Starforce Posts Their objections to Toms Hardware Article

[stratege]

must say:

- no disk inserted
- push eject and hold it until the diodes blinks three times
- release button
- tray eject
- insert disk, bypass-speed enable
- bypass-speed deseable by
* no disc inserted.
* eject button press one time.

NOW, THIS IS TO BE USED CAREFULLY. this is know to work only for this plextor model.

[stratege]

More valuable informations:

Knowed harware to fail creting/reading starforce protected disk:

# EAC CD-W552E (firmware T016) - this latest drive from TEAC reads data on a very high quality level, but it refused to record any data on the disc. The recorder can't identify the disc as suitable for recording.
# DVD-ROM LG GCC-4120B Combo (firmware 2.02) - it identifies blank StarForce CD-R media only every two times; its reading is unstable and slow.
# CD-ROM CyberDrive CD486D (firmware 150J) - it reads StarForce CD-R discs quite slow, the speed doesn't make operation comfortable.


source: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/starforcecdr/

[Col7777]

Firstly thanks for opening this thread again.

We have had a lot of good points mentioned, I removed SF from my system including the hidden files, I was having problems with both my DVD-RW and DVD-Rom.
I may be one of the lucky ones but now they both seem to be working fine.
I was having problems writing disk, getting errors I never had before and on the DVD-Rom I kept getting the no disk in drive message when there was.
I watch a lot of my WW1/2 DVD's on the PC and a lot of time it wouldn't play even after numerous re-boots, now they do.

I did mention in one of my earlier posts, go to Google search and type in "starforce problems" I will ask you just to look on some of the other forums in the links, guys just like us having problems since they installed games that included SF.
Obviously the odd link takes you to a pirate site but a lot are genuine forums.

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Col7777

I was having problems writing disk, getting errors I never had before and on the DVD-Rom I kept getting the no disk in drive message when there was.

Have you ever tried the SF driver update?

[Col7777]

@Gizzmoe,

To be honest no, I didn't want to risk it, I think I know what your reply will be, it's like having a game and complaining about the bugs when there is an update to fix them.
It's just that I've read so much about this SF I would rather not.

[Soulcommander]

Stratege
Wanted to let you know that your info has been forwarded to Aaron and we hope that Toms will study this theory too. No promises. But I wanted to let you know.

Soulcommander

[Soulcommander]

Originally Posted by Gizzmoe

stratege, thanks for the very interesting informations! Earlier in this thread I´ve already speculated about bad firmware design and a "misinterpretation" of standard commands as the main cause for drive failures in connection with SF. Yes, it´s just a speculation, but it´s not too far-fetched.

SC, I think now you have a very good reason to contact Plextor again to find out if it maybe was a firmware problem.

Actually when I spoke to Mr Resovich with Plextor I did mention this as my Toshiba drive has no flashable firmware and was not affected. Of course the toshiba drive can not burn either...So we talked about the goal of Starforce in general and of course we all know that SF will not allow you to make a backup copy of the game which contains its protection so indeed it focuses on the writers.

The conclusion of that conversation...And I have to think way back...was something like this::: It;s possible for any drive with flashable firmware to be flashed but any program that could accomplish that would be a very intrusive piece of software.

Thats how it was left with me....I had this same talk with a Plextor tech too although he lacked knowledge in that dept.

SC

[Soulcommander]

Originally Posted by stratege

Actually, it permit to put reading capability at max.

48x for reading a cd is sometimes reach. By doing this bypass, you enable this speed to be the "normal" speed. the reader goes at max speed, always....taking not care of the read errors ....


Now that you ask me this, this is looking very familiar to that "spin up very very fast and for a prolonged period of time" problem.

GIZ this is exactly what we talked about on the phone. I do beleive its possible to reach an overated rpm as I never heard my plextor drive operate like that before SF was installed.

THIS is like a high pitched,cd shattering speed! Its not the norm is what Im trying to get accross here.

[Soulcommander]

Originally Posted by Col7777

@Gizzmoe,


To be honest no, I didn't want to risk it, I think I know what your reply will be, it's like having a game and complaining about the bugs when there is an update to fix them.
It's just that I've read so much about this SF I would rather not.

I did try it though and it didn;t make a difference. I did this when I was conducting tests and reformats as instructed by ubi.

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Soulcommander

The conclusion of that conversation...And I have to think way back...was something like this::: It;s possible for any drive with flashable firmware to be flashed but any program that could accomplish that would be a very intrusive piece of software.

Yes, but the Mandrake example has shown that in this case a standard ATAPI command plus a faulty firmware was enough to cause such a problem.

Originally Posted by Soulcommander

GIZ this is exactly what we talked about on the phone. I do beleive its possible to reach an overated rpm as I never heard my plextor drive operate like that before SF was installed.

THIS is like a high pitched,cd shattering speed! Its not the norm is what Im trying to get accross here.

Call the Plextor guys, they should be able to tell you if it´s possible to over-rev their drives. If it´s possible then they can probably also tell you why it´s possible. As I said, please also ask them to reflash your drive (if they still have it), then we would know if a killed firmware was the reason why your drive has stopped working. All this is very important information.

[Immacolata]

[edit]I will reserve final jugdement on SF t ill I hear more about this.

[Serverdaemon]

Originally Posted by Dead Mans Hand

Interesting, I was not aware that could be done, is there anyway you could site a source or virus name? I'm sure by now it's been fixed or is atleast recognized by various anti-virus utilities and is fairly impotent. Still I've never heard of such a thing and would be interested in looking into it.

Oh it was years ago!
I have NO idea what it was called... I can ask my bud's though...

S

[LtHavoc]

@Serverdaemon

I think it was the old CIH virus from 1998 that over-wrote your harddrive and then tried to zap the bios.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/cih.html



For more info about what SF does in the hidden driver department and how this could potentially let a virus like the above harm your computer, do a google on StarForce and ring-0. If the information found is correct, is however open for discussion.

[Serverdaemon]

Originally Posted by LtHavoc

@Serverdaemon

I think it was the old CIH virus from 1998 that over-wrote your harddrive and then tried to zap the bios.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/cih.html



For more info about what SF does in the hidden driver department and how this could potentially let a virus like the above harm your computer, do a google on StarForce and ring-0. If the information found is correct, is however open for discussion.

Could be!...

S

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by LtHavoc

For more info about what SF does in the hidden driver department and how this could potentially let a virus like the above harm your computer, do a google on StarForce and ring-0. If the information found is correct, is however open for discussion.

IIRC that problem no longer exists. But even if it still would, it´s irrelevant, because the vast majority of gamers logs into Windows with admin rights. Viruses and other harmful pieces of software don´t need Starforce to kill a Windows installation or to delete other important files.

Don´t open email attachments from unknown senders, keep Windows updated, use antivirus/anti-spyware software, a firewall, a decent browser and email client and make regular backups, then there is not much that can happen to your system.