Thanks to Ubisoft for contacting me directly! Now CDRW drive problems! | Forums

[Soulcommander]

I wanted to say thank you to Brent and the staff that made it possible to talk to him about my bad experiences with Ubisoft.

As most of you know I mentioned a UBI tech that swore over the phone to me. She is no longer with the company, so no one has to worry about this kind of treatment again.

I still have mixed emotions about Starforce howerver.

After talking to Brent for I'm sure was well over an hr last night....I decided to reinstall the SHIII game on a newly reformatted computer to give it one last try.
Since I still haven't received my replacement copy UBI sent, I used a friends. I couldnt wait. LOL and since my co worker didn't want the game anylonger as he said it was to buggy I have his for the moment.

Anyway.....I also loaded and burnt (or tried to burn) my wifes and my 25th wedding anniversary pics that my daughter had surprised us with a party....Well TO my surprise........My Plextor 40/12/40a drive took 4 min to burn instead of 2.

Then the problems came. (for the record this drive has the latest firmware flashed)

After the burn I got this error:
Plextor error seek.synch,atip or mechanical positioning error- medium error 03/02/00

After I burned the pics I tried to view them they werent there! The drive couldnt even read the disc.....Tried it in the dvd rom drive and it seemed they were all there.

Tried a few more discs (retail discs, games,microsft office etc) but the drive was not able to read them.

I tried rebooting the computer...
Heres what happened....

The Plextor light kept on blinking.....9 blinks then a pause then 9 more.etc etc.Windows could not load until I opened the tray on the plextor....then after getting into windows I tryed to close the tray...It wouldnt close.
I slowly forced it closed with the finger....
After doing this...It looks as if its trying to read...but nothing is in the drive....I get a pause every so often of a disc icon by the mouse cursor. And I cant open anything on the desktop, without it taking 2 minutes.

Shut the system down and started up again and its still doing the same thing.
I called Plextor...We use Plextor alot in our business too. Their tech told me the same thing my tech told me.

It seems that the drive has failed or it cant read the media. Well da it can't read any media! I have to think that this could be Starforce related only because of the posts on the forum. Im going to have to reformat the 2nd time now. OMG this isn't what I was hoping for.



I was having Atapi time out errors on this Plextor after installing SHIII you can verify that in my past posts. But I never did try to burn with the drive until late last night when all of this occured after the burn.

So I and my staff are baffled! At the moment I feel that Starforce is the problem.

I want all of you who have had drives die to please post!

Thanks again however to UBI and the staff for apologizing about the past problems. You guys do care and I thank you.

[W.Irving]

Your Plextor drive seems to be faulty. Test it in another computer.

[Soulcommander]

I did test it when I was getting the timeout errors and they werent happening on the other computer. I haven't had a chance to test it yet now with this new issue, since now it wont even read a cd anymore. Again its funny how this started after installing SHIII. I would like to think its just a coincedence but with the past issues from others I just don't think it could be.

[blue_76]

did the problems with the drive start when u upgraded the flash firmware?
if you are absolutely certain that starforce is the issue, then i'd suggest you post in teddy bar's starforce related thread, he's a member of simhq and might help to get the message across.

here's a link to his thread http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...3/m/7641071523

[Soulcommander]

Right I know about his thread....UBI is calling me later this afternoon...Brent that is...

I just stated that the firmware was the latest so no one would think of posting for me to do that. But actually the firmware flash was done over 6 months ago....and the drive was functioning perfectly..I must of burned about 8 cdrs since then. What I first noticed (I put this is Teddys thread) was the event viewer of Xp was indicating a timeout error with the drive after I installed SHIII....I first noticed a problem after installation of SHIII but didnt correlate it with the game as I had no clue what Starforce was or was even installed. So the problem went on and on...I didnt do a burn until last night... I dont burn much with the drive maybe 30 burns so far all with no problem. This happened afte the install of SHIII. Beleive me I know it sounds crazy! But I just got a PVT email from someone else with almost the exact same issue. I didnt believe the posts here about the CDRW drives and actually in one of my posts I even said that ....But now its happened to me.
So anyone with a cdrw drive please try to burn a cdr and see if you notice anything happen!

Thanks...

[ulfwulf]

i had the same problem after installing sh3
it destroyed my cd-drive
after disconnecting the cd-drive
the game works fine

it's a starforce problem

in the manual(page 4) it says:
"NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives"

it's a known problem to ubi and starforce that the copyprotection ****** peoples computers

[sav112]

i just remembered my last burn did not work with me backing up mt computer?

i'll have to give it a go and see again

If it the case that this game kills my DVDRW then im wanting my money back, its already lost customers as two of my friends liked the look of it but they dont want there new computers messed up.

[Soulcommander]

Originally posted by ulfwulf:
i had the same problem after installing sh3
it destroyed my cd-drive
after disconnecting the cd-drive
the game works fine

it's a starforce problem

in the manual(page 4) it says:
"NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives"

it's a known problem to ubi and starforce that the copyprotection ****** peoples computers

Guys Please if you can explain exactly what occured and if you were able to fix the issue. I am working on getting info to Ubisoft and Im going to take the cdrw drive out and try it in another computer...
Be specific. when you post as much as possible.
Tell me the drive manufacturer too. I want to know details of what occured. All this info will go to Starforce so be specific!

[sav112]

I know it could be just talk but if i'm thinking of not installing the game as i did a fresh os install a few weeks back then i have a problem with it.

the thing only cost me â£17.99 my DVDRW which i use to back all the family pics on and my music cost me near â£50 and it's new i got it for this game as well as i did not have a DVD player.

Ubisoft better hope its not the case I for one will think twice about any game with Starforce and If my drive fails UBIsoft will never get any of my custom again.

[W.Irving]

Has it been confirmed that SF writes to the firmware of the device? Wouldn't that require the driver to know how to flash every DVD-drive on the market?

I very much doubt there is a risk of permanent damage to the drives.