Annoying noob.

[dave]

Hey everyone, yep afraid im a noob, and clueless one at that.

First of all just been having a good look through this site and im dead impressed, what a great resource, and everyone seems really helpful.

So.

Im completely new to the backing games up thing, i havent a clue what anti blax does or what virtual drives do etc. I gather they come in handy when there is not a no cd patch.

I've had a play around with them but had no luck as yet, e.g I tried a back up of fear and selected it in anti blaxx but it still asks for the cd, or with fable it just shuts down as soon as it tries to boot, i've updated my drivers too.

Any help would be great, i know its a pain when someone like me comes along but i've only been a pc gamer for about a year now having always been a console dude, enjoying the pc so much more.

Hope your all well and thanks for any pointers anyone can give me.

:)

[Crypton]

What CD/DVD drive do you currently try making a backup with?

Some games such as Fable, you can play from a MiniDisc. Minidisc's are images of the actual CD/DVD that have been "truncated" or cut off and contain only the characteristics of the copy protection that is hidden on the CD/DVD.

Daemon-Tools 3.47 (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5) is a great program for playing using a MiniDisc.

There will be many tutorial additions to the site in the coming week or so, which will help alot for those who are unware of how to detect and backup their copy protected games.

Anyhow, give me some system specs, what programs are you running in the background (such as Virus Scanners, Winamp, ect) it is always a good idea to shut down anything and everything that is not needed to make a backup or play from a backup, they all can conflict.

Even so, some protections are just almost impossible to make a backup from. Some of which can most times be played from an image on the hard drive.

For fable, if you already have burned a backup copy, but does not work, it at least will install from the CD/DVD
http://www.gameburnworld.com/gp/gamefixes/fablethelostchapters.shtml
Grab the MiniDisc in the list on that link, You can play from a backup using it (no cd needs to be in drive, only MiniDisc needs to be mounted)

Check here: http://www.gamefileforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=693
For instructions on using a MiniDisc.

As far as F.E.A.R. goes, it uses SecuROM 7 protection, but an updated version, You may need to make a backup of the origional and play from an image in order to play without the origional CD. I plan on getting the game in the next few days (maybe a week) so when I do, I will play around and see what works and does not work when backing it up.

// Regards,
Crypton

[dave]

Ah thats great thanks.

Just got fear this morning so im not desparate but i like to back up my games after a rather nasty accident with far cry and my computer chair.

No cd would be hand for games i imagine being able just to select them. As i say, im new to all this so im usre ill learn as i keep going.

Thanks for the tips and ill keep a look out for the tutorials.

I need to get my computer sorted, it keeps turning itself off without warning and says the system is recovering from a critical system error. I just put my audigy sound card in from my last pc so maybe it is overloading it? Id be suprised though as its a good pc from Mesh, not sure what the power supply is.

Thanks again.

[Crypton]

Could be conflict, In case of conflict, try another PCI slot for the card, the one you installed it in maybe conflicting with another device sharing the same IRQ.

And, boot up without the card installled and uninstall drivers for the old sound card, then power off and install new card as well.

maybe not enough power (may need a bigger power supply, I run a 650 atm) where as most are running around 400, they say 400-450 is fine, don't listen to "them" New hardware such as Geforce FX and Audigy require much more power than older cards and thus upgrading to 500-550 is generally a good idea. It is better to have a little too much and have a bit of slack than to not have enough.

Not enough = system works harder, can overheat easier, can wear out hardware faster, makes an unstable system.

To much = Nothing bad happens, power supply just is not used at full potential, uses its own power switching features to even out the flow and anything not used is just lost, or recycled through the Capacitors.

Just as a base, your CPU and Motherboard together can use 100-120 Watts, (based on around a 2000 (2GHz) CPU. Then add in the stuff that really uses the power such as the Video Card and Sound, then add in Hard Drives, CD/DVD, network card, ect.. ect.. It can add up fast. Everything in that system uses power, including RAM/DDR, regardless if they have a power plug attached. While the CPU will be the most, Video Cards can be up their quite a bit and newer ones even require a 12v power supply plugged into it along with the power it gets from the slot it is plugged into.. Some think it powers only off that plug, that is not true, the GPU is powered off the power plug, the rest of the card, including the cards memory is powered off the slot.

[dave]

Cheers

I suppose i have got a lot in with the geforce, sound card drives etc.

Ill try a different slot then if that doesnt work ill try the power supply.

Thanks again, appreciate this.:o

[Crypton]

best thing to do is start the PC, go into the BIOS let is sit in BIOS running for a good 20 minutes.. Keep an eye in it.. it will get very hot when idling in the BIOS.

Then, check the section of BIOS that shows the power readings. It should show ur current - and + power flows, such as +/-12V and +/-5V, +/- 3.3V

If you see any that are way off, such as 3.3 should be fairly close to 3.3

If you have say 3.2, 3.1 on the 3.3, it should be ok, look at them all however, if they drop more than a few points, you may need a bigger supply. If you have some that are say 3.4V on 3.3, that is fine, means that particular line has sufficient power.

An example, I have one system next to me I need to replace the Power Supply atm, its got 4.25 on a 5V line, its a good power supply, but I have 14 drives in it, along with CPU, ect.. So I need something bigger, currently has a 450 watt power supply, and its only a 1.53GHz (Athlon XP 1800+) system I use for backup, testing websites I create, ect.., its a linux box, but even so, it does have some issues when booting at times, mainly due to trying to spin up them drives with such low power going to each as well as power all the other hardware. And she runs very hot atm.. I have extra fans just because im a bit too lazy to order another Power Supply and install it lol. Since the system sits idle and in power saving mode 95% of the time, its not too stressful for it, but imagine if I played game with it having XP on it..

Anyways, just some helpful hints in tracking down your issue and maybe yours is fine, just check to be sure.

[DuffMan]

Crypton and his expertise :-) You go to Harvard to learn all that!

[Crypton]

rolmfao, no, never went to school for a day to learn anything I share. Online is the best learning tool.

Alot of it experience though, Mesed around with computers all my life, always took interest in how they worked. Started a home based computer business when I was 16, it has been running strong for a while, (26 now..) I have seen so many problems due to some of the simplest things, but things that normally one would not even think of. Currently get contracted out by several local repair shops for service calls, as well as from some companies like Dell and Gateway. I would never work for them directly though..

[DuffMan]

Nice work! And your right, the Internet is a great place to learn.