How to get rid of SecuRom, NOW

[TimeStop]

Alright, so I've read the entirety of this topic (to which I am heretoforth eternally greatful) and the only question I've still got in regards to avoiding SecuROM is this:

Is there any benefit to buying the EPs as many people on this topic still seem ready to do if you are simply going to use a No-CD anyway besides the legal side of it and perhaps getting a serial number?

[Ambular]

Alright, so I've read the entirety of this topic (to which I am heretoforth eternally greatful) and the only question I've still got in regards to avoiding SecuROM is this:

Is there any benefit to buying the EPs as many people on this topic still seem ready to do if you are simply going to use a No-CD anyway besides the legal side of it and perhaps getting a serial number?

I like to own a physical copy of the disk--call it a security blanket--and to be at least nominally legal.  But the only purely practical benefit to using a legit copy as opposed to non-legit is that you don't have to mess with torrents or Daemon Tools or any of that to install the thing.

[jolrei]

You don't actually run RegDelNull. You just install it on C:\. Then go to the Windows command prompt and follow the rest of the directions.

For those of us non techie types: How do I install it on c:\ and get the directions?

You download the regdelnull application as directed and save it to your C:\ drive's root directory.  If you get it zipped, make sure you unzip it so that the file in C:\ is called regdelnull.exe.  Then you follow the directions on the first page of this thread.  Install = put it on the C:\ drive in this case.

If you are still having difficulty figuring this out, you may wish to ask a friend/family member more familiar with DOS commands to help you.  Playing with the registry without any knowledge of what you are doing may be hazardous to your system's health.  If you proceed, follow directions EXACTLY as written in the tutorial.

(to which I am heretoforth eternally greatful)

We have a similar words in English:  "henceforth" and "grateful".

Is there any benefit to buying the EPs as many people on this topic still seem ready to do if you are simply going to use a No-CD anyway besides the legal side of it and perhaps getting a serial number?

Hmmm.  That's a tough one.  Let's see.  Many of us don't care about the legal side, since we don't care to give out a lot of personal information and so we don't register our games anyway.  So much for the legal side.  If you arrr! a copy of the game, there are keygens which take care of all that "protection" crap - so much for needing the serial number.  If you use an arrr! copy and a no-cd crack, you don't run the risk of having suck-u-ROM debilitate your machine.

Nope, you got me.  I can see no particular advantage or benefit, apart from having the colourful and friendly looking CD case with the official "artwork" to clutter up your bookshelf.

[TimeStop]

But the only purely practical benefit to using a legit copy as opposed to non-legit is that you don't have to mess with torrents or Daemon Tools or any of that to install the thing.

So the No-CD is like any other "arr!"ed program once you install it as opposed to something that functions within the installation of the legal copy of the game then. Although I suppose that isn't really a question as it's kind of redundant; that just makes sense.
 

And sorry for my inability to use proper English.

[Ambular]

So the No-CD is like any other "arr!"ed program once you install it as opposed to something that functions within the installation of the legal copy of the game then. Although I suppose that isn't really a question as it's kind of redundant; that just makes sense.
 
And sorry for my inability to use proper English.

It basically just replaces the game's .exe file with an exact duplicate minus the SecuROM.  Everything else comes off the CD, torrent, whatever you used to install.

[jolrei]

I'm worried about you, timestop.  I reread my post where I said "an arrr! copy AND a no-cd crack".  You can also use the bought disk and a no-cd crack, but the no-cd crack just replaces the .exe file that starts the game, and, as Amber said, is securom free.  You still have to have the game, one way or the  other.  You gotta read all the words if you're going to manage the remove securom instructions.

[morriganrant]

I have SecuROM.  I am going to be getting rid of it.  It's just coming down to a choice of going through the lengthy instructions here or a restore of my system and starting over.  But I have a question.  After reading through this entire thread, and some other information about this file, I'm curious what exactly has been happening to everyone as a result of this file - exactly, I mean, what are your personal experiences from having this file invade your computer?  From what I've read it supposedly keeps games from starting, or makes them crash.  Have any of you lost data or had any kind of damage?  I don't want it, I think it's very wrong for them to force it on us, but I really don't even understand what it does, to be honest, I mean the bad things it can do, not what THEY want it to do.

My personal experience was a fire wall that was repeatedly turned off, virus scan and Adaware that was not allowed to update or run properly and "Emulation software detected" even though there was none installed during some of those attempts. Someone I know online had to replace her cd drive though, I trust her to be pc literate enough to believe her when she says that Securom was the culprit. No matter what they did, they could no longer get the pc to recognize the drive, the shop they brought it to seemed to believe that it was also the problem.

