Does this sound like a SecuROM side effect?

[Amoryte]

I posted this on the BBS but you all know how it is over there.  People either are afraid to agree with me or love EAxis so much that they hate me for believing that BV caused it.
Well that was a fun little virus... I'm pretty sure it was due to SecuROM. I had just got done on the internet, and decided to play BV. I open BV, it makes me turn off my anti-virus program (which is Kaspersky, by the way). So, off it goes. I didn't think it was a big deal. Turns out, I'd forgotten to turn off my internet. So, I got a virus. The virus invaded Kaspersky and make Kaspersky think that every file on my computer was a virus, thus disabling/removing nearly every file and program on my computer. The only thing that I could do was wipe my hard drive. Granted, I should have disconnected from the internet, but there shouldn't have been a disagreement between BV and Kaspersky. Ugh.
And I've been poking around here for a little while now and haven't been able to find any rules, does that mean that there aren't really any?  Can I curse?  Can I advocate piracy?  LOL.  (I didn't pirate my Sims games, btw.)
-Am

[phyllis_p]

Hmm.  I've never heard of BV (or any EP) requiring that the anti-virus program be turned off.  I know people who do in order to reduce resource use, but I know that I never disable mine because I do stay connected to the internet.

I've heard SecuROM blamed for causing people's anti-virus scans to freeze, but that's about it as far as anti-virus stuff goes.

Re: rules.  You might want to read the FAQ (third from the top of this category) so you don't end up saying/asking something that gets you poked with sticks.  But yes, you can do the things you asked.  Just be prepared to "get as good as you give," if your cursing is directed at another person.  Senor Pescado is a big advocate of "MOAR FIGHT."

[pixiejuice]

I open BV, it makes me turn off my anti-virus program...

How did it make you turn off your anti-virus?  Was there a message or something?  I've never experienced that.  I almost always have an internet browser open and anti-virus when I play. 

[witch]

Chances are that your machine was compromised long before BV, if your story is true.

[veilchen]

You're right, Witch.

If a program on my machine - any program, be it MSWord or a game, or whatnot - would ask me to turn the anti-virus off, that program would undergo a very in depth investigation on my part. And of course, the anti-virus would most certainly stay on. That's like a burglar asking me to leave my door unlocked.

[Gwill]

A lot of terrible things can be said about SecuROM, but this sounds like good old PEBKAC.

[eevilcat]

Actually if you poke around the interwebs there are a fair few horror stories about SecuROM and how it doesn't play well with and possibly even disables certain anti-virus software. It's basically a rootkit so install/leave on your PC at your own risk but don't be surprised if it starts buggering around with your OS.

[Xuriel]

Actually if you poke around the interwebs there are a fair few horror stories about SecuROM and how it doesn't play well with and possibly even disables certain anti-virus software. It's basically a rootkit so install/leave on your PC at your own risk but don't be surprised if it starts buggering around with your OS.

Speaking of which, I just found out that my CD/DVD burner doesn't work anymore, must have happened just before I was able to remove SecuROM, because I had tested it shortly before and it was okay. It can read cds fine, but if I try to write anything to it I get a "There is no disk in the drive" message even if there is a disk in it.

I also found out the hard way that my System Restore seems to be borked, this happened after I installed BV and I had the silly idea of trying to restore to the previous week, only to find out that I couldn't restore to a point prior to 9/15 (when I installed the game). I don't know if this is actually SecuROM's fault, but I've never had a problem like this with any of my computers before.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody else that removed SecuROM has tested their cd burners or if anyone has any ideas if there is a way to fix this before I go and have it replaced.

[mamainred]

Long time lurker, come out of hiding.

Since installing BV, I lost my writer, card reader, USB flash drive was not found, Norton could not longer up date & it kept turning off my firewall.

Today BBS posts a list of programs that would not work with Securom.

All of them are programs I have seen used here on this site.  I had non of them.

I un-stalled all my games.  According to my device Manager, all the hardware was still there & said it worked.  So I re-formatted my entire PC. 

All my hardware came back & works, but my PC is not the same, even after I ran all my scans, cleans & defrag.  It's slugish & feel sickly now.    If you have any ideas how I can tweak this, LMK  I have XP Pro.

The worst part, after all the Securom is still there !

 Amoryte, I did see you post on BBS, I got distracted here.   Geeze, what a mess to go through & felt bad for you.   Problem with the BBS & giving most of them actually directions, if it does not work, they hound you to fix it for them.   Truly it is better if they do not try to remove it, some have already messed around with the files enough, now things are really messed up. Which makes this go from a EA problem to there own stupidity.

I personally am doing no more with my PC until I see what direction this is gong on. But, it has all the markings of a class action law suit.  Time well tell.

[BigFatLady]

I use Kaspersky, have for a long while now, and I have never heard of this. I run all the games without problem. The only thing Kaspersky did when I would install a new EP would be to pop up the anti-hacker box asking if I would allow or block internet access - have always, always blocked it and never had a problem.

You need to do some investigating as this isn't normal - if you're stuck, get some tech help from the Kaspersky guys

[J. M. Pescado]

This is a known SecuROM behavior, yes. SecuROM behaves in a viruslike fashion, and therefore antivirii programs do not like it.

[bowrain]

So I re-formatted my entire PC. 

