Hello,

My computer has had a problem latetly, I don't know how or why, or when it specifically started, but it can't read any protected game CD's. The games I've tried specifically are Warcraft III Frozen Throne, The Sims, Dawn of War, Counter Strike Source, and Starlancer. It always gives me an error message telling me to insert the original CD, but it is the original CD.

I'm not a computer genius, nor do I claim to be, but I know a fair amount more than the average person. I just have no idea what this is, so I asked my computer teacher. He told me there was software that came packaged with a Splinter Cell game on PC that sometimes caused the problem I have, and he gave me a program that deleted that software. When I ran it, it told me it found no traces of the software on my computer, and I don't own Splinter Cell, nor has it ever been on my PC.

Does anybody know what could be causing this problem?

If you have any disc copying software like CloneCD or Alcohol, you might want to turn off the "Hide CD-R media" option.  Sometimes the games can detect it and think you're trying to load from a CD-R(W) backup.

(in reply to Falconaire)

I had the trial versions of CloneCD and Alcohol 120% until they ran out, then I uninstalled them. I have a full version of Nero that I used for burning, does that have the same option?

(in reply to tqhoang)

Perhaps there are some registry keys that still exist. 

If you don't have any other Alcohol or CloneCD/CloneDVD/AnyDVD/VirtualCloneDrive installed, you can delete the trees that branch from here:
HKCU = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    HKCU->Software->Alcohol Soft
    HKCU->Software->Elaborate Bytes
    HKCU->Software->SlySoft

HKLM = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    HKLM->Software->Alcohol Soft
    HKLM->Software->Elaborate Bytes
    HKLM->Software->SlySoft

(in reply to Falconaire)

I deleted the Alcohol Soft and Slysoft from the registry when you said it could have been CloneCD or Alcohol 120%, but I didn't know about the Elaborate Bytes one. But I deleted them and I'm still getting the same message

(in reply to tqhoang)

Oh yeah, I don't know if this makes a difference or not, I probably should have mentioned it earlier. I can install from the CD's, it just won't let me play the games.

(in reply to Falconaire)