Specter

Oh you give me a chuckle. One of these days when your grandkids look you in the eye you will realize money isn't everything - life is everything. And about money - you can't take it with you. ← I know that better than anyone, believe me. As k around. But, some people just get their jollies making money doing that kind of thing. Whatever floats their boat. Although you would never catch me doing it. I like being on the other end of the gun. I have been on the wrong end once or twice, and it did nothing for me but scare the ###### out of me. Not to say it didn't get dealt with, but not my thing at all, even if I know the guy pointing at me.

Oh boy... I am a die hard German Beer lover and love to have a hearty German beer, but also enjoy a good American brewed Coors Light as well..... It's all just beer, enjoy it all. It's all just games... enjoy them all. -John ← Right on, John. I happen to hate consoles, but for one, my hands are so big, I cramp up with the controllers, and for another, I can't afford both, and I'd rather have my PC, since I can do so much more with it. As for Rocky, I do know a bit about him personally, and I can tell you that he is most definitely a hardcore PC Gamer, no doubt in anyone's mind who knows him, or has played countless hours with him. So I suggest we stop all of the judgmental crap, especially if we don't know who we are talking about. If you like consoles, moe power to ya. Go grab one, a bunch of games, a drivnk and a snack, and have at it. If your A PC diehard, do the ssame, and let everything be everything. There is plenty of room for both. This house has 4 die hard PC gamers in it. 4. But between all of us, 7 or 8 consoles. So what? You play games your way, and let everyone else play theirs. That simple. And please knock off the flaming and the insults. All it does is make the people doing it look about 8.

If I'm not mistaken, and HF would know more about this than I would, each hit a vest takes weakens it it in that particular spot, and I'm not sure how much of the immediate surrounding area of the hit is weakend. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure he wasn't too close to the weekend area, to prevent a mishap. Again, I'm not sure, but I know that this used to be the case, that once the vest took a hit, it wasn't really reliable anymore if it took a hit in the same immediate area. I haven't kept up with recent body armor advancements, but this makes sense.

LOL, that was my exact problem too. (Also saw a thread at the Ubi LD forums by at least one other person with this prob.) I had to abort my first install attempt, then had to be VERY patient on my 2nd attempt - just kept repeatedly opening and closing my optical drive tray (a decent Lite-On dual-layer DVD burner which I bought in Nov '05) and timing pressing "OK" after I heard the CD spin up - Sheesh!! I initially didn't think it was an SF prob until after I finally succeeded in installing the game, I started to blame SF for the behavior after it took about seriously 8 tries for my DVD burner and Windows to detect Disc 1 to play the game. StarForce kept giving me an error message that the disc wasn't in the tray. Once again, just needed to eject and reinsert the disc. It still may not be SF's fault - perhaps a defect in the pressing of the CDs, but I'm not sure what else it would be since I haven't had probs with installing with multiple CDs (Raven Shield or BF2) on the same system/DVD burner. I honestly think Ubi didn't release a DVD version in N. America as I haven't seen it anywhere at the usual retail spots - even the good ones. BTW, I just installed EA FIFA 2003 (2 CDs) without probs. ← I think it's SF. This is the first game I've personally had this trouble with, I think I probably have the exact burner you do: Lite-On DVDRW-SOHW 1633S. I never had issues until StarFarce came into the picture. And as evidenced in the StarFarce threads here and at Ubi, as much as I will hate it, I may just blow off GRAW. Did you see what they told that poor kid, Pigfister? And this is supposed to be a professional company? My ass.

