Place your original DVD in to start the game

[Fearless]

When I start the sh4.exe to play the game it searches for the original dvd rom no doubt that is the security thingy for the game to run but when I already have the original in the drive and start the game only to be told that "hey you must have the original in the drive to proceed" (not in those words of course) has got me stumped :hmm:

Would that be because when starting up it's not reading the dvd rom correctly or is it some other issue at hand? That's the first time ever I've had that happen.

[Quillan]

Have you had a problem with it before? That usually indicates that the computer can't read the copy protection on the disk. It happens sometimes with combination ROM/RW drives, which is why I have two optical drives in my computer. If this is a new installation, then it might just be an older drive that has problems with the copy protection. I'm pretty sure this game uses Securerom, and that has issues with certain brands/models of drives.

[flyingdane]

When I start the sh4.exe to play the game it searches for the original dvd rom no doubt that is the security thingy for the game to run but when I already have the original in the drive and start the game only to be told that "hey you must have the original in the drive to proceed" (not in those words of course) has got me stumped :hmm:

Would that be because when starting up it's not reading the dvd rom correctly or is it some other issue at hand? That's the first time ever I've had that happen.

I had this very same problem and called ubisoft to try to find a fix, come to find out that there are some dvd\rw drives that the copy protection has issues with like my brand new memorex dvd\rw i bought just for this game.

Ubisoft told me i had to buy a plain jane (any brand will do) dvd rom not a burner, ok so i went out and picked up one (sane brand mind you) only just a reader and sure enough it worked, you might try it and see. ;)

[Fearless]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have ASUS DVD RW but never had any probs with it reading protected games. It is intermittent so it doesn't do it every time.

[Seeadler]

Ubisoft told me i had to buy a plain jane (any brand will do) dvd rom not a burner
perhaps they should bundle a read only DVD drive with SHIV or refund the extra cost to play their game :know:

[Rotor]

Ubisoft told me i had to buy a plain jane (any brand will do) dvd rom not a burner perhaps they should bundle a read only DVD drive with SHIV or refund the extra cost to play their game :know:
AND a toptuned graphic card too ;)

[Tool]

I personally think that in this day and age there is NO reason to have to have the DVD/CD in the drive to play any game. Now they recommend you have just a DVDrom to play it? Give me a freaking break...

A lot of guys that are running newer systems may not have the extra IDE slots to run multiple drives (I know my dualcore board doesn't) so I'd be screwed as I only run a pioneer burner and am not forking over the $$ right now for a SATA optical drive.

It is reasons like this where I'm glad I wait for things to get ironed out before I buy most of my games.

Just my nickels worth...
Tool.

[Quillan]

Now they recommend you have just a DVDrom to play it?

This is hardly new. I had this issue with Civ III back at least 5 years ago. The game would tell me to insert the original disk even when it was in my CD-R/RW drive. Since then, I always keep one ROM and one burner in the system. I've since upgraded to a DVD-ROM and a DVD‡R/RW drive, but still. You can connect 2 optical drives to one cable, and most full sized motherboards have 2 IDE connectors on there, so unless you're running a crazy amount of hard drives you should be able to do it.

It has nothing to do with SH4; it's just an issue with a common copy protection that's used on a lot of different games. It'll come up again with something else later.

[macky]

I have this too. I dont think its the dvd burner issue, but mine is intermittent, 2nd time and its fine

[SteamWake]

Make sure you dont have the bonus material disk in the drive by accident :know:

[Jab_Bauer]

Buy a whole cd drive just to play? Id just go with a... err i dont know if were allowed to talk about that stuff here.. but you know what I mean.. *ahem* :arrgh!:

I.. I mean someone I know does.. :arrgh!: with all of the games He owns. He just cant be bothered with swapping discs.

:up:

[Rchris-1]

This has been mentioned before I believe. It worked for me.

I have a 2 year old BENQ R/W DVD and at first SH4 gave me the same security issues. But ... just before going out to buy a new unit I tried updating the firmware and Voila :sunny: works great now. Check your manufacturers website for updates. Maybe it will help you.

Regards

Bob C.

[Spaxspore]

had to reformat last week,

reinstalled the game via my DVDRW drive, put in the mods i wanted and launched the game- NO CD/DVD in drive... i releized what ive done (having extensive experience with securm 7) put it in my dvd rom- worked great.

I hate s7 its almost as bad as star force, am hopeing ubi will do what THQ did, get rid of it and go back to nice old fashioned cd checks. Good thing i sprung for a board with DUAL IDEs (getting harder to find and we poor people need buring now days)or i would be a very angry puppy.

[Marko_Ramius]

Another exemple of the CP who bother a regular / honest customer :damn:


Me too have a second DVD-Rom just for this issue, just in case .. It's really a shame !!

[Fearless]

Well, the issue can be solved. Remove the damn protection :hmm:

It's a shame that people have to purchase another dvd rom drive to make games work :down: To me it's a step backwards. Hell just for the sake of it, they should've left it with Star Force. I had no hassles with that one!!!

Here is another question then. The people that download SH4 instead of buying it off the shelf, what do they use for the game to work??? They sure don't have an original DVD to put in the drive????????

[boatfull]

Most computers come with 2 or more disc drives(Mine did anyways)Make
sure you use the same disc drive that you installed the game from.I installed mine using a DVDRW + - drive and since I use that drive for
other things I sometimes mix my Dvd's up.:oops:

[Tool]

Here is another question then. The people that download SH4 instead of buying it off the shelf, what do they use for the game to work??? They sure don't have an original DVD to put in the drive????????

