SecuROM...Any ways around it?

[Eric.]

So I finally got around to reinstalling The Sims 2 (hush!) and all six expansions that I have for it. The last two of those have SecuROM DRM protection. Now, when I start to run the game I get the error "Please insert an original disc and not a backup(1000)." I've googled it and I know its because of SecuROM, many people get the error with other games that use it. I should have known it would happen because I had Daemon Tools installed, but not running. So I uninstalled that, still nothing, then went through the registry and got all that I could find of DT and removed the keys.

I've only been able to get it to start a couple of times. I found that there is a patch from Microsoft called SafeDisc that says it makes the device active from boot instead of on demand or whatever, but that is only for XP.

Does anybody know of a workaround for this? If it didn't see Daemon Tools and throw a flag about that I would try mounting an image of the disc. I also thought of trying a no-CD crack but I read that certain things won't work by doing that either.

You know DRM sucks when it causes problems for the legit consumers.

 

[Spock]

I honestly have never come across a solution to that outside of a full windows re-install. But then again I tend to do full windows re-installs on an almost weekly basis with all the builds of Windows 7 floating around.

 

[Casio]

I've never had experience in this, but System Restore?

 

[Eric.]

Well this is a pretty fresh reinstall, and I'm certain its from having Daemon Tools installed...I don't think I've missed any registry keys so I'm not sure if there are any other things that could be done. I've been able to get the game to go after a reboot and a couple of tries immediately after, so I guess I'll live with that for right now. I may try reinstalling the games after I go and delete any traces of SecuROM too.