X3:reunion, and thought that I had also got rid of Starforce as well. However as many of you might know, it is not that simple it seems. It started out I was having REALLY long load times, when I first got the game it loaded pretty fast, even outdoor areas. Then I started having random DVD drive (I have an NEC DVD Burner) freeze ups where it would just stop spinning in the drive when I tried to start up Oblivion.

I thought this might have been an issue with the game itself, so I started looking on the internet for a quick fix because the game would refuse to start. I would insert the DVD, start the game up, then the very second I hit "load game" in the menu the DVD drive would instantly stop spinning and the computer would freeze up completely. (not even ctrl+alt+del would work)

After using the google search for dvd spin problems I came across an article about Starforce. I just clicked on it because I was curious to see what it said (I thought starforce was unistalled already at the time) After reading some, I decided to go back into my control panel/system/device manager/show hidden items and sure enough, there were 3 starforce things listed under the "non plug and play" group. I told each one to unistall and restarted for the changes to take effect. I tried playing Oblivion again, the same thing happened. I went to look back in the device manager and they were back. All three of them. So, I went in and disabled them since I couldn't unistall them, restarted and viola!, Oblivion works just fine and load times are back to normal.

I am not saying this is starforce related, but it would certainly seem so. Tonight I am going back and enabling them again to see if I can recreate the problem. If I can, then what should I do to be able to prove it? I would have tested it last night but it was already midnight and I had to be in to work this morning at 6:30 am.

Any ideas from people who know about this sort of thing more than I do?
 
Judging from the circumstances that you presented I would say that starforce was the culprit.

DVD didnt work+disabling starforce=DVD working

Starforce sucks.
 
Thanks Rich! I will use this tonight after I try and enable the the three starforce programs to see if I can re-create the problem.

Also, I don't want anyone thinking that I am bashing Starforce just because it is the "in" thing to do nowadays either, I just thought the the circumstances were pretty suspect of Starforce.

Thank God I happened to just click on that google link for the hell of it, I could still be fooling around with my PC trying to figure out what the problem is. I am about 99% sure that Starforce had something to do with it, tonight I will know for sure if it happens again once I test it out and see if it happens again.
 
hmm... I had X3 installed (didn't realize it was starforce protected actually) and also uninstalled it a while back. Oblivion works fine for me, except I noticed that even when I have the DVD in the drive it asks me to put the DVD in when I run the oblivion executable. I just hit cancel and it loads up fine... Maybe this is related?
 
J-Mag said:
hmm... I had X3 installed (didn't realize it was starforce protected actually) and also uninstalled it a while back. Oblivion works fine for me, except I noticed that even when I have the DVD in the drive it asks me to put the DVD in when I run the oblivion executable. I just hit cancel and it loads up fine... Maybe this is related?
Click to expand...

See, that is why I didn't want to get ahead of myself and outright say that it was Starforce that did it - it could be anything.

But I was wondering if anyone else was having problems with starforce installed on their computers. If you didn't use a starforce removal tool, then it is probably still on your computer. Do like I did and go in and disable it and see if it still has the problem and post back. (you have to restart your PC after disabling for it to take effect)
 
I have X3, Toca2, Toca 3, trackmania sunrise, Trackmania Nations installed, and all use Starforce.
I am having ZERO issues with Oblivion running. Just FYI.
 
Json23 said:
But I was wondering if anyone else was having problems with starforce installed on their computers. If you didn't use a starforce removal tool, then it is probably still on your computer. Do like I did and go in and disable it and see if it still has the problem and post back. (you have to restart your PC after disabling for it to take effect)
Click to expand...

Yeah I will test it out, what is the procedure for disabling?
 
Go into your device manager, go to your hardware manager and go to view and tell it show hidden devices.

Then go down to the "non-plug and play" devices and look for the starforce drivers and disable them.
 
Json23 said:
Go into your device manager, go to your hardware manager and go to view and tell it show hidden devices.

Then go down to the "non-plug and play" devices and look for the starforce drivers and disable them.
Click to expand...

OK thanks, I will post back ghere when I get home from work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top