Latitude D610, DVD/CD ROM

On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 08:28:59 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In ,
William R. Walsh typed on Mon, 4 Jan 2010 02:00:19 -0600:
Hi!

I am working on my niece's D610 and her optical drive is a Philips.
And it is currently having problems with any DVD with copy
protection.

Is it really any DVD?

It appears so. As it fails to load Sims2 and Sims3 games on DVD (they
are copy protected) and any copy protected DVD media quits just seconds
before the one hour mark. Non-copy protected DVD flies right on through.

The drive itself shouldn't really care, it only relays the encrypted
data for the decoder to handle. Some of the more "interesting"
approaches to DVD copy protection (Sony's ARccOS would be one) will
give a DVD decoder a reason to head for the hills. You might try a
newer decoder program?

I ran Nero DiscSpeed on the drive. Copy protected DVDs would fail and
non-protected ones flew right on by with flying colors. And my niece
wanted to play Sims3 on her Dell D610. And half way through the install,
it would complain it couldn't read a file. I clicked on ignore and it
would continue for awhile and the same error and file. Repeat a few more
times and 5 hours later the progress bar would be at 100%, but it won't
ever finish.

I threw an external USB optic drive and it installed in 20 minutes
without any problems. It also played copy protected DVD movie disc just
fine too on the external.

You would think the drive wouldn't care about copy protection, but some
drives do. There are many cases of some drives don't like some copy
protection. I have one copy protected audio CD that will stop after the
seventh song on some players. Even if you have repeat set.

One has to wonder why they dream this stuff up. It does *nothing* to
stop real piracy, foils "soft" piracy for only a while, and only
frustrates the legitimate customer.

They seem to back off a bit when it frustrates the legitimate customer
too much. Plus I feel they make extra money from copy protection from
legitimate customers. Maybe that is why they do it. As I and I bet many
other customers end up buying retail copies of the same thing over and
over again.

Like my niece thought her Sims3 disc was bad and went out and bought
another brand new one. Her original one wasn't bad in this case, but I
bet people buy extra copies all of the time like this. And sometimes the
original one does goes bad.

This also happens with Windows too. As many still has the recovery disc
that came with their computer. But since they upgraded something, like
the sound card or video card. Now the branded Windows recovery disc may
not even be able to boot up. As the drivers are now wrong. So what do
the legitimate user usually do? Go out and buy a retail version of
Windows, when they shouldn't have to do this. Sad isn't it?

I updated the firmware, but no help. I may end up replacing the drive
and I welcome any hints how to on a D610.

I'd have to think that it would come out easily, as many Latitude
models have removable drives. On some models, there is a security
screw that goes into the bottom of the machine and locks the release
lever for the drive/module so it won't come out.

Yes it does come out very easy. Thanks again.


Can you try a different decoder or software with that internal before
you junk it? My hunch is that it might be in the decoder but of
course another internal might prove me wrong. You might google "sim
decoders" and see if anyone else describes the same problem.

In news RnR typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:50:44 -0600:
Can you try a different decoder or software with that internal before
you junk it? My hunch is that it might be in the decoder but of
course another internal might prove me wrong. You might google "sim
decoders" and see if anyone else describes the same problem.

Well she was excited to get the laptop back to play her Sim3 game. So I
don't have it right now. And I told her I could change out the internal
drive or she can buy an external one. Her Sim3 game checks for the copy
protected DVD before it will start. And the drive seems to work ok for
that. But not for installing the game.

Btw, wouldn't it be the drive itself instead of the decoder since the
external drive works just fine? That is what I would think anyway.

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) 2 of 3 - Windows XP SP3

Hi!

It appears so. As it fails to load Sims2 and Sims3 games on DVD (they
are copy protected) and any copy protected DVD media quits just seconds
before the one hour mark. Non-copy protected DVD flies right on through.

That is really, really odd. I'm still not sure it is a hardware problem, as
the drive simply shouldn't care in most cases.

There is some copy protection out there that hopes to foil copying by
introducing mastering errors to the disc, so that a ripping program or
unauthorized drive will be tripped up and (hopefully) rendered useless. This
is the kind of scheme that causes problems for some legitimate
players--especially players that try to read a given disc faster than
playback speed to buffer it.

I wonder about filter drivers and software driver issues causing this. A lot
of copy protection systems use their own "filter" drivers to handle one
particular protection scheme.

Have you got access to another similar Latitude series system? If so, you
can put the drive in there to see what it does and know right away. (The
Latitude D600, D610, D620, D630, D800, 810, 820, 830 and Precision M60
should accept the drive.)

I can look at the drive if you'd want to mail it to me. That is something
which can be discussed by private mail wct atsign walshcomptech dot com
if you're interested. (I'm in the US.)

I threw an external USB optic drive and it installed in 20 minutes
without any problems. It also played copy protected DVD movie disc just
fine too on the external.

Even stranger. Could be a mix of hardware and software having an interesting
reaction?

They seem to back off a bit when it frustrates the legitimate customer
too much.

