Copy Protection

[BHunterSEAL]

I've owned San Andreas since soon after the PC edition came out. I got bored with it after a few months but recently re-installed it. It works just fine, but my laptop's DVD drive doesn't work very well, so it often takes a few minutes after clicking on the icon for the game to make sure the DVD is in there, legal, and so on. After that, it works just fine.

 

I don't really have a gameply problem, but it's really annoying that I can get up and get a drink or go to the bathroom and come back and the game still won't have started. My system is more than capable of running the game with maxed graphics, just the DVD drive doesn't read to quick, I think. I've updated the drivers for it--and confirmed that they were successfuly updated--but it only improved a little bit and it still takes three or four minutes to authenticate the DVD.

 

Normally, I'd look for a *whisper* No-CD exe, but internet in my neck of the woods is spotty and I only have access at work. I don't think it would serve my fledgling career well for my work computer to be seen wandering around some of the particularly sketchy sites that these files live on.

 

Does anyone else have my problem? Or, better yet, a solution? Please don't respond by saying 'buy a new DVD drive'; assume that, if I had the financial means, I would have done so already.

[Vinnie]

We cannot tell you where to get a No-DVD & it is a against the rules. Have you tried using software like Alcohol 52% to dump the San Andreas DVD to your computer & running it on a virtual drive?

[BHunterSEAL]

I wasn't asking for a No-CD thing; even if I found one, I'd have no way of getting it on my laptop... no where to connect it to the internet from, and i'm not going on sketchy sites from work.

 

I had to trim my hardrive enough to even install San Andreas, there's no chance my laptop will have enough space for a DVD image.

 

It's funny, because other games that check for discs don't take nearly that long to do, just SA takes a long time to check for the DVD (or maybe a long time once it's found it to go ahead and start loading up).

 

Could it be because it's on a DVD, and my other games that I don't have problems with are on CD's? The only other DVD games I have--like Company of Heroes, Neverwinter Nights Diamond--I was comparing SA to, I just discovered that you don't need the discs in the drive to play them, so they don't even check.

 

Is there a way to get SA to stop checking for the DVD, or make it hurry up with it?

 

Like, I'm not asking for anything illicit, just some advice on how to get it working better.

[Ring_of_Fire]

Tips:

 

1. Clean your disc.

2. Buy a new DVD-ROM drive, or reinstall the latest firmware for the drive.

3. If your disc has been excessively scratched, use CDCheck.

 

After doing the above, restart coputer. Oh, Suction T. Man had this good advice:

 

 

You could also try using your CD to install San Andreas on another computer, and see if it installs it successfully. If it doesn't, you know you need a new CD, and not a new CD drive on the original computer.

This will check to see if it is just your DVD drive/computer, and not the actual disc.

 

Anyway, you posted in the wrong forum. This is a trobleshooting topic since there isn't anything to discuss about San Andreas in general.

[Justin]

Is there a way to get SA to stop checking for the DVD, or make it hurry up with it?

Yes, and you already nailed it - a no DVD crack.

 

However, copy protection exists for a reason, and GTANet, a fan base of Rockstar Games, won't facilitate any work-arounds since they could be used in circumstances other than your own.