Does anyone else have problems with the copy protection?

[Kuplo]

This is the first time that I've experienced this situation.

There are times that C4 loads up fine from the CD, and then there are the awful times that C4 pops up the copy protection notice saying that I need to insert the real cd and not a backup

OR

It tells me that it failed to identify the cd in the amount of time alloted.

I've not installed any drive emulation software and the real cd is in the drive. This is a reasonably new drive and is a Lightscribe drive, but I've also tried it in a Sony drive as well and also gotten these copy protection error messages.

The message that pops up more times than the other is the "Failed to authenticate CD in the alloted amount of time" or something like that, but I do get a sprinkling of the insert real cd not backup thrown in every now and then.

I can certainly get around this problem by installing a 3rd party program to avoid the CD issue, but I really shouldnt have to.


I have other games that use the same copy protection that C4 uses, and they don't have this issue whch leads me to believe that perhaps the CD itself is faulty somehow.

This CD is also still in brand new condition with no smudges, or scratches what so ever.


Anyone have any information on this, perhaps some setting in my XP drive properties that needs to be made on the CD drives that XP didnt default to when installing XP?

[Keith]

The technical info in this Sierra Technical Support knowledge base file refers to the game F.E.A.R. by name, but the information in it is valid for any game suffering from your wrong disc/wrong cd problem:

F.E.A.R. - Issues with copy protection and related disk read errors. If you encounter a message that is similar to (but not limited to) one of the following: 'No disk inserted', 'Wrong Disc inserted. Please insert the original disc into your CD/DVD drive. 'Unable to authenticate disk within time limit'. (http://www.europesupport.com/vivendi_current/(wxsvif45wg3tpd45dqgvv555)/Pages/ViewFAQ.aspx?FAQID=1805)

[vic_4]

The only problem I got when I inserted disk 2

[Kuplo]

Thanks for that, everything there either doesnt apply to my computer or has already been done other than:
6. Try making changes on DMA setting for the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives.

Windows XP/2000

Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.
Click the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
Go down the list and find IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
Double-click on Primary IDE Channel.
Click the Advanced Settings tab.
From the Transfer Mode drop down menu, select
DMA if available and click OK.
If DMA is already selected Select PIO.
Repeat steps 4-6 for the Secondary IDE Channel.


Both my primary and secondary IDE channels have them set to DMA if available and I've changed them in the past to PIO, but only to have other games give me copy protection errors and say to change them to DMA if available, so Im leaving them at DMA if available and hoping that there is another solution as I would rather have to keep trying to start C4 when these errors happen rather than have multiple other games tell me to switch them back to DMA if available.

Thanks for taking the time to reply however.

[Keith]

Right click on the Caesar IV icon and run Launch Analysis. Put resulting C:\AnalysisLog.sr0 file in a email to support@securom.com. Tell them what your problem is and what you have tried. You might want to zip that file before attaching it to the email.

[Kuplo]

Okay will do.

Thanks, hope they can figure out what is causing it, short of telling me to go buy *another* DVD drive.

Kuplo

[imhotep3147]

Okay will do.

Thanks, hope they can figure out what is causing it, short of telling me to go buy *another* DVD drive.

Kuplo

If it is securom causing the problem, I can advise you to not buy anything Phillips, Sony, or generic walmart....I suffered that little problem with COTN and the only solution available at that time was to "go buy another drive". Hopefully something has changed by now, but if not, a LiteOn DVD R/RW drive is what finally worked for me. Good luck. :D

[mouse]

Sony has a history of not working with secu-rom for years and bet it's worse since the rootkit issue. Have never had a problem with Samsung drives and copy protection. Also agree that setting any drive to PIO is not a good idea performance wise.

[Kuplo]

Strange this sony drive is an old drive that I saved out of the computer than I purchased last year and only put it into this acer computer a week or so ago becuase the orignal dvd drive took a dump and would only read movies but any music or data cds or dvds put into it and it would ignore them and say there was no disk inserted so thats why I used the last years sony which has always worked with my games be it securerom or safedisk or whatever.

Seems most likely to me that this is an issue with a bad cd of some sort, since if the rest of the securerom games that I have work without any incidents then its logical to assume it's the CD's. Anyway, I've offed the email to securerom to see what they have to say about it.