I well remember the Sony audio-CD-rootkit controversy. I bought one of the
CDs, but did not play it in a Windows-based computer. The claim was that the
CD could not be ripped.

Nobody told Windows 95 (on an IBM PS/2 Model 85) or the Mac OS about this.
There was a number on the back of the CD case to call if you felt the CD had
a quality defect. I did call, and I did complain, long before this ever
became news. They took it seriously but I failed to follow through.

It just got worse and worse for them, as the more they tried to defend what
they were doing, the more of a backlash there was. First they claimed that
customers wouldn't know or care what rootkit was when Mark Russinovich
started to explore it. Then a security vulnerability turned up. Some GPL
code turned up in the copy protection software, in a way that violated the
GPL (as no source code was made available, nor was there an offer to get the
source code for the parts they'd used). Eventually the whole thing turned
into a class action lawsuit. Around that time, Sony instructed retailers to
pull the affected discs.

I participated in the class action and returned the CD for a replacement
that did not have the "copy protection" applied to it. At the same time, I
received coupons for online music stores and the option to download MP3
files of the album.

Gee, I think this just might have been more of a fiasco and an expense to
them than real piracy. :-)

Whoops. I think I got on a soapbox there...

This also happens with Windows too. As many still has the recovery disc
that came with their computer. But since they upgraded something, like
the sound card or video card.

That's why I so like the Dell disc, which is usually just a straight up copy
of Windows!

William

On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:31:44 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In news RnR typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:50:44 -0600:
Can you try a different decoder or software with that internal before
you junk it? My hunch is that it might be in the decoder but of
course another internal might prove me wrong. You might google "sim
decoders" and see if anyone else describes the same problem.

Well she was excited to get the laptop back to play her Sim3 game. So I
don't have it right now. And I told her I could change out the internal
drive or she can buy an external one. Her Sim3 game checks for the copy
protected DVD before it will start. And the drive seems to work ok for
that. But not for installing the game.

Btw, wouldn't it be the drive itself instead of the decoder since the
external drive works just fine? That is what I would think anyway.


Are you using the same decoder for both the internal and external? I
guess what I'm thinking is if everything else is the same, then
perhaps the internal is shot but I guess I have a hard time believing
this when other things work fine in the internal. Now if you have a
way to buy a new internal and return it if does the same thing,
without any (or significant) extra cost, do this first. The time
testing / researching this will amount to more than the time to swap
the internal (if that's the problem... the big question). Now the
other alternative perhaps is to just stay external (if that works for
you / her). I seem to recall my daugher played with some sim games
many years ago and I think she had a problem with it too but I guess
she solved it then. I can ask her if I am correct and if she
remembers later the problem and solution.

On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 16:28:02 -0800, "BillW50" wrote:

In ,
RnR typed on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:16:01 -0600:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:31:44 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In news RnR typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:50:44 -0600:
Can you try a different decoder or software with that internal
before you junk it? My hunch is that it might be in the decoder
but of course another internal might prove me wrong. You might
google "sim decoders" and see if anyone else describes the same
problem.

Well she was excited to get the laptop back to play her Sim3 game.
So I don't have it right now. And I told her I could change out the
internal drive or she can buy an external one. Her Sim3 game checks
for the copy protected DVD before it will start. And the drive seems
to work ok for that. But not for installing the game.

Btw, wouldn't it be the drive itself instead of the decoder since the
external drive works just fine? That is what I would think anyway.

Are you using the same decoder for both the internal and external? I
guess what I'm thinking is if everything else is the same, then
perhaps the internal is shot but I guess I have a hard time believing
this when other things work fine in the internal.

The only thing I did was to connect up an external USB slimline DVD
burner. And used this instead of the internal one. And everything worked
perfectly.

Now if you have a way to buy a new internal and return it if does the
same thing, without any (or significant) extra cost, do this first.
The time testing / researching this will amount to more than the time
to swap the internal (if that's the problem... the big question).
Now the other alternative perhaps is to just stay external (if that
works for you / her).

I gave her the options, so it is up to her. Although her Sim3 game is
now working as is. So she probably doesn't care right now. She just
can't run Sim2 (which she doesn't care right now) or reinstall Sim3
without another drive. Oh yeah, play copy-protected videos DVD past the
1 hour mark. This one might bother her.

I seem to recall my daugher played with some sim games many years ago
and I think she had a problem with it too but I guess she solved it
then. I can ask her if I am correct and if she remembers later the
problem and solution.

Yes I would be very interested in what she remembers. grin

P.S. I didn't know this before, but The Sims is the most popular game
with over 100 million copies sold, according to Wikipedia.


Bill, I will ask my daughter if she remembers. And interesting about
the game but honestly I really don't play games on my systems so I'm
ignorant of gaming facts. For some reason, I've played some games in
the past on my systems but they never really interested me as much as
tweaking system performance on each system. I guess I'm either a geek
or weird.

