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Help - Starforce killed my dvd drives

  • 01-11-2006 9:27am
    #1
    Maximilian
    Legal Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 5,400 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Installed X3 on my brand new PC which uses Starforce. Afterwards both of my DVD-RW drives would refuse to recognise blank dvd's where they previously did.

    I tried the starforce removal tool, flashing the firmware and finally, out of frustration, I re-formated my HD and re-installed windows. Drives still won't see blank dvds.

    Has anyone had a similar experience? More to the point how on earth could a copy protection system physically wreck hardware like this. I'm disgusted.


Comments

  • #2
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,567 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    The sony rootkit hijacks your CD drivers and if not removed correctly you won't be able to see the drive when it's gone. the Ironic thing was it was supposed to protect copyright violation but the code appears to have been copied from LAME which can only be done if you opensouce the code it's used. the moral here is that anything that messes with your device drivers can affect the way that device is accessed later on.

    ( my XP won't recognise when a drive has been changed - probably too many CDRW utils.)

    Don't forget that reinstalling windows DOES NOT FIX INHERITABLE PROBLEMS. At the very least a clean install in another folder might bypass some of the old settings.

    The only one that blocked access by Other OS's was installing windows 95 on a PIIX controller - the second IDE controller was disabled in the Intel chipset until you loaded the correct drivers - but that was a very long time ago - and the CD would work if you set it up as a slave on the primary IDE controller.

    Try a linux boot disk after a cold boot ( shut down switch off and then power on again ) to see if OS related

    A failed firmware upgrade can render the drive brain-damaged. Don't do unless a valid reason to do so, where the readme indicates that it solves the type of problem you have or provides functionality that you need or desire.


  • #3
    Maximilian
    Legal Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 5,400 Mod ✭✭✭✭Maximilian


    Its very weird. I can write to cd-r's but put a blank dvd in and the drive description goes from dvd-ram to cd. I only flashed one drive to see if that was the problem (i have two identical ones).

    I can't seem to find a specific driver for it (apparently you don't normally need a specific one).

    I not only re-installed windows, I reformatted the hard drive, so that should have made it a completely clean new install no?

    I wouldn't have a clue how to go about getting a linux boot disk and the PIIX stuff I just plain didn't understand :) Thanks anyway. Maybe I'll sniff some glue and come across the solution by chance.


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