[TimeStop]

You gotta read all the words if you're going to manage the remove securom instructions.

I don't have SecuROM, so I'm not really worried about the removal aspect of it. I'm not even sure if I want to install any of the newer EPs, I was just curious as to how it worked. And I see that I worded things wrong - what I meant was that the No-CD does require a game because it is, as you say, just the .exe, but it doesn't require something within the legal version of the game.

No need to worry about me even if I do sound like I'll mess something up - just tell me what it is so that I can figure it out. I never mess around with anything I'm unsure of on my PC until I know everything I need to to do it.

[geekgirl]

I entered a house in Sims and as I moved around the lot I noticed a circle around my cursor outside the house.  It was night time and there was snow on the ground.  There was a dark circle, like a shadow, around the cursor wherever I moved.  The cursor was flickering.

That's normal. there's an option to disable it somewhere in the graphics options - it's called "x-ray cursor," and it is actually useful if you need to find newspapers under the snow, or things like that.

[Zazazu]

I just rewrote the opening post a bit to make it more general, since EA is still using this invasive piece of crap. Below is a summary of the general questions that have been asked in the past 32 pages with answers so as to cut down on repeats.

Random Questions that have popped up since the opening post:

• Can I still patch the game?
  Yes. Just make sure to wait for a patched no-CD .exe to be released. This usually happens within a week of the patch.
• Can I play with a patched game and an old no-CD? I can't wait and I really want the patch!
  Can you? Sure you can. Should you? Heck no.
• I ran through the instructions, but on one of the steps, there was nothing to delete? Did I screw up?
  Try it once more just to make sure, but you probably are fine. Some people don't have all of the files/registry entries due to their PC's particular setup.
• I heard that no-CDs cause Build or Buy modes to not show up, or other bugs.
  This has happened in the past, with some of the early EPs, but I haven't heard of it occurring with any cracks from Seasons on. If this happens, get another no-CD. Go with the big well-known names: Fairlight, Demonoid, and ViTaLiTy.
• I can't see the UserData folder thing with the files I'm supposed to delete!!!!11!1
  Open up "My Computer". Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME HERE. On the window's menu bar, hit Tools, then Folder Options. Click the View tab. Under "Hidden files and folders" make sure to click on the "Show hidden files and folders" radial button. (Insert beef about Windows hiding crap from computer owners for no valid reason here). Click OK. Now click on the new light-colored folder called Application Data. See a folder called SecuRom? Yay.
• I heard that I could just rename this one file or change this to read-only and that would remove SecuROM.
  Lies. All lies. The only way to stop SecuROM from being installed or activated is to run with a no-CD version that disables SecuROM.
• I hate this SecuROM crap! What can I do about it.
  First, vote with your wallet. Second, make it clear that is what you are doing to EA. Third, you might be interested in this site: http://the-sas.org/.
• But what does it actually do?
  Issues that can be caused by SecuRom:
  1. Causes some CD-burning programs not to work. Known targets: Nero, Sonic, Alcohol 120.
  2. Causes some anti-virus programs to stall during a scan, not start a scan, or report subscriptions as expired. Known targets: Norton, McAfee.
  3. Causes issues with running the game from CD on initial install or on reinstall. This is especially bad since EAxis' solution to everything is to tell us to reinstall the game. Users get the message to enter the original game CD instead of a backup, even though they are using the original game CD.
  4. Rumored to actually break CD readers. While this is technically not possible, one user did report that they had been trying to burn a CD right before bed and when they woke up, Nero was still stalled and the CD writer had misaligned. Unnecessary wear-and-tear, if you will.
  5. Possible security risk through rootkit set-up.
  Please do not post asking everyone to let you know what SecuROM has done to them in this thread. It unnecessarily clogs things up. Go to the site linked two points above, use your friendly neighborhood SEARCH function, or post a separate thread.
• Does SecuROM come with other games? Because I have it and I don't know where I got it from.
  Sure does. See here www.gameburnworld.com/protectedgameslist.shtml for a current list of games. If you are still unsure, do a quick search on your engine of choice for the game name and SecuROM.
• Does SecuROM come with the Mac version?
  As of this posting, no.

[catpaw]

I just installed Bon Voyage, and I used the patched no-CD crack from www.gameburnworld.com, and loaded the game. The game played fine, except when I went to make a pet in CAS, the pets were all invisible! The breed options showed up, but the fur and coat options didn't display. I created a cat, and the cat was invisible (and noiseless too), except the family still interacted with it. When a stray dog walked by the lot, the dog's ears were missing, and there was a blank space where the ears should have been. I tested several neighbourhoods, and they all had the same problem. Is this a problem with this particular crack, and is there another site where I could download a better version?

