More Awesome Than You!

Whenever I try to launch BV, I get the following error message:

"A required security module cannot be activated.
This program cannot be executed (5017)."

I've tried reinstalling, and the EA troubleshooter isn't helping at all (of course). Does anyone know what I can do to fix this?

That usually means it can't find the CD to check it.

That's odd- it's a legal copy of the game, the CD's in the drive and everything. Do you know what I could do to fix it?

Yes -- look a little further down the forum for the thread on using BV without a CD -- there's pointers/links in there to no-cd exes you can download and solve the problem. :)

I'll do that, thanks for the help.

Comes to something, though, when you have to install a no cd crack in order to access a legal, bona fide copy of the game!  Could one sue EAxis, I wonder?

I think it's more the almost-standard CD and DVD drives.  I had problems in the past with some games (including various Sims EPS) on my laptop because the DVD burner drive just didn't read the copy protection right, so the game never found it.

Odd, I play Pets on my laptop without having encountered this problem.  Must just depend on which particular dvd player it has installed.

Yea, it's definitely a dvd player issue.

Problem with a laptop is you're stuck with the player you've got!

Not necessarily -- I've seen replacement drives for laptops in the big box stores.

Oh, well, in that case, I suppose it's down to how much it's going to cost, and whether you can find one that's any better than the one you have.

This error is the result of the new (and sucky) Securom v7 protection EA started using, Pets still used the less paranoid Safedisc v4.7 so that's why you've never seen it.

The Securom protection stops the game from loading if it sees any virtual cd-rom/burning software or debugging software. The only good thing about it, is if you have the right kind of burner you can make a working backup for a clean pc using the twinpeak method :3 The protection works with most drives, it's just the other software Securom blocks that trips it up.

Well, if they make it so enough people just can't play the game they've bought and return them to the store, and word gets around, they'll wish they'd stuck to the Safedisc version!  I can understand they need to keep people from making illegal copies of their software, but making it impossible for those who have bought the game to actually play it is stupid!

They fail at stopping actual pirates. ARR!

Unfortunately, here in the States, most shops won't allow you to return a game once it's been opened. Ah, money-grubbing at its finest. ::)