Seems that some of us have some trouble playing half life 2 due to a DVD player/SecureRom incompatibilities.
It gives the following message when loading HL2:
"Unable to authenticate original disc within time limit"

I'm very fustrated for that, buying a game to support valve's talents and unable to play due to paranoia....

So a nocd patch is born somewhere on the net (I will not give the link, find it yourself, careful, some are terrible troyans...)

Since I bought the game, DVD standart version in france FNAC, and it's an hardware/software incompatibility, I think I'm allowed to use this kind of patch. But the connection to Internet is still needed so indentification by valve server are still performing.

What do you think of that ?
PS: please don't ban me for giving this kind of news but it's a very specific case which save me from returning this fantastic game in store

ain't the activation only once ?
as I know there is some kind of offline activation tool :hmm:

offline activation exist but it's not legal so I don't use it. Connecting to Internet each time I want to play HL2 don't bother me, since I'm always connected. But, especialy in France where Internet is not quite developped, It can be very very very helpfull.

You can find some files (for cracked version of course) which can activate your half life offline, but where to find these files : on Internet.

is it possible for you to lend a dvd player that does not have that securom check
(it's only for 15 minutes till you registred the game)
or am i wrong on this topic ?

the verification with the securom occurs everytime you try to play (with the retail version)...

In fact there are two verification when you want to play HL2 retail :
- CD check securom :hmm:
- account verification with Steam :o the first time you play :o
with the downloaded version, only the second one occurs and then you can play offline.

In fact I have resolve my problem now with a new DVD reader (16X LG) and only kept my NU DDW-082 for burning.... :finger:

But I want to raise the issue with this topic that VALVE and VIVENDI are a little bit too paranoiac :knife: and they're keeping a lot of people from playing half life 2 due to hardware or internet trouble .

I wonder when companies will finally learn ...
I mean ... whoooooo anybody that wants to play HL2 can play it ... as I have seen pirated copies do not even need steam account serial or anything ... they just work out of the box ...
so way better then you describe ...
and what does this tell again ... the good old story about "how to waste money - a story about copy "protection""
or
"how to prevent ANYbody from reading your copies"

Interesting, I had the same problem with Soldner and its securom protection. After a month of troubleshooting with securom, they finally gave up. I can't return the product to the place I bought it since virtually no retailer allows refunds. Also the manufacturer will not refund the product, they want me to go to the retailer.

Basically they lost a future customer, and all they needed to do was refund their flawed product to keep me happy. Sadly this is becoming the norm. It has gotten to the point that one needs to look for the crack first then purchase the game. (please note I do not endorse piracy!)