You shouldn't have to uninstall your IDE controllers, bro. What kind of horse###### is that? For crying out loud. If you do manage to do that, all of your burning software, and playback software will most likely have to be re-installed, and conceivably, drive letter s could change. That letter I just read leads me to one conclusion: Their support department is lost in space, and the only help that SF can provide, is from one of the programmers, who, will probably not bother, and may not know enough about hardware or other software programs to help you. But if you want to try uninstalling your IDE controllers, it's easy enough. Go to Start, right click My Computer, go to Properties, Hardware, Device Manager, and click the Plus sign next to IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers, right click each one, and remove them by choosing Uninstall. If you have any SCSI or RAID controllers, you may have to do them as well, depending on your drive configuration, and if your RAID controller is being used for RAID, or just as an extra Storage controller. Then, shut your PC down for 15 seconds, and restart your system. Hopefully Winblows will redetect them right away and re-install them. Most of the time it does. But, I have seen the odd occassion where it does not do it automatically, and either you cna't see the drives and you need to reinstall XP, or at the very least, you have to find the Chipset drivers for your mobo, and re-install them. And what really cracks me up, is all they say is to uninstall them, they don't tell you what else to do. What ######' planet are these guys on? Geez. Remember the old cartoons with Donald duck and the little Martian dude? That is what we have here. And they don't even give you a reason for uninstalling the IDE controllers. Their credibility is going down the toilet on turbo flush with me at least, very very fast. So basically, all of the folks that have been standing up for StarFarce: I'd take a long look at what they call product support and professionalism, and I'd pick someone else's cause to argue. But that's just me. And Ubi: If I were you, and wanted to keep my customers, I would get my programmers on a way to get that **** off of people's systems, since it's been proven it's worthless anyway. But again, that's just me. ANd if you are going to include viruses such as StarFarce in your products, at least support the product, and don't send your customers over to these jokes at SF. How would you feel if someone did that to you?

Do as I have done, contact your highest legal authority and show thwm what's going on. this is illegal what they are doing. thisis EXACTLY the same as what SONY/BMG did with thier music CD's by installing the rootkits on peoples CD's without thier knowledge, which left them open to hackers. I doubt that starforce leaves us open to attackers at this point but hey, the situation is exactly the same. Sony/BMG sttled out of court too. ← If you bought Lockdown, thats' exactly what you got. If you are one of the one's that had problems that is. UPDATE on Pigfister's issue with Nero 6.0.6.1: and a Lite-On 48X CDRW/DVD-/+RW I was able to recreate the issue with burning errors burning some music, and copying a disc that I have copied many, many times. So the error appears to be non-drive specific, or maybe it is, who knows. But the point is, it causes problems, and the bigger point is, it does not need to be-installed on our system. Especially when they admit they know it will be cracked in 2-3 days, and that is in an interview with SF posted over at the GRAW forums at Ubi in the new StarFarce thread that I started. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc...13/m/9731094224 I unuinstalled LD and SF, and what do you know? Gone. I do have to say however that when burning the music, I didn't get the errors, only copying the disc, and I never had the error before. And before anyone says call Nero for support, I want to say that is BS, becuase it all worked fine before the installation of StarFarce. That would be like the computer unit in your brand new car going out, and Toyota telling you to call the computer chip mfr. or some stupid crap like that. Now, what I want to know is, why a BIA titlte that uses a crypto-box USB key security device causes no problems, and is non-system invasive, and as far as I know, isn't pirated at all? And I can back the disks up, but even so, I can't play without the USB key. So, the proof is there. Colin brought that SF guy in here for answers, and since he found out LD was cracked the first day, he hasn't been back, and when he was here, he didn't really give us any answers. The same thing with the interview we posted at Ubi. No answers. They try to cover it up with tech BS, and say things like, "Well, we do the same thing that Zone Alarm, Norton, blah blah blah do". The only difference is SF, is they may write their software to use the same ring levels, but you know what? You get support out of them. And with as many times as Pigfister has posted at your forums, and at Ubi Forums, and with the level of detailed information he has provided you guys, you have absolutely NO EXCUSE for not helping the guy. He has had posts deleted over there that hasd the error messages in them, I have seen them, and he had to re-post them, and all he can get out of you is "We'll see if we can duplicate the error?" Gimme a break and help the guy. Because I can help him, but if I do, it's going to touch off a bunch of crap, because it will mean me telling him to uninstall the game, and me taking him through and totally manually uninstalling your crap software, and warning him and everyone I can not to buy another product from a company that uses your so-called product. Ubi won't stand by him because your software is causing the problem. They told him to come to you, for support for their product. As far as I'm concerned, Ubi needs to come up with a workaround to remove your software from their products and get a refund from you. You won't help him, because frankly, either you can't, which I think is a very strong possibility, or you won't. Those are the only two possible reasons. And if either are the case, you have no business selling anything at all that you can't or won't support. And I think you would be surprised just how many of Ubi's customers read these forums, and their customer forums as well. It would be far better thing for everyone if you helped him. Because my answer to his issue is to get your crap off his system and neve let it back on again. And one helluva lot of people will read that solution if it comes about, with very detailed instructions. And just so you know, it's stuff like this that adds to the piracy problem. So many people pirate because they are sick of having to deal with all this crap to play a game they paid good money for, that they are getting to the point where they won't anymore. And let me make it very, very clear: I do NOT condone software Piracy. But Idon't condone lack of support from you ro Ubi for a product that a kid just saved up 50 bucks for, and can't get support. I don't condone either one. But I'm starting to think that piracy is the lesser of the two wvils if this is how things are going to be. Enough is enough. Ubi, StarFarce, support your products.

