A few days ago, I decided to reinstall Neverwinter Nights. It had been a while since I'd played it, and I wanted to see if it was still the same aberrant failure that I remember it to be, despite BioWare's otherwise impeccable record.
I played for an evening. It still sucked, so I didn't play it again for a while.
So after a few days, I went to open my DVD-ROM drive, and as the tray slid open, a shower of shards clattered onto my desk. Piecing them together, I found that they comprised about a third of my Neverwinter Nights play disc. Fascinated, I peered into the drive, only to see other shards wedged into various uncomfortable-looking locations.
Not wanting to invalidate my warranty by screwing around unsupervised, I called Alienware tech support. The guy had me remove the drive and shake it over my desk. A few more pieces fell out. I had to use tweezers to remove a few that had been propelled with great force into the inside front face of the drive. Still, piecing the disc together, I found that a major chunk was missing, and the drive would no longer close fully, preferring to slide open and shut repeatedly, ad nauseum.
So Alienware is sending me a new DVD-ROM drive. But all in all, this was a bizarre experience. I've never had tech support instruct me to shake or dump anything before, and I've certainly never heard of a CD-ROM shattering in the drive.
So I thought I'd share it with the rest of you. Generous, aren't I?
[edit for a bizarre shift in tense]
[ August 05, 2003, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Geoffrey Card ]
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Maybe there was a curse.
Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
When we were having a LAN party one time Dan's PC had a power surge that cooked his system.
COOKED it.
It smoked out the top of the tower, and the bottom of the mouse literally melted. Though it damaged about five hundred dollars worth of parts, it remains one of the coolest stories. I don't know anyone else who's mouse has melted from a power surge.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
You're pretty big on this whole curse thing, aren't you, kat?
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Now see, until recently, I'd never even heard of Neverwinter. I'm now on Chapter 2.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
saxon, she's part witch. Hadn't you noticed? Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
saxy, I have no explanation. It just struck me today.
I've been reading a lot about Harry Potter lately. Plus, I had my lunch buddy completely convinced today Hermione is the one who dies in the 5th book. I should feel bad about that.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
You mean she's not??? Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I hear there are a few good third-party single-player campaigns you can find, but since you don't have a copy of the game anymore, I guess it doesn't matter Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
I've got that beat Geoff. We had a system at my last job that used to SHOOT CD's out at enormous speed, shattering them in the wall in front of it. Somehow, the drive didn't spin down before ejecting the disk, so they really got ejected! It was great fun when we'd get frustrated with a dumb caller.
Posted by slacker (Member # 2559) on :
Geoff, the CD probably had a very tiny crack in it. I've heard of it happening before. I heard once that that was why CD drives probably won't go any faster.
Sucks that it happened, though.
What I'd recommend is that if you've got lots of HD space, go out and get Alcohol 120% (link) and use it to rip your CD's to (yes, it's legal - as long as you own the CD).
I use it on my network, and I figure that the virtual drive rates at about a >100x speed (constant, not max).
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
slacker, I use Daemon Tools for that...let's me use normal cd images (iso or just about any other). Is that what that product does?
Posted by slacker (Member # 2559) on :
Yeah, it does read the various images that you can make. I never really liked Daemon Tools as it kept crashing or would just refuse to read the images that I made in Nero.
I know that you can make images in several formats (which of course it can read), but if you're making a backup of your game, and know what the protection is on the CD, you can select it and the program will introduce the same protection (helping to make it look like a real CD).
Also, you can make images from it as well (though I'm sure you can do this with Daemon as well).
I'm pretty sure that it's going to come down to personal preference.
Edit: if you ever need to get the files from an image, you can always try using ISOBuster. I love that program!
[ August 06, 2003, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: slacker ]
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Sweet. I do the same with daemon tools (doesn't crash on me, but every system is different) although the encrypted cd workarounds never seem to work. I had to use it so the wife and I could play Morrowind on both computers. Posted by slacker (Member # 2559) on :
They also have some great trainers that you can get there (like the 5,000 unit trainer for Rise of Nations).
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
I just got tired of forgetting my CD at home if I took my laptop somewhere. So, I keep a few choice games on the laptop permanently.
Posted by slacker (Member # 2559) on :
Yeah, I'm the same way. My laptop doesn't have a DVD-Rom - yet, so I just rip my fav movies, encode them (still working on getting a good setting for xvid), and watching them that way.
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