I bought Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and I read online about Star force or whatever has to be installed. I heard nothing good about the program...did I just fuck myself?

I've never come across Starforce-laden DRM games on my computer. I used to be under this misconceived notion that if I bought a Starforce-laced game, it justified me torrenting the warez version because I had purchased the game anyway.

Well, if the publisher treated you like a pirate, you might as well become one.
Note: I'm not condoning illegal sea-faring activities in any way.

I have all DRM on my PC right now, StarForce, Securom, SafeDisc, Steam...that happens when you have 280 original games installed.
And my PC is 100% rock solid stable, no crashes, no bugs, every single game works flawlessly.I take care of my PC though.

I'd imagine that most people who look into games so much as to find out what DRM is contained in it also look after their PCs well.

What's the point of having Starforce on a Steam game? Isn't Steam supposed to be the DRM? If true, that would make me feel like a double pirate, needing to schemes instead of one to keep a paying customer in check.

Random interjection with techie speak within:
The reason Starforce was notorious for 'killing' CD/DVD drives was due to how it, and how Windows, operated. Starforce worked by having certain sectors of the disc read as error, and it was the combination of errors that worked as the unlock code (this is an extreme simplification of how it worked however, but for the purpose of this explanation, it's enough).
The problem there is how Windows copes with multiple errors - if it continuously errors it will drop your drive from DMA mode to PIO mode. PIO mode is extremely accurate and can read discs that would otherwise be competely unreadable in DMA mode, but it's also hugely taxing on both the system resources and the drive itself. Prolonged and sustained use in PIO mode will heavily reduce the lifespan of the drive, so if it's a budget/crappy drive anyway, then chances are it'll keel over quite rapidly.
You can get the drive back to DMA mode, but it requires uninstallation of the IDE controller (not the drive itself), so many people wouldn't have a clue how to do this.
That said, a lot of the 'dead' drives that people complained about weren't actually properly dead, just in PIO mode, so it could have been corrected at that stage.

Gremmi is there any way to tell easily if a drive is in PIO mode and not reading discs or properly screwed? I managed to get starforce on my computer a long while ago after installing Restricted Area, it wasn't until after the drive stopped reading discs I figured out I had a game with Starforce.
Edit: Nevermind, I figured out how to check what setting the drive was running on. It's on DMA so It's probably just broken.

Have a go at physically removing and reinstalling the drive, ideally with different power and data cables. POSSIBLY a reinstall of your IDE controller driver would help too.
Also, 3 stars? Bastard!
Advice from Microsoft:
To enable DMA mode using the Device Manager
1.
Open Device Manager.

2.
Double-click IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to display the list of controllers and channels.

3.
Right-click the icon for the channel to which the device is connected, select Properties, and then click the Advanced Settings tab.

4.
In the Current Transfer Mode drop-down box, select DMA if Available if the current setting is "PIO Only."
If the drop-down box already shows "DMA if Available" but the current transfer mode is PIO, then the user must toggle the settings. That is:
• Change the selection from "DMA if available" to PIO only, and click OK.

• Then repeat the steps above to change the selection to DMA if Available.

I've tryed putting the drive into a completely different computer and it still wouldn't work. It has power it just doesn't do anything else. Also found the DMA selection in the device manager, no go there either. I think it just truely is screwed. I don't use cd/dvd drives that often anymore anyway. I've also got a external one I can swap between computers when I do need it, so its not that big a problem.
Hehe, can't be seen the same as you common 2 star folk. I got the third at 450rep, so your not too far off now.

Hmm, have you tried looking for replacement firmware for the drive? Might just need a flash. Failing that, an opitical drive is cheaper than a trip to mcdonalds and unless you buy a liteon it's probably got more nutritional value
Now we just have to figure out where 4 stars begins.

I never actually thought to try updating the firmware on it. I will have to see if I can figure out what the model of the drive is and see what the internet comes up with.
Well I actually though 3 stars would come at the 500 mark, so I have no clue what system GOG are using to determine rep vs stars other then some random number they like the sounds of.

Probably a progressive inverse binary logarithm carefully designed to simulate someone headbutting a numeric keypad and saying "thats how much they have to get for 3 stars"

You can read about DRM more at [url=]www.reclaimyourgame.com[/url]
Especially useful is their list of Securom infected games at [url=]http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=11[/url]. I've seen them update the list when DRM is removed in a patch, which is also helpful. I'm still wary, personally, but whatever.
There's also a page on Starforce: [url=]http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=82[/url]
And there are pages on how these programs work, with screenshot examples, and how to remove securom: [url=]http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=282&Itemid=40[/url]

Enjoying Arx too much to do so, but will remember do that...right after I read my gf's Watchmen graphic novel....GOD I love my little girl=)