Actually for the kind of money that Second Chance is paying that guy, the Darwin Award is the last thing he ought to be getting. They make some of the best Body Armor in the world. And what he was saying a bout the physics is right on the money. Laws of physics: Any action produces an equal and opposite re-action. Those guys make darn good money. Darwin Award? I don't think so.

I had a similar problem with Lockdown day before yesterday. With Disc 3. I kept inserting it, and it kept telling me to insert the correct disk. I got the CD version. All I could find locally. What I did notic though with LD, is that the StarFarce that is included assumes you have a DVD version, no matter which version you have, and I wonder if that is causing issue. It wouldn't surprise me. Symantec really ought to come up with a way to quarnatine and do away with the StarFarce Virus, but you can wish in one hand and ###### in the other and see which fills up faster, right? Anyway, I ejected the disc 3 times and re-closed the tray, and the 4th time I hit enter it finally took. Now since this is the first game I've had that trouble with in a long time, and last time, I knew it was a bad drive, this time, this is a fairly new drive, only 2 months old or so, and the only thing that has changed is that StarFarce crap is now on my system and never has been before. But we'll save that argument for the thread it belongs in. But very rarely is it every a Winblows issue. And I can't tell you how disappointed I am that I can't blame this on Microsoft. It just kind of ruins my day. But I am researching whethee or not I cna blame it on StarFarce. ANd if I can, that will make up for not being able to blame it on Microsoft.

There is a downloadable Codec pack that comes from MS that was actually written for MP10. MP10 didn't include these codecs, so you actually need to install them yourself. You run the program, and it installs only the codecs that need updating. This fixed all of my MP10 bugs that I was experiencing. It can be gotten here. But that little gem solved all of my MP10 problems. Why Microsoft didn't include or update those codecs in MP 10 is beyend me, but they didn't.

Surely you jest. I know in Pigfisters case, there has been no legitimate response. They quit coming here when confronted with facts they didn't want to hear or like to see. What kind of response do you expect from them? They are a joke.

It's good system. I have used it before, for about a year with VBS1, and never had one single solitary issue with it. Now Lockdown on the otherhand was a total pain to install. It sucked, because of SF. I like the game, but that SF ###### just ###### me off. It's a pain in the ass. Tomorrow morning though, I'm going to try to duplicate PigFisters problem. And if I do, both them and Ubi are going to get a serious ear full. Because in day after day, they haven't even bothered to try to help him. As far as I'm concerned now, after GRAW(and only after GRAW because we waited so may years for a sequel), as long as Ubi uses SF they will never get a penny from me, and I will advise everyone I know to stay the hell away from them. They wouldn't give the guy support after taking his 50 bucks, you know damn well StarFarce won't support him, and that is just plain ######. So after GRAW, as long as Ubi uses those idiots at StarFarce, I'm strictly a BIA fan from now on, and Ubi can ######. They have gone way too far this time. Everyone should have seen that when Colin brought that so-called company rep in here, and he disappeared after he found out that the new title they were protecting was fully cracked and usable before they sold one copy from a retail store. There comes a time when you just have to call a thing what it is: If it looks like BS, lays like BS, and smells like BS, it is BS. And on both Ubi's and StarFarce's part, this is definitly BS ! !

