I hope someone can help me.
I dusted off my copy of VIZ2008 and attempted to install it on a system running Vista Home Premium SP1 on 2 SATA drives in a Raid0 configuration. it installs fine (aside from some problems with the vault 5 plug-in) but when i run it I cannot activate. if i chose to skip activation and run the trial period VIZ loads fine but if i try to active the whole thing crashes. I get an Autodesk error report submission form stating an unhandled exception error so i know it’s VIZ and not Windows. i tried skipping activation, loading the trial period, then attempting to activate through help>activate product, still crashes VIZ the second i select ‘Activate Product’ and hit ‘Ok’. I’ve tried the activation hotfix registry patch (since my system is using SATA drives) but a broken license isn’t my problem since i wasn’t able to activate the license in the first place. i don’t know if Autodesk changed the way software activates but i do have an activated and working copy of AutoCAD 2010 installed on the same system.

has anyone else had this problem? I’ve scoured these forums and haven’t found anyone in a similar situation.

Have you installed the hotfixes for VIZ 2008 from the Autodesk website?

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/ser...5&linkID=9242899#section1

There are evidently problems with SATA / RAID configs and VIZ 2008 that is addressed in a hotfix.

Also, I can’t recall the timing of VIZ 2008’s launch and Vista’s launch, but that was a problem for Max 9 when Vista shipped, and a patch had to be specifically released to allow Max users to run it on Vista. Not sure if that’s also a possible culprit regarding the issues you’ve hit.

I hope that helps.

-=Beau

Buy a New Deadline
http://www.turbosquid.com

i’m pretty sure i received this copy of VIZ around March of 2007, Vista was released later in the year but the VIZ package says Windows XP and Vista. the program works fine in Vista i just can’t get it activated. I installed all the hotfixes including the activation hotfix with no luck. I finally decided to try with a clean slate. i wiped my system clean and reinstalled all software. i installed VIZ prior to installing AutoCAD and attempted to activate. it worked i was able to activate VIZ, unfortunately after installing all my other software including installing and activating AutoCAD something broke my VIZ license and when i try to reactivate i’m back to the same problem. this is why i think AutoCAD 2010 is the culprit. i can’t figure it.

Yeah - that sounds like something you should report to the ADSK team directly. If AutoCAD 2010 is breaking the VIZ 2008 licensing on Vista, it should be brought up.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

-=Beau

Buy a New Deadline
http://www.turbosquid.com

Anthony Barsi wrote:
> i’m pretty sure i received this copy of VIZ around March of 2007, Vista was released later in the year but the VIZ package says Windows XP and Vista. the program works fine in Vista i just can’t get it activated. I installed all the hotfixes including the activation hotfix with no luck. I finally decided to try with a clean slate. i wiped my system clean and reinstalled all software. i installed VIZ prior to installing AutoCAD and attempted to activate. it worked i was able to activate VIZ, unfortunately after installing all my other software including installing and activating AutoCAD something broke my VIZ license and when i try to reactivate i’m back to the same problem. this is why i think AutoCAD 2010 is the culprit. i can’t figure it.

Can you clarify the problem, and post the exact error message you get on
launch of VIZ now?

In the first post, you said it wasn’t an activation problem; it crashed
on launch.  Now you mention an activation problem (maybe you had two
problems?).

The licensing for different products varies, but is tested and (should)
all play nice together.

Let us know your current symptom, and we can help.  Are you running
Vista 32 or 64?  Single or dual boot?

--Cy--

Vista 32 is the only OS.

i must not have been clear in my first post. it’s always been an activation problem. if i skip activation VIZ runs with the trial period. it’s the activation process that crashes VIZ. I’m attaching the activation screen that states the license is broken and a shot of the error report.

like i said, if i select “run now” and hit next VIZ loads and runs fine. if i select “Activate” and hit next it crashes immediately and the error report pops up.

as i said in my second post i got it to activate once by reformatting my HDD, and I’ve installed the activation hotfix from autodesk. but i can’t get past this problem to reactivate.

	Attachment

	Attachment

Anthony Barsi wrote:
> Vista 32 is the only OS.
>
> i must not have been clear in my first post. it’s always been an activation problem. if i skip activation VIZ runs with the trial period. it’s the activation process that crashes VIZ. I’m attaching the activation screen that states the license is broken and a shot of the error report.
>
> like i said, if i select “run now” and hit next VIZ loads and runs fine. if i select “Activate” and hit next it crashes immediately and the error report pops up.
>
> as i said in my second post i got it to activate once by reformatting my HDD, and I’ve installed the activation hotfix from autodesk. but i can’t get past this problem to reactivate.
> + Attachment: Activation Window.jpg (75 kB) - http://area.autodesk.com/for...8430_yReYwrwd1WwfzB07Ua2C
> + Attachment: Error Report.jpg (225 kB) - http://area.autodesk.com/for...8431_l2G9F8tPks0Vpu32YqSS

Thanks for the details.  The error number indicates a problem accessing
the boot drive.  It’s also the same symptom that the SATA hotfix is
supposed to fix.

I would try to rerun the SATA hotfix.  It’s also possible that upgrading
your hard disk drivers could fix the problem.  Lastly, some other
resident software may be blocking VIZ from the boot drive (antivirus?).

--Cy--

AutoCAD 2010 is the cause of my crashing problem. I uninstalled AutoCAD cleaned my registry then ran VIZ. i clicked activate product and lo and behold instead of crashing the activation window pops up. Autodesk should be notified that AutoCAD 2010 is causing problems with activation of older software.

of course now i’m having a recursive activation loop that i thought the Activation hot fix was suppose to fix. i activate VIZ, hit finish, VIZ says “verifying license” pops up “License broken” i select activate product, reactivate and the process repeats. like i said, i have the activation hotfix installed (i installed it 3 times and manually went into the registry to be sure the key had been set properly). is there any other problem that could be causing this that isn’t addressed by the hotfix?

thanks for the help so far.

Anthony B wrote:
> is there any other problem that could be causing this that isn’t
addressed by the hotfix?
>
It’s also possible that upgrading
your hard disk drivers could fix the problem.  Lastly, some other
resident software may be blocking VIZ from the boot drive (antivirus?).

Yes, contacting Autodesk would be a good idea.

--Cy--

all drivers are up to date. today i tried activating with antivirus disabled with no luck. UAC is always off and no other software on my system blocks access to the system partition. i also tried installing to a different (non-RAID) drive, but i’m pretty sure no matter where you install it the license is stored on the system partition. i’m thinking it’s a conflict between activation and my RAID controller. is there a way to direct VIZ to store the license on a non-system partition?

Anthony B wrote:
> is there a way to direct VIZ to store the license on a non-system partition?

Not that I know of, but you can certainly control which partition you
boot from… for example, from a partition on a non-RAID drive.

Autodesk may have other options for you.

--Cy--