In ,
RnR typed on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:44:30 -0600:
Bill, I will ask my daughter if she remembers. And interesting about
the game but honestly I really don't play games on my systems so I'm
ignorant of gaming facts. For some reason, I've played some games in
the past on my systems but they never really interested me as much as
tweaking system performance on each system. I guess I'm either a geek
or weird.

Yes that would be great! And I used to be into games back in the 70's
and 80's. Although I was young back then. Also I did write a number of
games in the 80's. That was fun back then making the machine do things
that the engineers never thought of. Although nowadays it is just fun
enough keeping up with the maintenance of my many computers. wink

P.S. I was going to say your time zone is set wrong. As you are two
hours ahead in the future. Although I discovered it wasn't you, but this
machine I am working on now. All is well now. lol

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3

In ,
RnR typed on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:16:01 -0600:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:31:44 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In news RnR typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:50:44 -0600:
Can you try a different decoder or software with that internal
before you junk it? My hunch is that it might be in the decoder
but of course another internal might prove me wrong. You might
google "sim decoders" and see if anyone else describes the same
problem.

Well she was excited to get the laptop back to play her Sim3 game.
So I don't have it right now. And I told her I could change out the
internal drive or she can buy an external one. Her Sim3 game checks
for the copy protected DVD before it will start. And the drive seems
to work ok for that. But not for installing the game.

Btw, wouldn't it be the drive itself instead of the decoder since the
external drive works just fine? That is what I would think anyway.

Are you using the same decoder for both the internal and external? I
guess what I'm thinking is if everything else is the same, then
perhaps the internal is shot but I guess I have a hard time believing
this when other things work fine in the internal.

The only thing I did was to connect up an external USB slimline DVD
burner. And used this instead of the internal one. And everything worked
perfectly.

Now if you have a way to buy a new internal and return it if does the
same thing, without any (or significant) extra cost, do this first.
The time testing / researching this will amount to more than the time
to swap the internal (if that's the problem... the big question).
Now the other alternative perhaps is to just stay external (if that
works for you / her).

I gave her the options, so it is up to her. Although her Sim3 game is
now working as is. So she probably doesn't care right now. She just
can't run Sim2 (which she doesn't care right now) or reinstall Sim3
without another drive. Oh yeah, play copy-protected videos DVD past the
1 hour mark. This one might bother her.

I seem to recall my daugher played with some sim games many years ago
and I think she had a problem with it too but I guess she solved it
then. I can ask her if I am correct and if she remembers later the
problem and solution.

Yes I would be very interested in what she remembers. grin

P.S. I didn't know this before, but The Sims is the most popular game
with over 100 million copies sold, according to Wikipedia.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3

On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 17:05:09 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In ,
RnR typed on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:44:30 -0600:
Bill, I will ask my daughter if she remembers. And interesting about
the game but honestly I really don't play games on my systems so I'm
ignorant of gaming facts. For some reason, I've played some games in
the past on my systems but they never really interested me as much as
tweaking system performance on each system. I guess I'm either a geek
or weird.

Yes that would be great! And I used to be into games back in the 70's
and 80's. Although I was young back then. Also I did write a number of
games in the 80's. That was fun back then making the machine do things
that the engineers never thought of. Although nowadays it is just fun
enough keeping up with the maintenance of my many computers. wink

P.S. I was going to say your time zone is set wrong. As you are two
hours ahead in the future. Although I discovered it wasn't you, but this
machine I am working on now. All is well now. lol


I'll email my daughter and ask her.
No problem on the time zone. I was tweaking my system a month or two
ago when I forgot I changed my system clock and then posted here
before I caught the error. I already felt bad about it and someone
added to the misery when they made a snide remark at me about it.
Oh well sh.. happens as they say.

On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 17:05:09 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

In ,
RnR typed on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:44:30 -0600:
Bill, I will ask my daughter if she remembers. And interesting about
the game but honestly I really don't play games on my systems so I'm
ignorant of gaming facts. For some reason, I've played some games in
the past on my systems but they never really interested me as much as
tweaking system performance on each system. I guess I'm either a geek
or weird.

Yes that would be great! And I used to be into games back in the 70's
and 80's. Although I was young back then. Also I did write a number of
games in the 80's. That was fun back then making the machine do things
that the engineers never thought of. Although nowadays it is just fun
enough keeping up with the maintenance of my many computers. wink

P.S. I was going to say your time zone is set wrong. As you are two
hours ahead in the future. Although I discovered it wasn't you, but this
machine I am working on now. All is well now. lol


Bill, sorry I can't help much now. I exchanged emails with my
daughter and she said she doesn't remember. She got a little snappy
with me because she said it was like 7 years ago and said it was the
original sims game and that she bought it. Unfortunately I don't
remember what the problem was nor the solution. Sorry Bill.

"BillW50" wrote in message
...
In ,
RnR typed on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:16:01 -0600:
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:31:44 -0600, "BillW50" wrote:

P.S. I didn't know this before, but The Sims is the most popular game with
over 100 million copies sold, according to Wikipedia.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3

That a strong indication of how many people need to get a real life. eg
--


"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."