new method to bypass starforce 3!

[john486496]

hI all !

temp,all drivers can mess a system.However this drivers works perfectly for me as said in tutorial, at the contrary to SFNigtmare with my system.

grumpy,thanks, you are right, all people can't have a sata harddrives!
This is the consequences of complexity of starforce that make different issue for each user.

RIght. When I have read temp post,I think that I should not post anymore in this forum,cause I have take the time to translate and test this method and this sort of people should use more of his brain instead of claims:"I dont need that....blah...blah"

leezer3 I confirm that this method work with non nforce chipset:I have a intel Pentium M based chip.Be care to order and number of drives.

However I have tested with only Trackmania sunrise (starforce 3.4.71.19).Maybe newest version of starforce blacklist VirtualDrive Pro.
As contrary to someone said in daemon tools forums,I think this could be a good product for backup cd/dvd.

It would be interessant to test the backup possibilities with starforce 3 (officially supported in v10)and securom 7..worse than alcohol120%?
Can someone post his result here ?it would be nice

I don't have time to test with other games ,but I think if we combines this method with other and other tips against starforce (sfcure method,rename drivers of VDRIVEpro..) we can find new method to bypass starforce while waitng ide jammer's daemon tools!

Testers and specialists feel free to find this new ways with VirtualDrive pro,daemon tools,alcohol120% : WE NEED YOU !

[leezer3]

Hiya mate,
Any chance of you providing some more complete system info please?
Just tried this on the lappy (Tecra S1, Centrino chipset) & SF works without drives being disabled in any way (POP 2T). It sounds to me as if we may have found another 'inacessible' chipset, or it could possibly be related to the fact that I anyway have a hotpluggable DVD/ HDD. (Normally use the HDD)
An Everest report would be great

Cheers

-Leezer-

[Joe Forster/STA]

(It is very sad to see the home edition of Lavalys Everest, formerly AIDA32, an "industry standard" free software, having been discontinued... )

[!HaGaR!]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

(It is very sad to see the home edition of Lavalys Everest, formerly AIDA32, an "industry standard" free software, having been discontinued... )

@J.F./STA - Yep. Sad, that they stopped the free one. Offtopic, though

Well, VirtualDrive10 isn´t that cheap at all... Around fifty bucks.
But, I´ll have a try if my trial-download-mail will appear in the inbox...
Dammit, hate registrations for trialware...

Bye the way: Nice post, if it works! Thx for sharing!
But... I´m afraid how long this method will face the starforce-updates...


UPDATE:
=======

Workaround confirmed with:
- Worms 4 Mayhem (incl. Update-Patch)
- Prince Of Persia - The Two Thrones

Used Virtual Drive 10 for disabling, image mounted in Daemon Tools V4.00

Motherboard-Chipset: Nforce 2
Before installing VirtualDrive 10: Starforce detected IDE drive and wants the disc there
After installing VirtualDrive 10 and following the guide above: Starforce checks discs and succeeded.

Fooling around a bit more with it tonight...
BTW: VirtualDrive10 gives you a fifteen day trial...

UPDATE 2:
========

Confirmed Games:
- Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Retail)
- Trackmania Sunrise (incl. eXtreme Add-On/Patch)

UPDATE 3:
========

Tested Game: Trackmania Sunrise eXtreme
- Software-Drive-Disabling via Starforce Nightmare: Detected, Starforce gives Error-Feedback
- Software-Drive-Disabling via Virtual Drive 10: Successfull, game starts

Re-Enabling drives gives a little error. While disabling the ide-drives, HardwareManager reports a deactivated Nforce-Controller. After re-enabling them, the Nforce-Controller is "enabled" again, but the IDE-Drives under the "Drives"-Tab is still disabled. Right-Clicking on it and "reactivating" the drive is successfull. Drive is recognized by windows and other applications (nero) again. Reboot was not needed.

Small hint: With SFN-Deactivated IDE-Drive the Virtual Disc 10 application reports an error when it tries to deactivate the IDE-Drive, but starforce will be cheated nevertheless.

Well... Something strange happened... Had the idea to test VD10s abilities to start starforce-images... But... VD10 recognizes its OWN virtual drives as physical ones... Deactivated Daemons Drives, but problem still stays the same. Added another virual drive with VD10, rebooted as requested... Same thing again... VD10s virtual one appears to be a physical to it... Trial-Limitation? Would be weird, though...

Any suggestions!?

[SamFisher]

Originally Posted by !HaGaR!

@J.F./STA - Yep. Sad, that they stopped the free one. Offtopic, though

Well, VirtualDrive10 isn´t that cheap at all... Around fifty bucks.
But, I´ll have a try if my trial-download-mail will appear in the inbox...
Dammit, hate registrations for trialware...

Bye the way: Nice post, if it works! Thx for sharing!
But... I´m afraid how long this method will face the starforce-updates...