I d/l SHIII from ubisoft and installed from the d/l file. I didn't need to use any discs with it to play, although I did extract the ISO and burn it to DVD so i had a hard copy of it. I can see why they try to prevent pirating, but all it does is create issues. Years ago I ran into a new Dell where I couldn't use the dvdrom to install a retail cut of MS Office... over an hour later (after calling MS tech support, and digging all over google) I tried the cdrw and it worked.. really pissed me off. That stuff just isn't necessary in this millennium.. and the sooner software makers understand that, the better. I can see now why people do go with nocd patches, just to avoid swapping discs or worse, ruining your original that the producer won't replace.

Tool.

[Fearless]

Here is another question then. The people that download SH4 instead of buying it off the shelf, what do they use for the game to work??? They sure don't have an original DVD to put in the drive????????

I d/l SHIII from ubisoft and installed from the d/l file. I didn't need to use any discs with it to play, although I did extract the ISO and burn it to DVD so i had a hard copy of it. I can see why they try to prevent pirating, but all it does is create issues. Years ago I ran into a new Dell where I couldn't use the dvdrom to install a retail cut of MS Office... over an hour later (after calling MS tech support, and digging all over google) I tried the cdrw and it worked.. really pissed me off. That stuff just isn't necessary in this millennium.. and the sooner software makers understand that, the better. I can see now why people do go with nocd patches, just to avoid swapping discs or worse, ruining your original that the producer won't replace.

Tool.

Thanks Tool, Just as I thought. So the best bet then to avoid this crappy protection system is to purchase the program via a download method. Isn't that then contradicting the protection process? The people that buy off the shelves are severely disadvantaged and to me that shows double standards. I presume it costs more to purchase off the shelve than direct to drive download. So I've paid more just to have protection against piracy and to have pay additional to buy another DVD drive to get it to work properly. Hmmm! something worth checking into. The double standards I mean :hmm:

[Tool]

I think the d/l and store prices are the same... at least according to the email i got form ubisoft, $49.99.

Unless you need all the extra stuff, i prefer to just download my games.

Tool.

[Quillan]

The issues with the downloaded versions are two: bandwidth and patches. You need a good broadband connection to download a game; Medieval 2 Total War came in at nearly 10 gigs in size, IIRC. Not everyone has that. The more pressing issue at least to me is patches. If you purchase a download version of the game, you generally cannot use the regular patches. They add in the disk check! You of course don't have a disk, so then you can't even play the game. Usually the versions for downloaded games come out later than the patch versions for the retail purchase games. This isn't always true; Ubi was quite good about simultaneous release of the patches for both the DVD and downloaded versions of SH3, and I expect that to continue with SH4.

[Fearless]

Ah yes but patch 1.1 is for both dvd and downloadable version. My argument is that you do not need to have a dvd rom in the drive for a downloaded version of SH4 but you do for the purchased off the shelve one. So why should some people that bought off the shelve have to suffer the consequences of the program not running because of the security access issue with DVD R/RW not being suitable. It should apply to both versions not just one. Alternatively get rid of that security crap alltogether. Why make dvd versions of it anyway.

Granted some comp systems have slow downloads but at the end of the day no dvd is needed in the drive to make it game work.

[Quillan]

I agree with you on the copy protection. It seems a waste of time to me; all copy protection eventually can be circumvented and the pirates are going to distribute cracked copies regardless. To those of us who pay for the games, it does nothing but cause us inconvenience and problems. However, I don't think any solution is perfect.

[SteamWake]

Hell cracked copies were up before the game hit the shelves.

They had a few "issues" though :know:

[plaice]

Is anyone having a problem with the mouse not being stable while trying to play the game. I am having this problem an you really cann't do much with this game without using the mouse.

[SteamWake]

Is anyone having a problem with the mouse not being stable while trying to play the game. I am having this problem an you really cann't do much with this game without using the mouse.

While this is way off topic Ill go ahead and pitch in.

If your referring to mouse stutters its "normal" espically at high time compression settings.

Try just waiting a few seconds and it will return to normal.

If its constant and happens at "normal" time speeds you have some issues.

[Seminole]

When I start the sh4.exe to play the game it searches for the original dvd rom no doubt that is the security thingy for the game to run but when I already have the original in the drive and start the game only to be told that "hey you must have the original in the drive to proceed" (not in those words of course) has got me stumped :hmm:

Would that be because when starting up it's not reading the dvd rom correctly or is it some other issue at hand? That's the first time ever I've had that happen.

I ran into this the first day. What happened was that I have a DVD drive and a CDRW drive.

I had the play disk in the cdrw drive and got a similar message. Switched drives and it ran.

Just a thought.

[mrdak]

Hello, I own a retail version of SH4, and for a while I was just sliping the DVD in the drive because I thought it was necessary. I even used nero to make a copy of the DVD so I could use the copy, and save the original disk. I used the copy in my NEC DVD RW ND-3540A drive thinking I neede it in there in order to run the game. Just for the heck of it, I tried running the game with no disk, and she runs just fine. Why do you think I don't need the disk? Did UBI add that feature to the 1.3 patch? Hey, I'm glad I don't need it in there, but I'm guessing I'm not alone here............ am I?

[neumanf15]

Did UBI add that feature to the 1.3 patch?

Yes.

[mrdak]

Did UBI add that feature to the 1.3 patch?
Yes.


That was like ~~~~~~fast~~~~~~ Thanks Neuman.. :D