Safedisc and errors!

[wWooDd]

I am struck with the problem of Safedisc and not being able to run Call of Duty 2. My Event Viewer keeps giving me this error:

The Secdrv service failed to start due to the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

Searching shows it was Safedisc and trying to update it gives me this error:

SecDrv.sys update failed (Error 101).

Event Viewer at the same times gives the first error while trying to update.
Not only am I bashing my head against the desk trying to figure out Safedisc in the first place, but I cannot even mount an image of the game and just play it, I have to bash my head against the desk to find a working Safedisc bypass for that (as far as I have read & seen so far). I have not yet tried a no-cd patch; which I am going to find shortly after posting this.
Does any body have any experience with Safedisc and the SecDrv.sys?

 

[Malak]

Have you tried another optical drive? Could it be possible that safedisc is trying to update something and it is being blocked? I don't know anything about safedisc

 

[NJLOAD]

Don't know if this is the case or not, but I know if you have Clone CD on your machine COD2 will not work.

 

[wWooDd]

Ok, well, this was a while back yes but I still have the problem. I originally got around CoD2 by using a no-cd patch and it worked fine. On another forum a member email Activision and they gave details on how to fix this issue if you had Alcohol 120% and/or CloneCD. If the problem still existed, then there may be left over registry entries and you need to contact the developers. Which software they were trying to talk about and which entries we do not know. Having my luck I still have the problem. This time Im trying to play Black & White 2; but there are no no-cd patchs; just mini-backup images to mount with Alcohol & the such which do no bypass this problem. Any suggestions?

 

[ub3rnewb]

If the problem is that Alcohol or Clone CD or whatever is blacklisted, than this program should do the trick. But I don't think that's your issue...

 

[wWooDd]

Nope, appearently my problem has nothing to do with Alcohol or CloneCD. I really don't know what to do. I am thinking this is more along the lines of some thing Windows or maybe a bad registry entry or some thing.

This has been on my mind for a while, what would be the difference between repairing windows from simply formating it? I have only tried repair one time before and it kept asking me to insert a cd & driver for my sound card (which it refused to find) and I ended up formating it any ways since I could not load windows normally after the repair had begun. I am not considering just formating/repairing as of yet, though.

 

[bchivers]

Here's a page that I used when I had a similar problem that helped me. It's a different game but might give you some ideas.
Text

 

[wWooDd]

Im not finding any thing at all. Appearently this is a problem that plagues a LOT of people with no fix, many of which cant play their games at all. Im fortunate enough that I can play my games and know how to get around some of these issues. I absolutely do not want to format again since for all I know it is an issue with some thing I installed and not really "screwed up" in any way. Im still getting things back together after my last format. I just find it funny when CD protection is taken so far that even the legal copies cannot be played.

 

[Smilin]

Not familiar with SecDrv.sys per say but drivers all go in the same place:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services


Look for a service named SecDrv, or some other service that is starting your SecDrv driver. Be sure the start type is NOT set to 3 (manual) or 4(disabled). It would need to be set to 0,1,2 or *maybe* type 3.

If you decide to change this, be sure you do NOT immediately log on to your machine after changing and rebooting. Give the machine a minute to crash if it's going to. You can use "last known good" to roll back the change but LKG is gone once you logon.


Good luck

 

[wWooDd]

Ok, I found the entry. Had "start" and "type", 3 and 1 respectively. I played around with the start entry and have no change.

If I load up cmd and do a query search for secdrv I get a STATE: STOPPED every time, no matter what I do. If I try to start it I get this message:

"The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it".

I do remember when I talked to a friend/computer specialist that when he tried ran a query/start on his machine it was running fine.

Im trying to contact Macrovision now to see if I can get some support.

 

[bchivers]

Maybe this will help. Starforce driver removal tool.

http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55

If you hear anything from Macrovision let us know. I have problems with Ubi-soft games. Not sure if it is Starforce or safedisk.

 

[bchivers]

Found this on another site.

Enter device manager

In the menu above select View and select Show Hidden Devices

If you have Staforce, it will be listed under the Non-plug and play drivers tree.

 

[wWooDd]

Even though those are for Startforce, they would work for Safedisc how ever I do not find SecDrv in the device manager or does the removal tool work for it.

I cannot even format windows since even that has a slim chance of actually solving this. I am going to try repairing windows and hope it doesn't force me to format as last time. If I have to format, fine, every thing is backed up on a separate partition. Just have to take a couple hours to install and configure the drivers ;_;

I feel sorry for those who cannot play any games at all due to this problem. I've read a couple cases where some one bought a HUGE mess load of games that use Safedisc and couldn't play them.

 

[wWooDd]

Ok, well, this just blows my mind. Ever have one of those times where the problem is so simple that you completely overlook the situation? I am hardly one to blame, as I look through the net a LOT of people have issues with Safedisc at one point or another INCLUDING the developers, Microsoft, and Macrovision! No more suspense, solution? Just delete the registry entries and the secdrv.sys and Windows reinstalls it in working condition upon demand. I never once thought about seeing if Windows just readds the entries (I had to do this previously to get my CD drives to work).

I now weep for the many hours lost to this issue... I can only imagin how many people could use this right now.