Inspiring

Answered

Activation failed for CS3

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
February 5, 2015
1 reply
2583 views

I am trying to activate my software for CS3 web premium. I entered the serial number, but did not have my previous version upgrade number. Adobe does not have it in file either, but used a secret hack challenge/response to bypass that and take me to the activation screen. Then the activation failed with error code 194:3 They told me to come here for help.

HEEELLPPPPPPPPP

I NEED to get this software running. What do I do now ??? What does this error code mean ?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer bobc49536789

Bob I don't have easy access to Windows XP. At minimum I would recommend removing C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\ prior to trying to reinstall again. I was able to find Remove Creative Suite 3 and CS3 products but it discusses the process which you have already utilized.

The only other suggestion I have would be to try installing a newly created local Administrator account. You can find more details at https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/troubleshoot-unexpected-behavior-user-account-1.html.

Well I think I am running now. Thanks for all your help. I am not sure what did it though.

I deleted EVERYTHING as we discussed.
I also reinstalled it under a new admin account.

But then I needed to contact customer support for help bypassing the upgrade serial number issue again. And they gave me a new serial number instead.

So it could have been any of those three things that got me working. Thanks for your help.

kglad

Community Expert

if you can select cs2 as your upgrade, try the posted cs2 serial number, Error: Activation Server Unavailable | CS2, Acrobat 7, Audition 3

bobc49536789Author

Inspiring

Thanks. I MAY try that. But I have a valid serial number for CS3, so would really like to solve this last step before uninstalling CS3 and downloading CS2, etc.

Jeffrey_A_Wright

Community Manager

Nothing is ever easy these days. But now I have this log file from the cleanup process, and am uncertain if this is real error messages or good that it cant find files to delete. Please advise.

ps: I have no problem with uninstalling the Adobe Postscript Reader, manually deleting every Adobe directory (both programs and common) and then reinstalling the reader once I get this working.

Log file follows

******************************************************

Gen_WWCombined-en_US-20121017_1230

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:08 2015] Please enter (y) for Yes or (n) for No. ... >>

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] Choose from one of the following options to clean up :

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 1. All

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 2. Adobe Flash Player 10.2

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 3. Creative Cloud 2014 , Creative Cloud & CS6 Products

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 4. Creative Cloud 2014 only

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 5. Creative Cloud only

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 6. CS6 only

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 7. CS5-CS5.5-CS6

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 8. CS5-CS5.5

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 9. CS3, CS4

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 10. Adobe Id credentials

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] 11. Quit

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:12 2015] Choice :>

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] User selected: All

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] DB does not exist at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\caps\pdb.db

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] DB does not exist at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\caps\Media_db.db

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] Opened DB connection with path: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\caps\caps.db

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] List of products installed on this machine

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] Listing products for cleanup:

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:26 2015] Please enter the option number of the product you wish to remove; enter (q) to quit ... >>

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:33 2015] Are you sure you want to clean all the listed products and associated files?

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:33 2015] Type (y) to confirm and remove or (n) to quit ... >>

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Please wait for Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to finish........

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] :: Cleaning-up left over inventories ::

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Atleast one Non-RIBS Inventory : False, Atleast one AAMRef: False

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] ::Start:: Removing AUM contents

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Deleting registry root:HKLM key:Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run value:AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Exception during deleting key : (2, 'RegDeleteValue', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Deleting registry root:HKLM key:Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run value:ADOBE_UPDATER_STARTUP_UTILITY

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Exception during deleting key : (2, 'RegDeleteValue', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Deleting scheduled task : AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0-MEDIA-BOB-user

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Executing command: schtasks /delete /TN "AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0-MEDIA-BOB-user" /F

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] ERROR: The specified task name "AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0-MEDIA-BOB-user" does not exist in the system.

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Deleting scheduled task : AdobeUpdater Task-MEDIA-BOB-user

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Executing command: schtasks /delete /TN "AdobeUpdater Task-MEDIA-BOB-user" /F

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] ERROR: The specified task name "AdobeUpdater Task-MEDIA-BOB-user" does not exist in the system.

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Warning: Failed to remove file,folder trying again

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Warning: Failed again to remove file,folder

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Warning: Failed to remove file,folder trying again

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Warning: Failed again to remove file,folder

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] ::Finish:: Removing AUM contents

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] ::Start:: Removing OOBE

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] Executing command "taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq AAM Updates Notifier.exe""

[Fri Feb 06 01:40:40 2015] INFO: No tasks running with the specified criteria.