Another Ubi game, NOT a BIA game. BIA games come included with a USB key that handles the security. Simply put, you have the USB key in a USB slot, and when you play the game, it authenticates to a unique USB key. Very handy, very safe for your machine, and hassle free. ← I'm for that its like a badge of honor too. Does it have BIA stamped on the USB? ← No. Marx Cryptobox.

Go to Start, and right click My Computer. Choose Properties. Go to Advanced. Click the Performance Button, choose the Advanced Tab, go down to the bottom and click the Virtual Memory and click the Change button. Once there, highlight the C drive, read down, and choose the radio button that says No Paging File. Click Set. If you forget to click set, it won't take. Move back up and highlight the area where you want the paging file. Another Physical Drive would be best, but another partition will work well also. Choose the Radio Button that says Custom Size, and set the number in each box to 3032. This is the best performance option for XP, no matter how much RAM you have. Click Set again. Then click OK. Just make sure the drive you choose has 3032MB of space on it for the file. Click Apply. Shut your PC all the way down for 15 seconds, and reboot. That should have you fixed up.

Well, I was doing a little research on your problem, and found a place that had about 18 pages of people with problems with that drive. But, here, is what I would do. Clean each disc, and make sure that the troublesome disc is scratch free. Then go to the mfr. website and see if they have an updated driver or updated firmware. If so, DL and install it, and see if that takes care of the issue. If not, and you are absolutely sure the problem isn't the game discs themselves, return the drive for a new one. I'm not up on sports games, and for the most part, I don't buy EA games, but is it copy protected with StarFarce or some other form of copy protection? I remember a good time back, and I forget which game it was, but I couldn't get it to install because of the copy protection, and a firmware upgrade from HP for the drive fixed it right up. If so, the firmware update may well clear that up.

I really like Close Combat: First to Fight. Very intense action, and very realistic. A good TacSim, as you're squad has to really work together. As said earlier, the only downside was no expansion, and no modding, so the number of missions was a limited. But they are extremely fun missions, with different squad members to play, and intense action. You can even call in chopper support when needed. The AI wasn't bad at all. I have seen worse. Even from ym favorites, the Clancy series. At the price you can pick that game up for now, it's a great buy, and will keep you very frosty until GRAW releases, as long as they don't push it back another 3 mothns....AGAIN. I'd actually love to see them make another one, or a good expansion pack, and this time include mod tools and SDK's, and more missions. That would be the bomb.

Another Ubi game, NOT a BIA game. BIA games come included with a USB key that handles the security. Simply put, you have the USB key in a USB slot, and when you play the game, it authenticates to a unique USB key. Very handy, very safe for your machine, and hassle free.

I just want to clear up right now, from a BIA rep that BIA does not use StarFarce, they use USB keys that you just plug in, and athentication takes place there. No muss, no fuss. I knew that is the one title I have does it, and it's a dream to work with. But I verified from an extremely reliable source that BIA doesn't use StarFarce. So rest easy, andget that BIA title. It will be worh it.