UPDATE:
=======

Workaround confirmed with:
- Worms 4 Mayhem (incl. Update-Patch)
- Prince Of Persia - The Two Thrones

Used Virtual Drive 10 for disabling, image mounted in Daemon Tools V4.00

Motherboard-Chipset: Nforce 2
Before installing VirtualDrive 10: Starforce detected IDE drive and wants the disc there
After installing VirtualDrive 10 and following the guide above: Starforce checks discs and succeeded.

Fooling around a bit more with it tonight...
BTW: VirtualDrive10 gives you a fifteen day trial...

UPDATE 2:
========

Confirmed Games:
- Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Retail)
- Trackmania Sunrise (incl. eXtreme Add-On/Patch)

UPDATE 3:
========

Tested Game: Trackmania Sunrise eXtreme
- Software-Drive-Disabling via Starforce Nightmare: Detected, Starforce gives Error-Feedback
- Software-Drive-Disabling via Virtual Drive 10: Successfull, game starts

Re-Enabling drives gives a little error. While disabling the ide-drives, HardwareManager reports a deactivated Nforce-Controller. After re-enabling them, the Nforce-Controller is "enabled" again, but the IDE-Drives under the "Drives"-Tab is still disabled. Right-Clicking on it and "reactivating" the drive is successfull. Drive is recognized by windows and other applications (nero) again. Reboot was not needed.

Small hint: With SFN-Deactivated IDE-Drive the Virtual Disc 10 application reports an error when it tries to deactivate the IDE-Drive, but starforce will be cheated nevertheless.

Well... Something strange happened... Had the idea to test VD10s abilities to start starforce-images... But... VD10 recognizes its OWN virtual drives as physical ones... Deactivated Daemons Drives, but problem still stays the same. Added another virual drive with VD10, rebooted as requested... Same thing again... VD10s virtual one appears to be a physical to it... Trial-Limitation? Would be weird, though...

Any suggestions!?

i've nforce3 chipset and i'll try that it seems like working perfect... maybe somebody make a "hider" hides optical drives same as "virtualdrive10"... thing would be much easier if it would be..

[kooka]

you all say guy virtual drive works for you how you make it work pls help

[Joe Forster/STA]

@kooka: Don't litter with your off-topic questions here; use the "PC Games" forum instead!

@!HaGaR!: I believe NO ONE should even launch a browser and go online without knowing, at least, basic English! The world language is certainly not English (yet?) but the Web language is English. (I know German and French people - and probably quite a few other nations, too - really get pissed about it but, well... better luck next time... ) Also, organizing not only the translation of already existing guides but also the maintenance of translations, whenever an English guide is updated, is a major headache; I don't want to bother with it.

(Damn, gotta start reading this forum. I've never visited it before... )

[neptun]

Originally Posted by john486496

....However I have tested with only Trackmania sunrise (starforce 3.4.71.19).Maybe newest version of starforce blacklist VirtualDrive Pro....

Up to version 3.4 of starforce ( included 3.4 ) software disable of drives through device manager or using SFNightmare works.The problem is with 3.5 and 3.6.For this versions software disable works most of the time for nforce based motherboards and fof pentium m chipsets as i see but for other chipsets this does not work anymore.All this things with hiding of devices are a temporary solution.The next version of starforce and maybe even the next patch for a game will make it not to work anymore.The real sollution is either an IDE virtual drive or the hope that someone will find a way to crack all starforce games ( which is not possible in my opinion ).Another good solution is to use additional IDE controller on PCI slot and connect your optical drives to it so windows detect them as SCSI devices.

[Evil Homer]

Originally Posted by neptun

The real sollution is either an IDE virtual drive or the hope that someone will find a way to crack all starforce games ( which is not possible in my opinion ).Another good solution is to use additional IDE controller on PCI slot and connect your optical drives to it so windows detect them as SCSI devices.

Yes, I agree the ultimate starforce crack would be great but I can confirm that using a PCI Raid card to connect your opticals works fine, since I've been using one there isn't a Starforce game that I can't play with an image. Thats provided that you spend some time trying to create the right image. I use Alcohol 120% for all my images and sometimes it may take 4, 5 or even 6 try's with different settings and speeds but as I said I haven't got a Starforce game that doesn't work. Here's just a few of the games that work.
*Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory
*V8 Supercars 2 (Aust), Toca Race Driver 2 (Eng) DTM Race Driver2 (Ger)
*Ricky Ponting-International Cricket- I think Brian Lara's Cricket is identical game.
*King Kong
*Prince of Persia-The Two Thrones
*BOS-Bet On Soldier
*Worms 4-Mayhem
Thats what I can actually play ATM without unplugging anything, no doubt there would be more Starforce games it would work with but I don't own anymore.
There is one problem though, I have Sata drives on this machine and none of those games worked before with any kind of workaround, now they all work on this machine but I also installed the same kind of Raid card on my other machine that has IDE hard drives and for the life of me I can't get it to run properly with card installed so I can't try the games until I get the machine running with the card.
Anyway just thought I'd let you know this method does work but if anyone has any ideas on why my other machine won't work I would love to hear from you.
Thanks EH