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timothys73259740
timothys73259740
Participant
March 17, 2017
Answered

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro CD Disk Will Not Re-Install

  • March 17, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1224 views

Apparently an all-too-common story.  On October 29, 2012 I purchased a retail copy of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro from an eBay seller.  AFAIK it was a legitimate copy--sealed box, brand new factory installation disk, two rectangular stickers side-by-side on the plastic wrap:

The CD disk is dated 4/08.  I believe the second disk (3D Capture Utility) also came in the box (I didn't save the box).

I installed Acrobat on my Dell Dimension XPS desktop and it ran fine--initially accepted the serial number and ran subsequently with no warnings from Adobe--for a year or two.   But then my Windows XP Pro got corrupted somehow (unrelated issue) and I had to re-install Windows.  So naturally all my software installations were lost.  Everything went back on but, of course, NOT Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.  No; instead I got the "serial number invalid" message.

Well after that, I switched to Foxit Phantom (which we were using at work).  But now, I want to try to re-install Acrobat, which I prefer and I paid good money for.

But Adobe customer support is of no help.  People there following various scripted guidelines tell me I need to contact eBay for help, and that it is Adobe policy not to support products purchased on eBay.  Ridiculous.  Perfectly legitimate software products are sold on eBay.  No, that is just a cop-out for lazy customer service.  If the Acrobat CD was bad to begin with, which I doubt, it should have been identified during installation or subsequently via the Internet connection as I ran it.  But I think it was always a legitimate copy (that unfortunately could not be properly uninstalled and now cannot be re-installed).  Naturally Adobe wants me to purchase a new product (at considerable expense).  Not going to happen.

Questions:

1. Is there any reasonable solution to this, apparently common, problem?  (Yes, I have and will continue to read other Internet forum entries.)

2. Can I check the CD to see if the serial number on the tags is the correct one?  (Probably impossible.)

3. How can you determine if an Adobe CD is genuine (other than by being told by Big Brother Adobe that it is or isn't)?

Thanks for any help.

Tim

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer kglad

i agree, it's a long shot.

but if that fails i don't know any way you can resolve the problem with adobe support.  and, as you know, adobe no longer supports acrobat 9.

however, they may be able to tell you if your serial number is valid if you limit your question to just that.  using a browser that allows popups and cookies, contact adobe support during pst business hours by clicking here and, when available, click 'still need help', https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

1 reply

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2017

copy the acrobat cd contents to a desktop directory and try installing from that directory.

timothys73259740
timothys73259740Author
Participant
March 17, 2017

Thanks for that suggestion.  I will try.  But the problem isn't that the CD and its software will not run; rather, the problem is Adobe (via either the CD software itself or more likely its Internet connection back to Adobe central) accepting what once was a good serial number.  I can't see how running the same software from a hard disk will change anything.  But I will try it.

If I were the only person this had happened to, I could understand a reluctance on the part of Adobe to bother with this.

But apparently this has happened to lots of people who were unfortunate to have had to try to re-instal Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.  That, to me, suggests a problem at Adobe's end, not with the customers.  If all those people had bad copies (which I doubt) the problem should have been identified at installation or with subsequent use (Adobe communicates over the Internet to its software as it is running--e.g., for upgrades and such).

I suspect that some over-zealous anti-piracy code (e.g., designed to prevent multiple installations from one CD) is preventing honest purchasers from re-installing their legitimate copies of Acrobat.

As always, Adobe, and other software manufacturers, have a choice: reduce false positives or reduce false negatives (i.e., reduce the number of innocent customers and their Acrobat copies falsely accused of being fake, or reduce the number of pirated copies which slip by security protocols).*  I personally think that Adobe is WAY too interested in the latter.  Its all about $$$.

__________

* Theoretically, you want to do both simultaneously (both in manufacturing and the legal system, for example).  But as in statistics, this can be hard to do.

kglad
Community Expert
kgladCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 17, 2017

i agree, it's a long shot.

but if that fails i don't know any way you can resolve the problem with adobe support.  and, as you know, adobe no longer supports acrobat 9.

however, they may be able to tell you if your serial number is valid if you limit your question to just that.  using a browser that allows popups and cookies, contact adobe support during pst business hours by clicking here and, when available, click 'still need help', https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

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