*more-grind-n-grunt*
 

TippeX;

ok, done as you suggested w. the safemode. This is what happened
after trying to run the EAW in SAFEMODE i get a funky-looking mousecursor (looks like a quarter of a grey disc w. a black orbiting bar around it) it DOES start up but then i get bitched out (error msg) about - naturally in SAFEMODE - "D3D surface renderer not available" and - naturally again - it quits on me.

So that tells me that SOMETHING is blocking/preventing the SECUROM disc-check.

I rebooted into my usual user-account (normal winXP mode), and try to start EAW up, but still no results.

I DID got indeed the "LAUNCH ANALYSIS" context menu back, which i still cannot run in regular winXP mode, only in SAFE MODE, which generated the "AnalysisLog.sr0" 148KB file in C-Root.

For shits and giggles i bought the game "Sword of the stars" (being the RTS fan, and knowing it's using secuROM v7 too) installed it, tried to run it and - NADA/NOTHING - too, but SotS crashed out w. a FATAL ERROR msg-screen (not a BSoD)

i also made a 2ndary useraccount w. admin-rights, in hope that the USER-portion of the registry might be screwed over, but to no avail/effect. Same Problem.

I trieds to run the SECUROM cleaners from CUREROM.COM (namely CUREREG and CURESECUROM). CURESECUROM found some files/entries and told me that it cleaned them out, and CUREREG could not find any "illegally locked/manipulated" registry entries.


3 Questions:
1:) does anybody know whats in the "AnalysisLog.sr0" file ? looks awfully encrypted that stuff (like an assembler/binary file)

2:) being SECUROM a "generic" protectionsystem, there must be a separate "generic installer"-package of SecuROM v7, or not? since in the game's exec's keys/signatures determine what suppose to be on the relevant game-disc's.
Where can i find such generic installer?

3:) could it be, that KASPERSKY Anti-virus, having the feature of PROACTIVE DEFENSE (which includes "Application Activity Analyzer",""Registry Guard","Application Integrity Control (MD5)" and other proactive features) could block the execution/installation of SecuRom v7 ?

to 3 i've to add that i did NOT had the issue w. Kaspersky before in those game-protection scheme regards. But who knows - since if an executable/registrypart got changed, that it either complains/asks about it what to do about it, or blocks it.

But since a lot of games reserving the D3D-render-surface of the desktop for itself, i had occasionally the issues that after patching a game, that Kaspersky BLOCKS the processes, UNTIL the question "executable X has been changed - ALLOW/TERMINATE?", which freezes/crashes the game, but i never get the chance to "allow" the changed game's executable, since the game dosent allow Kaspersky's question-popup to be displayed.

And since we all here know that game-patches contain silent protection-scheme updates (as it happenes for example w. EAW v1.04) maybe something got screwed-up there?

any takers on this tough nut? :)

thx-a-thon in advanced
@

yep im sure the securom people do, tried contacting them?

no such public tool exists, what you're asking about is really a crack tool yep?

if the program is crashing before the cd icon appears then your system is probably corrupt or some registry hooker etc is causing the exit..

again, in such a case, being a legit owner the securom support (never used it myself tho) might be able to help, after all you did buy the game so why not use the support?

possibly, try disabling some apps, try on a different pc etc.. though from what i read, the problem really sounds like its with your system and not securom
if the sr0 works then securom works, if it doesnt work in usermode then something in non safemode is blocking it...

problem is noone else has experienced this issue, so really your only hope is the securom support, as they might be able to read that sr0 and tell you the issue or give you a fix...

really i think thats your best option m8

mööp
 

TippeX

thx for the quick reply,

yes i do own the games for real, :D but i'm a so called "INFOSEC Consultant", and there's some stuff on my box that my clients consider PRIVATE, that i've for backup purposes (after all my box has almost 4 TB's in total HDD space) and before i send the report off to SECUROM, i'd like to knows whats inside it.

w. #2 i asked, if a "separate SecuROM v7 installation package" exist, one that does NOT require to install a/the game that came with it, one that "brutally overwrites/sets straight" what could be messed-up in the registry/services/devices.

something like the official STARFORCE-remover and/or something that does it the other way by "enforcing a clean re-installation" of the dreaded protection-scheme.

Q: is it legit when i OWN a game (w. disc and evreything) to use a 3rd-party patch to circumvent the protectionscheme (since it fucks up so much apparently, according to the internet).

cheers
@

hmm really depends on the eula... (using 3rd party soft etc)

the dialog from the launch config states that its like msinfo32, so well i guess that holds your answer...

*dances a rain-dance around the fire*
 

well I had a big forth-n-back "support battle" going on w. securom themselves - even to the point they sent me a SWEAW.EXE that was almost a meg smaller than the retail-SWEAW.EXE (i wondre what they strippedand you would NOT believe it! Microsoft released a patch that fortified the KERNEL32.DLL against some possible remote-control exploits, and locked-out/booted out securom's protection- scheme!!!

it's the security-patch Windows update KB917422 - IF you uninstall it, the securom v7 affected games like SW EMPIRES AT WAR and the scifi-rts SWORD OF THE STARS will work again - i dont know which else games are affected, but i can think of a bigger number than just these two.

spread the word. securom fracked it up - again! :D

cheers
@

Is that EXE they sent you still Securom protected? Would be nice if it wasn't :)

I had the same problem with the Knights of Honor v1.03 crack, it won't work with KB917422 installed due to the imports being badly rebuilt, probably under the original kernel32 from SP2! Removing that update lets it run again!

well you can check for yourself, and DL it directly from here
http://www.securom.com/support/custo...t129/sweaw.zip
(if they killed the link already let me know, and we'll find another way)
for all you patchers out there have it at it - maybe you guys find something more out by comparing those execs directly (am not a coder).

it's about 1200KBytes less than the retail-exec...i do NOT think that it's being entirely removed, maybe they just got rid of the encryption-wrapper of the exec? But am not a pro when it comes to game-exec's patchings.

enjoy the fun :D

cheers

pid reports (couldn't you have done this yourself?)

Scanning -> G:\SWEAW.exe
File Type : Exe, Size : 11587584 (0B0D000h) Bytes
-> Suspicious MZ Header..
[!] SecuROM Detected - Version 7.24.0006
[!] Possible CD/DVD-Key or Serial Check -> cdkey
- Scan Took : 1.172 Seconds

thus, its still protected.. size vs. original size doesnt really matter, considering compression etc is used...

so i doubt anything is removed.. they probably just gave you a new wrapped exe with a better version.. check the version number of your original and see...

LOL that .exe they sent u was the original .exe version 1.0, so I dont see what diffrence it made after you updated it to version 1.5...

I know I am a bit late, but is there a patch for 1.5 now? I am not going to bother to reinstall if there isn't since I'll be buying the exp pack next month anyway. Oh well, probably shouldn't have done a automatic update after installing... ;)

Can't say I care too much, have over 10 games to play currently! :D

Obviously, if there's none on GCW, there's none at all!

None PUBLICLY available Joe :) I bet there's a crack out there in the private sector!

indeed

Actually I found one, but it's at the site you all seem to hate. Should I just wait?! ;)

Nope; download it, test it and, if it works, upload it to GCW! :)