Starforce? Has it Really been tested!!!!

[13owman]

Was just wondering if Tom's had done any hardware performance testing with the Starforce CD protection?
If you listen to 90% of the people that have installed games that have it on it they will tell you that they have problems with their CDDVD burners after installing it!
If you listen to the Manufacture of the Starforce driver they of course will tell you that there is nothing wrong with it :roll:
I would like to know is has there been any objective testing on this so I can settle it once and for all in my mind!
Me?? Yes I have had probems!!!

 

[mpjesse]

Yes, I've heard about a lot of problems with Starforce (version 3 specifically). I think this is why most developers stay away from it...

I read an article over a year ago about some driver starforce installs unbeknownst to the user. Kinda like the whole Sony fiasco.

-mpjesse

 

[Soulcommander]

Yeah, I wouldn't doubt what you read wasn't by me. This has been a long fight for public awareness, since May of last year 2005.
I have been asking Toms to please conduct testing on this for a long time. Also have spoke to Mark Russinovich...He did look into it briefly but really not in depth as to specific problems Starforce is causing. Only stating that it was the Publishers responsibilty to provide an uninstall feature for Starforce within the game.

The drivers it installs can not bee seen unless you go to Device manager, view, click on show hidden devices and look into the Non Plug and Play Drivers.

You will then see something like this listed:

Starforce Protection Enviroment Driver (version XX)
Starforce Protection Helper Driver (Version XX)
Starforce Protection Synchronization (Version XX)