Talk about a clodfoot

[Alicante]

My computer tower is set on a low shelf under the desk and the USB port is located on the lower front face.

While moving a chair I bumped into the USB dongle for Amaya OS with it in and it bent to a 30º angle.

Am I out a luck? Can this be fixed?

This is not my day.

[signman]

If it still works, cross your fingers and leave it alone...if it isn't working-you'll have to contact Melco and get a replacement. I am pretty sure they will charge something for it but I would think since you'd be able to send the old one back it wouldn't be as much to replace it as if someone bought a program (used) and needed a new dongle.
See what happens and then call the techs at Melco (software end of things)
Roland

[The Embroidery Authority - OLD]

Dee,
Yes, I'm not a big advocate of dongles or memory sticks hanging out the front side of a PC myself.
I believe Melco's replacement charge is around $50. Whatever you do, don't discard the broken dongle as it still has a value of several thousand dollars.

Ed

[TAXTHEAX]

Who came up with the idea of having an expensive key element of our O/S hanging out there begging to be broken off anyway? I went to the local computer store and bought a 4port usb hub and using two-sided sticky tape, taped it to the top of my computer cabnet. YESSSS, I too was the victim of 90 degree dongle key. Altho, mine was to my Fast Tjet-3 garment printer,(piece of garbage). It was all I could do to keep US Screen from charging me $1,200.00 for a REPLACEMENT! The unit was only 3 weeks old and the cleaning maid rolled my chair into it,(not blaming her, I should have known better!) After many discussions I was able to get it replaced for $150.00 and shipping the angled dongle back. TREAT DONGLES LIKE GOLD!

[signman]

At the risk of starting a big fight between PC users that 'should have known better' and us superior Mac owners...LOL...
Have you EVER seen a MAC computer on the floor? Ever? Wonder why PC's burn out faster and experience drive/fan failure? Or dongle bending? Because all your PC companies show the units on the floor-and what are they doing down there-acting like a dog? Lying at your feet-sucking in all the fuzzies and dustballs and ewwww that floats around down there. Getting kicked day after day, mud and gunk splashing on them. Ever opened up the shell and seen the crap in there?
Now...look at the good old Mac...every picture, every advertisement-every office using one. Where is it? Like a cat-up on your desk-right in front of your face. duh....it's safe up there-nice and warm and clean and no feet to kick it!
Even my PC's are up on the counter or desk-I have NEVER put one on the floor and never had one overheat, stop running, suck in so much lint and stuff it created it's own puppy...
so stop putting your computers on the floor people...please? Then you won't be breaking off your dongles!

[oldkush]

Like many, I hate dongles.

I personally won't own a piece of software or hardware that uses one. I support companies that don't use dongles.

Software companies keep professing that dongles are to protect their programs from piracy but the truth is, even with dongle protection pirated copies are still readily available .... not sure what good the dongles actually do ????

Bob

[signman]

As several 'used' amaya buyers have found out, without the dongle-you cannot run designshop or amaya OS. period. It just won't work. I have dongles for several programs on my MACs, Flexi, VeLXi, and others-and yes, I can easily get pirated versions of the programs off the internet. But without the coded dongle-they won't work-it's a scam! I haven't yet found anyone that was able to get a pirated version of a dongle protected program that worked without the dongle. Maybe someone got into the programing on a 'limited time' sample and disabled the time code-but that still isn't the full operating version. And without the dongle, you don't have the serial number/ID code-and when you try to call in for tech help...you're busted! No help without that! Unplug the dongles on your Amaya and see if you can run it...

[oldkush]

The Amaya does require a dongle but that is an exception in commercial embroidery machines, not the rule. For us who do not like dongles, the simple solution is not to purchase an Amaya.

As far as software ... there indeed are full working versions of pirated dongle protected embroidery software available. I personally know of someone who has pirated copies of Wilcom and Pulse. Both were free and work just fine.

He downloaded one from some group he belongs to and the other came from a common download site like Limewire [or something like that].

You are right, he obviously has no technical support but as far as I know, he has never needed any.

I do not use pirated software and certainly would not encourage others to use it but to suggest that no one has ever been able to make dongle protected software work without the dongle ... in my experience is not true.

I use Embird and for those looking for good digitizing, lettering, managing software that doesn't use a dongle, check it out at www.embird.com

Don't let the price fool you, Embird is very good software and has more support groups than any other embroidery software.

Bob

[Mr. Sew & Sew]

So Roland - it appears you are a cat person and not a dog person huh?

You describe the ugly PC on the floor as "acting like a dog? Lying at your feet-sucking in all the fuzzies and dustballs and ewwww that floats around down there. Getting kicked day after day, mud and gunk splashing on them."

The Mac is "Like a cat-up on your desk-right in front of your face. duh....it's safe up there-nice and warm and clean and no feet to kick it!"

Not sure if this was intentional but it made me laugh pretty hard.

I have a 7 month old kitten and am getting a second one in a month or so to replace Oliver who was our faithful companion for 17 years before heading to the giant litter box in the sky earlier this year.

[signman]

Actually I prefer dogs, I am currently owned by a beagle....LOL
cats are okay but after having to put down the last one (18 years old, black siamese that ruled the house) my wife own't let me get any more. At one point, previous wife, I had 3 siamese-they were great! But dogs are more fun if they will play with you. The beagle won't...he only knows 'away' and nothing about 'come'.
I had a beautiful corgi/heinz's 57 mix for 15 years...she was the most loving and attentive smart dog...was heartbroken, and yes I bawled like a baby when we had to put her down.

[Alicante]

Thanks a million to everyone for their advice and comments.
Okay, I put the usb dongle back together after straightening the "teeth" and plugged it in again and it works. SIGH OF RELIEF.
Signman, yes I am crossing my fingers and not touching it. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I am also thinking of getting an external usb hub for my designshop dongle and usb kensington memory drive. Then they could sit stuck on my desk as TAXTHEAX suggested.
I may try to get a replacement though in case of sudden failure of the OS key.