All my hardware came back & works, but my PC is not the same, even after I ran all my scans, cleans & defrag.  It's slugish & feel sickly now.    If you have any ideas how I can tweak this, LMK  I have XP Pro.

The worst part, after all the Securom is still there !

But that's impossible, if you reformatted your pc, all and I mean ALL the programs and registry entries should be gone (except Windows' entries, obviously), including SecuROM. If you still have it and you haven't installed any game that uses SecuROM after the reinstall, then it means the pc hadn't really reformatted. How exactly did you reformat it?

[dizzy]

Given that we are talking about Windows, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see SecuROM back even after a full-fledged hard drive format. There are hidden partitions on most hard drives nowadays and well-documented back doors in Windows that allow a remote attack to use them.

Why on earth you connect Windows to the internet in the first place is the real mystery to me.

[J. M. Pescado]

Given that we are talking about Windows, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see SecuROM back even after a full-fledged hard drive format. There are hidden partitions on most hard drives nowadays and well-documented back doors in Windows that allow a remote attack to use them.

I've never seen a HIDDEN partition on a hard drive, but most people do not bother to re-fdisk and perform a full wipe of the drive. For full, proper purges, I remove the control board from the drive and degauss the platters.

[witch]

That's probably not too off-the-wall an idea, there was a recent article I read here in NZ about the number of 2nd hand HDD for sale that still contain confidential business and customer data. Many people apparently just delete and don't reformat.

[veilchen]

I've never seen a HIDDEN partition on a hard drive, but most people do not bother to re-fdisk and perform a full wipe of the drive. For full, proper purges, I remove the control board from the drive and degauss the platters.

I sure wish I could understand what that means in regular English (which is still not my first language either ), because I'm leaning more and more toward removing BV and this offensive malware - or try to - and using alternate means of play. I've never done that before, so that could be an interesting learning experience. I've heard about it, read about it, and so on, but it never entered my mind to actually try it...., until now that is.

I'm having no problems with BV, or SecuRom - yet - and this computer here only has to last another year. I sure as hell am not shipping a 10 year old desk-top PC overseas. It's the principle of the thing. I did not give permission to anyone to install controversial software/rootkit ware. They may have the right to protect their game from piracy (which this Sony-garbage doesn't do), but I have the right to protect my computer and all that is on it. I decide who has administrative rights on my machine, not EAxis/Sony.

Edited: to add: The fitting punishment for EAxis/Sony for doing this to unsuspecting people would be to force them to install SecuRom onto ALL the company computers and to have to work with it for at least 5 years. How much are people willing to bet that this malicious software is installed nowhere on either company's important network and development computers.

[squish]

Fuck this shit!

My PC has been playing up lately (before I got BV) and I decided to re-format this morning. Well gee, thanks SecuROM for fucking up my CD/DVD drive, because once Windows tries loading to finish off I get "no CD in the drive" errors. So yay for not being able to even fucking RE-FORMAT. My boyfriend's thinking that SecuROM has messed with the drive's firmware and will be trying to fix it for me later.

I don't think I'll be re-installing BV once I get my PC running again, that's for sure. 

[Insanity Prelude]

I hadn't planned to get BV anyway, but now I'm <i>definitely</i> not going to. Great job, EAxis. 

Edit: Shit. Can't avoid it anyway: according to Wikipedia (if it's right), Neverwinter Nights 2 has a version of SecuROM on it. :/ Which means that this computer (our main internet computer) and my laptop are "infected".

However, I haven't seen any of the problems you guys have mentioned so far... We removed NWN2 from this computer anyway, so are there any ways to remove SecuROM <i>without</i> reformatting? x_X

[pixiejuice]

It was also apparently shipped with H&M Stuff, which I bought in June.  It seems a bit fishy though that the SecuROM folder I found was created September 9th, the day I installed BV.  Wouldn't the folder be older than that if it was shipped with H&M? 

[jsalemi]

Wouldn't the folder be older than that if it was shipped with H&M? 

Not necessarily -- if you had Seasons before you installed H&M, then you still ran off the Seasons executable, so the H&M one was never used.  Thus it never installed the SecuROM stuff.

I just installed BV on my laptop, and I never ran the launcher or original .exe -- I went right to the no-cd .exe. No sign of SecuROM anywhere on the system.

[angelyne]

There is no doubt that SecuRom, or indeed any DRM are from the devil, but I seriously doubt it would do anything to the DVD firmware.  It's a nice story but highly unlikely.  Every model has different firmware.

However, I have often heard of DRM messing up  CD/DVD players.  But it messes with Windows.  Wiping Windows should get rid of the problem.  Are you formating (and better, deleting your partiton) before installing? 

And it might also be that your drive malfunctioned all on it's own.

And people, before you go all gun ho and re-format, remember the handy system restore function.  It's especially useful to save your butt when something you have just installed messes up your system, or you get some malware or virus infection.

[witch]

And people, before you go all gun ho and re-format, remember the handy system restore function.  It's especially useful to save your butt when something you have just installed messes up your system, or you get some malware or virus infection.

Yes and no, I've had variable success with system restore in the past, I wouldn't rely solely on that as a tool to keep you out of trouble. I've had the thing trash a system before.

[J. M. Pescado]

Eh, if "reformat" was plan B anyway, trashing the system seems like a minor concern.

[witch]

It certainly became Plan B very quickly. 

[dizzy]

Reformat is less work for me than System Restore.