Matrix Games Forums

Having noticed more then a few posts about patch 2.30 breaking peoples game, I thought I would repost the solution.

Uncommon Valor like a lot of games uses copy protection. The particular version of the copy protection gets upgraded when the game gets patched.

This particular flavour happens to have some issues running from CD/ROM drives configured as Slave devices within your computer.

All common PC's these days are IDE based, with capacity for 2 devices on 2 channels. Each Channel supports a Master and a Slave device.

If you have multiple CD/ROM/DVD/RW drives, you will probably find that one of them is configured as a Master, and putting the UV CD in that drive resolves your problem.

If you happen to be in the situation where you do not have a CD/ROM in your system that is configured as a Master, you need to adjust your devices around a little. In the worst case situation, you will have to go to your local computer store and buy a $10 IDE cable and shift your CD/ROM from the Slave position on the first channel to the Master position on the second channel.

Each of your devices (hard drive, cd/rom, dvd, etc) has some little jumpers that identify how to adjust between master and slave. If you cannot see a diagram on the unit, write down the part name/model and visit the manufacturers web site for the little chart of what the jumpers do.

Your first hard drive (the one your operating system is installed on) must be primary on channel 1. The other 3 can be mixed and matched as required as long as you do not configure a device as a slave with no master.

If this is too technical for you, you can find a local computer shop that can do the swap for a couple of bucks as it really is trivial for anyone who knows whats inside the case.

Just a FYI: This is not just a Matrix issue, Microsoft has the exact same problem as they use the same product for copy protection. Sooner or later you will have to have this fixed as you will buy a new game and find it does not work out of the box for this very same reason.

Hope this helps you folks who are stumbling through the 2.30 patch and finding that going back to 2.20 makes the game start working again...

Whatever type of copy protection they started using with 2.30 they should drop. Anything that makes you change your hardware setup to run a game is something that should never be put on a disk. Copy protection is a joke anyway. Believe me because I just came back from China and you can buy any game or other program over there for $0.63. The best form of copy protection is a good manual. I still have my manual from Red Baron. It was full of interesting historical stories and was worth the price of the game alone.

Hi, I think this only happens on PC's with 2 CD roms. If the game does not run in the first CD rom you put it in all you have to do is move it to the other CD rom and it works. You don't really have to change any hardware settings.

I am also having problems with the 2.3 fix. I have to run mine on 2.2 instead. As soon as I put 2.3 on from either a download or the website, the game hangs at the toggle switch area. I am unable to toggle anything and sign into the game. I only have one CD-ROM drive.

Hi, Did you use the True update to download 2.30 and when you start true update now it reports no updates missing?

Guys, it's not just Matrix and it doesn't happen with ALL models of CD/Rom's.

Microsoft has the same problem with Freelancer. Assume it will be gone in the next version.

Microsoft will tell you your drive is the problem, I'm simply telling you that switching your drive from slave to master resolves the problem without you having to spend money on a newer CD/Rom drive.

I used both types of update, True Update from the website and a downloaded version that I loaded from the computer. It updates to 2.3 but it will not let me past the toggle switches. I have to run in 2.2 if I want to play the game. I have tried it numerous times now and still no luck.

Well I figured out my problem on version 2.3. Didn't have the correct version of DirectX on my windows XP system.