product key

[Anita]

I have been using Design Shop on both my dedicated PC and a laptop with no issues. Suddenly, today when I initiate Design Shop, I get the error message that the product key cannot be found and DS shuts down...this happens on both PCs.

Can anyone help me out with this? I uninstalled the software and now, obviously, cannot reinstall it. Could there have been an update that to the driver that messed it up?

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm having a PC/Software nightmare day. In addition to this, when trying to retrieve my tax file from last year my antique PC checked out...and I'm still trying to repair the registry on it.

Anita

[levelbest]

Try removing your usb key and popping it in a different port....

[Rod or Sharon]

Anita, are you putting the dongle in the same port each time? Sometimes computers are "quirky". If all else fails, you may need to uninstall your software and co a clean reinstall.
Sharon

[Anita]

Thanks for the quick responses!

Yep, I've tried different ports, including the one it was originally installed on (in the back, hard to get to) and then decided to uninstall/reinstall DS. Install won't proceed either...same error message. Thought it was caused by the live update so I took it to the laptop that I've run it on plenty of times and had the same problem...argh. This was the first time I've put the pc on the internet since I bought it for the Amaya...need to keep up with os updates.

Anita

[clint]

It's possible, but unlikely, that your dongle pooped out. This happened once at a company I previously worked at. It literally shut our entire operation down for 2 full days. The manufacture of the equipment claimed it must have been a static discharge or electrical surge that fried the dongle, but we all disagreed. After this issue, our company hired a 3rd party company to simulate back up security dongles that our company then stored in a safe deposit box. The software company found out about this and claimed it was illegal to make copies and sued my employer. My employer hired an expensive layer and won the case. He then turned around and counter sued the manufacture for the lost production days and received some kind of compensation. It was a pretty big deal around the shop.

[Anita]

Thanks Clint, I'm beginning to think it's the dongle also. There's nothing else to try until I can reach tech support. Oh, well. Glad that whatever is going on happened now before I really got a biz going.

Thanks again!

[Steve]

Anita, try this.
Remove the dongle. Go to device manager. remove anything that says USB under the USB controllers section at the bottom. (don't touch the Intel stuff.) Reboot the computer. It may find new hardware such as keyboards, mice, printers, etc. Let Windows do it's thing. It won't hurt anything since the drivers are already installed for those devices. Once you get to the desktop, insert the dongle again into a different USB port, Windows should detect it again. Let me know if you are still having issues.

[Anita]

Thanks Steve...
I was hopeful, but it still didn't work. I see that I failed to mention that I am one of the first customers using Vista. Looking on the PC manufacturer website (HP), it appears Vista has USB issues. HP suggested the same steps you did.

I'm wondering this...this was a new dedicated PC for my Amaya. I had not put it on the network until this weekend. When my old PC failed on Friday, I installed Norton 360 and went online to do banking. There were 33 updates for the PC. The next time I tried DS, it couldn't find the key (the very common problem Vista users report). The Amaya key isn't having a problem, but the DS one does on both my Amaya pc and my laptop (Vista also...was previously working).

I've sent email to Melco service...and will call tomorrow.

Thanks again...Anita

[TinaK]

It sounds kind of like your problem lies in the updates your computer did.

Have you tried to go back to the point before your updates? Not sure how the Vista would work but if you go to the help section and type in system restore that should get you going and put your computer back the way it was before the updates.

Good Luck!

[Anita]

Looks like it's the key itself...Melco is sending me a new one.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Anita

[clint]

Hopefully the new dongle will fix things but Vista has problems with Tons of things. Could very well be vista. I bought 2 computers during Christmas from the local newspaper because everything new comes with vista on it.

[KGM]

Hi, I just wanted to mention I just ordered 2 new computers from Dell.com and they both had choice of Vista or XP.

So I think the computer companies are realizing that Vista is a problem. I've heard tons of complaints abt it with machine and digitizing software all over Yahoo Groups.