Ya know, there are lots of CP out there that don't invade your system. They don't install drivers, and they don't fubar apps like this did to you. One title in particular stands out to me, and I'll tell you why I tried to copy it. I got a copy of Todd Lammle's Cisco Virtual Lab E-trainer for Cisco routers, and I used that thing to death, and have never been able to find another copy of it to buy. So, one day, I tried to dupe it. I think it's about 6 years old now. Anyway, I tried to dupe it last week, because I noticed it was getting scratched up. It re-installed fine, and I could even do file copy, so I know the disc was readable. That disc was copy protected and wouldn't copy for anything in the world. And that copy protection managed to do everything that StarFarce doesn't, without system invasion, without drive damage or inoperability, and without hassle. It just simple wouldn't copy. And what's funny is, the disc and the 400 page Cisco book that came with it were cheaper than what I just forked over for LD. I have nothing against CP, if a publisher feels they need it, and they feel it will save them money, and actually help the cause. I do have a problem with something that I'm forced to use that is proven not to work, and invades your system like Germany invaded Europe in WWII. Ubi, please find an alternative. There are better ones out there. Hell, I'd rather have to authenticate and activate a product to use it like MS Office now does, Adobe products, Newtek, etc. That works better than StarFarce, doesn't invade your system, and allows you to make backup of your expensive media. It makes everyone reasonably happy. This stuff you have now is a nightmare, and I will be greatly disappointed not to get to buy the game series' I've been collecting, because I will no longer put up with StarFarce. It will be a real bummer to have to give up my GR and R6/RS/FC/SC habits, just because of this ****. But I will, because StarFarce just isn't worth the aggravation.

Inevitably that will be the end result for pc games but who wants a game that screws up their system, is a £30 game worth playing when your hardware costs £1300 and up. If Ubi include code that they will not offer any support for, well maybe it’s their own fault? ← I will check into the BIA thing. If they are using it, I don't think they are using it on everything. I'm going to do some checking and talking, and see if I can find out what it's used on.

Also, if BIA is using it, I'm not sure what on. I have one of their titles installed now, and never had any StarFart crap installed on my machine until I installed Lockdown.

That isn't tech support over there that you posted in. Oh, they call it that, but all it really is, is a StarFarce Corporate "I'm in denial group." They sound like a bunch of addicts over there sitting around in a self help group, getting ready for a big group hug. With all the details you posted about your issue, there is no reason that they shouldn't have had a fix or a reason for you within hours, a day at most. They are a JOKE, period, and a very bad one at that. Here is what I posted over there: Now, even if BIA uses it, they will support their products, and are very good about support for their products and bug fixes. That is the difference.

Good luck on getting any help from those jerks. Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing your burning applications? If I start having burning trouble because of this crap, all I can say here due to forum rules is that I will be waiting for also, for what you are. I was really looking forward to getting SCCT and FC: Instincts at some point, but will not even think of it now. The only reason I will get GRAW is because I have waited years for that game, but that will be the last, because I will no longer put money into Ubi's pocket, even as addicted as I am to 3 or 4 of their series, as long as they use StarFarce. I'd rather move on to titles from Bohemia Interactive, which I am sold on anyway. Armed Assault, VBS2. But after the trouble I had initially getting LD to run, and I have a good system, I just won't do it. I'm going to try burning some stuff today to see what happens, because I burn alot of CD's also, music, Anime, and backups and the like.

I agree. I occasionally experience this prob (Lockdown PC anyone?) but it's a prob with either the hardware or the CD(s). This is not a Windows prob. Might be helpful to tell us what software you are trying to install ← And what kind of optical drive you are using and how old it is. In alot of cases, going to the mfr's website and checking for a rirmware update and applying it if their is one may also fix the issue.

This is the first time I have heard of this problem, at least being blamed on XP. I have seen it with third party stuff, games mainly that you install from multiple discs. But that is a problem with the game software. There is one other cause that is common also: alot of times it can be an indicator that your optical drive is getting worn out, and that the Media Access Chip, the chip that identifies each disc volume when it's inserted into the drive, is on it's way out, and it may be getting time to replace the drive. But I have never seen or heard of it being an XP problem, not with any of the editions. And you all know how I love to blame stuff on Winblows, but this, you just can't.

And I don't even trust StarFarce enough to use their tool. I do it manually. I don't want StarFarce on my PC, let alone use any tool to remove it that came from them.