[morriganrant]

Is this a problem with this particular crack, and is there another site where I could download a better version?

I doubt it's the crack, but Gamecopyworld is where most here get their cracks. It seems more like it would be either a custom issue or more likely, a corrupted game file.
Try the new crack, test without cc, if the problem is still there, you may have to back up your user files and reinstall pets.

[Zazazu]

I compared the cracks at Gamecopyworld and Gameburnworld. Both appear to be the same size and state they are by Hatred.

Someone else reported a similar issue on MTS2 as well as some random forum where the question wasn't answered. Unfortunately MTS2 isn't loading at the moment (figures).

EDIT: Thread at MTS2 here. No solution given, but people were having this issue without CC and no one stated they were using a crack. Try a reinstall. Make sure graphics card drivers are up-to-date.

[Craigbear]

I have a question please? I want to install and play freetime but the only craks available are for DVD and i have CD version. Will those work with my game and also there are several versions how do i know which one to download and use?

Thanks in advance.

[Zazazu]

It's the same thing. The crack works with both DvD and CD versions. As for the one you need, if you patch FreeTime you will need the crack with the highest version number, and the latest release date. If you choose not to patch, you'd need the one with the lowest version number and earliest release date.

[Craigbear]

Hi i downloaded the crack with the highest number version one from gamecopy world and one from gameburn world i extracted both and all that gets extracted is a system information file and nothing else. Can someone help me out as i did the same thing with BV and that was much easier. Maybe i need to take out the no-cd crack for BV first? I should add the crack i am talking about id for FT.

Thanks.

[floopyboo]

You've probably put the file in the wrong spot. It needs to go directly in C: - not in a folder within C:

[TimeStop]

I don't claim to be an expert so you may not want to take anything I say definitively. But it looks like where they discuss that is in reference to the deleting keys section. So I would say yes, but I don't know that if I were you I would delete it just because I (not being you) said so.

[dragonballz]

I bow to you and do pennance your feet. I grovel. Thank you for this info. Now to see if my Apt. Life crack will finally work as every time I try to load and install I get a big red x in a window titled "Sims 2". 

[Zazazu]

Delete groups.cache from My Documents/Sims 2/. Sometimes it gets pissy.

[Lion]

I have Free Time version SecuRom, and I need to get rid of it before AL. I followed the Zazazu's instruction. When I have questions, I search the thread and find answers. I've got Step 3 down (uaservice7 not found because I installed in an administrative account).

Now for Step 4, I do not have Securom folder in Application Data. Windows explorer has been configured to show hidden files and folders. I clicked all the "light-colored" Application Data in every account in my "Documents and Settings". I even searched in Documents and Settings, with "search for hidden files and folders" on. No SecuRom folder.

[Edited for more info] In the registry (through regedit), I do have Securom folder under HKEY_CURRENT_USER---Software---. Should I just do what point 2 says:"Double check your registry files. Still see any keys under HKEY_CURRENT_USER---Software---Securom? Just delete the suckers. Won't blow up."?

Or should I follow Li'l Brudder's instruction instead? :

3. Download "TrashReg" and derar it.  Run it.  Look for the !DO NOT DELETE! key by going to File...Find Keys with NULL -embedded names...Check ALL boxes.
4. Right click the !DO NOT DELETE! key and delete it.
5. Download and run CureSecuROMeng.  It'll do its thing.
6. Open up RegEdit again and try to find SecuROM.  If it is gone, yey.  If not, you fail at life.

[jolrei]

I think you can do either one, whichever seems simpler to you.  I used the regedit method as it seemed more direct.  As long as you follow instructions exactly, there should be no problems.

[Lion]

Thanks, jolrei, for confirming. I deleted those entries in the registry. (Fingers crossed...) Isn't it odd that I don't have SecuRom folder?

Finally, I can get to AL. I'm going to buy the game, and gamecopyworld has two cracks. Which one should I use? The one for MULTI16 looks easier, but I have US version. Anybody used this crack? Is it good?

[Lord Darcy]

There is only ONE crack, the other one is No-DVD/Fixed Image to use with YASU/Daemon Tools.

[dragonarts]

Thanks, jolrei, for confirming. I deleted those entries in the registry. (Fingers crossed...) Isn't it odd that I don't have SecuRom folder?

Finally, I can get to AL. I'm going to buy the game, and gamecopyworld has two cracks. Which one should I use? The one for MULTI16 looks easier, but I have US version. Anybody used this crack? Is it good?

And, yes, that version of the no-CD works for US version. It's what I'm using successfully, anyway.