2009 Problem with Activation

[rlh]

I have installed 09 on one machine is our office. This I think is a mistake, I/we can't shut Autocad down and restart without getting propted to activate the product which I did when I initally installed 09 with no issues. To date I have recieved a total of six activation codes and now Autodesk will not accept the ones THEY send me. This product is junk and the Service/Support is a joke. They won't even address an obvious defect. I hope and prey someone out there has had a similar issue and can offer some sort of insight.

[Richard.Kent]

I have installed 09 on one machine is our office. This I think is a mistake, I/we can't shut Autocad down and restart without getting propted to activate the product which I did when I initally installed 09 with no issues. To date I have recieved a total of six activation codes and now Autodesk will not accept the ones THEY send me. This product is junk and the Service/Support is a joke. They won't even address an obvious defect. I hope and prey someone out there has had a similar issue and can offer some sort of insight.

I had the same problem, submitted a support request through subscription and was dealt with promptly.

Here is their response on something to check.
"Thank you for contacting Autodesk support. Could you verify that you are receiving an activation code via email or how you are receiving it? On a stand alone seat as is being described, there is a dat file that is created and a registry key that is populated where the license binds. The DVD drive being changed shouldn't have caused this behavior because the source file shouldn't be the DVD drive letter, it should be the hard drive. Typically binding issues like this occur due to a registry cleaner being added or a group policy put in place that wipes out the registry to "start fresh" with each new login of the machine. Is it possible that one of these things occurred? Could you send some screen captures of the error process you are getting? When this happens please navigate to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Software Licenses" (application data is a hidden folder so you have to be showing hidden folders in Explorer) and look for a ".DAT" file. If this exists (for Inventor Professional 2009 it should be "B54A5000.dat"), there shouldn't be an issue with binding. Please let me know the answers/results and I'll resume troubleshooting once I have this information. Thank you"

Strangely enough the problem when away on its own before Autodesk could point to an actual problem on my end.

[rlh]

I was able to get help from my reseller, it seems that computers that have a SATA Hard disk controller have this problem and there is a hotfix on their web site. The reseller sent me the hot fix and all is well for now. I had this issue when I went from 04 to 07 a couple of years ago and forgot about it. So if anyone else is having this issue there is a hot fix for it.

[ccowgill]

thats interesting that you say it is a problem with Sata Controllers, I have 2 computers that both have Sata harddrives, and neither one have had any problem with activation