NFS Carbon won't start up [ Edited ]

[absoluteweakling]

So I found my old NFS Carbon disk, and I was excited to play it again after a long while.

I put it in, it works perfectly fine through the installing process, everything seems good...

Until I tried to open it.

When I opened it, my cursor showed the blue loading circle for a split second, and then...

Nothing.

So then I tried again.

Still nothing.

I tried every compatibility option, used the troubleshooter, searched on the forums, and then...

It worke- Just kidding, still nothing.

So now i'm here, typing this, hoping to get an answer.

If anyone is wondering, i'm using Windows 10. There's no problem with the disk. I assume it's a problem with Windows 10, cause back when I had Windows 7, it worked perfectly fine.

I also got the disk from my dad's friend, who let me have it, since he no longer wanted to play it. Also, there is one thing I can try as a final resort, but I really don't want to do it. The thing i'm talking about is a no-CD patch, since most of them are from sketchy websites. I could also try a VM, but it's so slow that even if it worked, i'd fall asleep 2 minutes into the game.

Any help is appreciated.

Oh, and sorry if i'm posting this in the wrong place or doing something wrong, as it's my first time on this website.

[rcgldr · Accepted solution]

Many of the older NFS media (DVD) based games use media based copy protection, such as safedisc or securerom, which install "device drivers" in order to perform the media check. Windows 10 disables installation of those device drivers, so you're stuck looking for a no-cd or no-dvd version of the game, or possibly the version from cosmi, which is a distributor licensed by EA to sell copies of NFS Carbon, sold on a PC DVD, but without an install key. It's possible that the cosmi version doesn't have any copy protection. I've seen a few of these for sale on Ebay, but unless the listing includes an image of the back of the case that you can zoom in on, in order to see that it's a cosmi version, there's no way to tell, other than perhaps the price, which is usually below $20 for a "new" copy of the game. I didn't find any examples of cosmi version for the collector's edition of Carbon. There are also Ebay listings for "download" versions of some NFS games, but I don't know who the distributors are, or if these are just hacked versions of Carbon, as they typically sell for less than $5. Here is an image of the back side of the cosmi version, which is a cardboard case (not a jewel case, but it's difficult to tell from an image). The cosmi name appears on the bottom right, just above the UPC sticker. You'll probably need to open the image in a new tab to zoom in enough to see the text.

[rcgldr · Accepted solution]

Many of the older NFS media (DVD) based games use media based copy protection, such as safedisc or securerom, which install "device drivers" in order to perform the media check. Windows 10 disables installation of those device drivers, so you're stuck looking for a no-cd or no-dvd version of the game, or possibly the version from cosmi, which is a distributor licensed by EA to sell copies of NFS Carbon, sold on a PC DVD, but without an install key. It's possible that the cosmi version doesn't have any copy protection. I've seen a few of these for sale on Ebay, but unless the listing includes an image of the back of the case that you can zoom in on, in order to see that it's a cosmi version, there's no way to tell, other than perhaps the price, which is usually below $20 for a "new" copy of the game. I didn't find any examples of cosmi version for the collector's edition of Carbon. There are also Ebay listings for "download" versions of some NFS games, but I don't know who the distributors are, or if these are just hacked versions of Carbon, as they typically sell for less than $5. Here is an image of the back side of the cosmi version, which is a cardboard case (not a jewel case, but it's difficult to tell from an image). The cosmi name appears on the bottom right, just above the UPC sticker. You'll probably need to open the image in a new tab to zoom in enough to see the text.

[AdrianG0011]

I think you have a wrong perception regarding VM`s. People nowadays prefer to play games over VM rather than going with laptops. You need to choose the right VM provider before you think of the option. 

Can I be completely Honest?

Unless you have an amazing computer, with at least 8–16 GB of ram dedicated to it, as well as a heavy graphics card and an amazing processor, with cores dedicated to the virtual machine, then no, you can’t. It really depends on the operating system you’re using (windows, mac, linux), and by the way if its mac you’re screwed.

Regards,

Adrian Gates

[absoluteweakling]

@rcgldr Would Safedisc (or whatever it was called) work on Windows 8? I've heard you can disable the feature that disables the device drivers, but i'm not sure. If you're wondering, I have a Windows 8 laptop that I could use.

[rcgldr]

You should be able to install the device driver for either safedisc or securom with Windows 7 or Windows 8, probably just need administrator privileges to do this during install. I don't know if any special sequences are required. Windows 10 is the first version of Windows to completely lock out installing of those drivers.