Playing BLIC 2005 is dangerous for your PC?

[gaurav_indian]

First of all I don't know whether this topic has been raised here or not.If it's
raised here then mods can close this thread.
Now coming to what I have read on some websites that Star-Force protection
games or Softwares can harm your PC's optical drives.And BLIC 2005 although
I have not played this game so far but I searched it on the net and what I
found that it is a StarForce Copy Protected game,some of u know that very well.Here is a link to the forum which I have found by searching on the google
go to this link and give your views about this.
http://www.star-force.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=765
Thanx.

 

[barmyarmy]

Starforce have strongly denied this and actually offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who could show them damage caused by Starforce or simulate it for them. It is, as yet, unclaimed.
The main reason people attack Starforce is because it has made piracy a nightmare.

 

[gaurav_indian]

Starforce have strongly denied this and actually offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who could show them damage caused by Starforce or simulate it for them. It is, as yet, unclaimed.
The main reason people attack Starforce is because it has made piracy a nightmare.

May be you are right but all the people can't lie.

 

[hondeyho]

Starforce is there so people can't copy the game and sell illegal copies of it which technically can not be discussed on this forum. Without the starforce protection, Codemasters could end up losing a lot of money e.g. people get illegal version for free and Codemasters profit is zero. If you want to read more about warez go to:

www.planetcricketdoesntsupportwarezandillegalmovies.com

 

[gaurav_indian]

Starforce is there so people can't copy the game and sell illegal copies of it which technically can not be discussed on this forum. Without the starforce protection, Codemasters could end up losing a lot of money e.g. people get illegal version for free and Codemasters profit is zero. If you want to read more about warez go to:

www.planetcricketdoesntsupportwarezandillegalmovies.com

I know that hondeyho but I want to ask whether StarForce protection on
games and softwares harm the optical drives.We are not discussing piracy here but the harm which can be caused by StarForce to our PC.

 

[barmyarmy]

There are some very interesting threads about it on the Codies forum. This one and I know there are some others too.
Like I said before whilst I've heard a lot of stories about Starforce damaging optical drives etc the fact that no-one was able to prove it to starforce themselves despite a cash reward clinched it for me.

 

[themuel1]

There are some very interesting threads about it on the Codies forum. This one and I know there are some others too.
Like I said before whilst I've heard a lot of stories about Starforce damaging optical drives etc the fact that no-one was able to prove it to starforce themselves despite a cash reward clinched it for me.

How exactly could you prove it anyway? And what is thought affects the drives (within Starforce?)

 

[Ste]

Well you could prove that you hadnt used any other CDs/DVDs on your PC and had a new CD/DVD drive but since using StarForce games on it the CD/DVD drive stopped worked. You would also need to prove that it wasnt just the drive that stopped working for other reasons so doing it with 2 drives would be best.

 

[ronny_kingsley]

[QUOTE by this]

Starforce has received criticism for installing its own device driver onto computers. The Starforce drivers are often linked to system instability and computer crashes. If these problems occur, the end-user would be unware as to the cause of the problem, and would be helpless to solve the problem.

For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure (Most commonly in multiformat CD/DVD writer drives). A sure sign of this step down occurring is that the burn speeds will get slower and slower (no matter what speed you select to burn at). Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down. Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening.


[/quote]

 

[gaurav_indian]

[QUOTE by this]

Starforce has received criticism for installing its own device driver onto computers. The Starforce drivers are often linked to system instability and computer crashes. If these problems occur, the end-user would be unware as to the cause of the problem, and would be helpless to solve the problem.

For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure (Most commonly in multiformat CD/DVD writer drives). A sure sign of this step down occurring is that the burn speeds will get slower and slower (no matter what speed you select to burn at). Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down. Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening.

That's why I have started this thread so that everyone can know about what
exactly StarForce Protection is.I think we need some more views to explain
this.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Edit: Chris Gayle

 

[gaurav_indian]

yes, i have noticed that my computer used to run smoothly and hardly ever freeze or crash but now (after i have installed a few games with StarForce protection) it restarts itself, brings up about 4 error messages, the system32 folder and windows installer when the computer boots up. it is also taking a long time to load some things.
I dont know if its anything to do with StarForce but it never used to be like this and its definitely not a virus because we do virus scans every week with an updated Norton Internet Security 2005.

As you have said that I think it might be StarForce Protection.Have u got
BLIC 2005 on your pc?And can u plz give me the detail of the error messages
you have got on your PC?

 

[barmyarmy]

yes, i have noticed that my computer used to run smoothly and hardly ever freeze or crash but now (after i have installed a few games with StarForce protection) it restarts itself, brings up about 4 error messages, the system32 folder and windows installer when the computer boots up. it is also taking a long time to load some things.
I dont know if its anything to do with StarForce but it never used to be like this and its definitely not a virus because we do virus scans every week with an updated Norton Internet Security 2005.

Actually the problems are far more likely to be caused by Norton...

 

[The_gas]

I have to admit i have sufferd some of these effects with starforce, and i dont use norton.

Infact my dvd drive/writer no longer works, and hasnt done since i bought blic.

 

[Deleted member 9102]

Edit: Chris Gayle