Arghhhhhh! I need advice....

[Malygris]

Hi, I bought Battlefield 2, and upon trying to run I get the infernal Cd/Dvd emulation software message. The thing is I don't have, nor have I ever had, any Cd emulation software installed. If there is such software on my machine, I'm utterly ignorant of its existence. Has anyone else had a similar experience, and if so, what did you do? Is there a list of ALL of this cd/dvd emulation software somewhere so I can go through my installed programs and check for it? I don't have CD Clone, I don't have Alcohol, or any of the others (Daemon, etc) TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE.

This happened one time before with another game. I spent almost two weeks with Activision cust support to absolutely no avail. I ended up taking the darn game back to Walmart (luckily, they accepted it back), and just got a refund. Activision gave up on it (they wanted me to format my machine and reinstall everything??? I told them to, well you can guess...) But now this is an EA Games product, and the exact same problem....

I would sincerely appreciate any constructive advice, and a list of all of this software. If it's on my computer, I'll gladly get rid of it. But looking through Program Files, I can't spot anything. I do have CDex (converts music cd's to mp3's), and PowerDvd (my dvd player).

[glenbo]

have you got clone cd or clone dvd installed?

[Grumpy]

@Malygris
Read the FAQ. You may find your answer in there.

[Malygris]

No, I don't have CDClone, or Clone DVD, installed. See statements in post above.

I did read the FAQ.

Most of these CD Emulation errors people post questions about are because they have emulation software installed. They blissfully uninstall their Alcohol or whatever, and they're up and running.

Here's the catch.

I don't have CD Emulation software.

I don't have DVD Emulation/clone software.

But I DO have this problem.

Is there anything else that anybody knows that would cause the software to think I have cd emulation (when I don't).

[DABhand]

AnyDVD and NeroImage

[Joe Forster/STA]

NeroImage, too?! Someone, please, confirm. (I always do a minimum Nero installation, don't have this one installed.)

[Malygris]

Thanks for the replies. No, I don't have AnyDVD or NeroImage. The closest I have to imaging is my Norton Anit-virus has a 'Install Norton Ghost' button. It's not installed though.

[Grumpy]

Just for the record, I have Alcohol 120, Nero, CloneCD, CloneDVD, AnyDVD and Blindwrite installed and I dont recieve emulation messages when playing Battlefield 2.
Admittingly I dont let AnyDVD autostart, I start it manually when needed, and I also dont have NeroImage enabled. Not that I can confirm if these 2 programs would indeed be a problem for BF2?
I use a self created mini image to play BF2 online without problems.

So for you Malygris you may have to go thru the hassles of contacting EA to help you with your problem.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Why the fuck can't the copy protection identify the problematic software explicitly in its error message, I wonder...

[Malygris]

Joe, you hit the nail right on the freaking head. IMO, the blasted error message should definitely include the name of the software that is causing the message. It'd make it a heckuva lot easier to nail down exactly what is causing the problem.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Actually, in the unprotected version of Securom 7-protected (or is it some other copy protection? don't remember exactly!) executables, you can find a big amount of textual references (including software names) to virtual CD/DVD emulators and similar software, even several versions of them. So, when the copy protection finds out the problematic software, it probably even knows its version number!

Displaying it would help legitimate customers as well as the publisher/developer a lot, while solving problems, not only crackers. (Also, I think crackers don't give a fuck about such error messages anyway.. )

You might wanna add this idea to your report, let them suffer a bit with making up a reply that explains why this idea is bad (while we all know it is good).

Joe, you hit the nail right on the freaking head.

Yeahh, but we still haven´t got an explanation for his problem.

[acal3000]

Having to uninstall backup software to run a game is one most retarded things ever created. Nobody has the right to tell what things you have to install on your computer