Photoshop CS6 Subscription Activation Question

Report · Jul 23, 2012

Hi,

I was wondering if it is standard behaviour for my PS CS6 subscription to require me to log in to Activate the licence EVERY time I use it? I thought that one it was activated, PS only checks the Activation every 30 days. Once I log in the activation works fine, however if for any reason my internet connection was not available, it would seem that I would not be able to use my copy of PS.

I realise that that would happen even if the check was every 30 days, but that would only be a possible issue once a month, not every day!

Thanks,

Mark

Report · Jul 23, 2012

You should only have to activate it once. THis is a permission issue in the OS. Are you using Win7.

Apparently when you activate you do not have permission to make a change in the file, so next time you have to do it all over again.

Report · Jul 23, 2012

In addition to what has already been said by Curt Y, you should have a look at the Creative Cloud forum, where other subscribers have had similar problems. http://forums.adobe.com/community/creative_cloud?view=discussions

Report · Jul 23, 2012

HI,

Thanks for the replies. I searched the cloud forum & found a post that recommended updating Application Manager, which I did. Let's hope that means I wont have to re-activate again tomorrow.....

Mark

Report · Jul 24, 2012

Hi,

The updated Application Manager fixes a version concurrency problem. Let us know if you hit the re-activate problem again.

Here's the KB doc describing the problem for any future interested parties: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/trial--1-launch.html

regards,

steve

Report · Jul 24, 2012

HI SG,

Unfortunately updating Application Manager didn't work as I've just been asked to activate the licence once again.

If it helps, I am running Windows 7 and I also have a copy of Elements 9 installed but i do not have Elements running when I am asked to activate my CS6 licence.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

Report · Jul 24, 2012

Something to try...

Once you have activated Photoshop, exit/quit the application gracefully, to ensure all the preferences and data files get written back out.

Now open Photoshop again. Does the problem persist?

-Noel

Report · Jul 24, 2012

I know in Bridge to exit the progam gracefully you have to exit by clicking on File/Exit, rather than just closing the window for preferenes to stick under certain circumstances.

Report · Jul 26, 2012

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Exiting gracefully might have dont the trick as PS has not asked me to activate today! Thankd for the help.

Mark

Report · Sep 06, 2012

I am seeing the same licensing request problem on a new installation of Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium. Seems to happen will all the apps I installed. I tried the updated Application manger but not sure how to proceed, It shows several apps not installed,but doesn't list the 64 bit ones.

I contact Adobe support/chat ( Your Case Number:0183607798)

& they suggested I create another user account! With a bunch of uninstall/re-installs.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Report · Sep 09, 2012

Now things have gotten worse. I had left my CS5 installation on the computer & now it requires a re-entry of its security code when it is launched, just like the CS6 problem.

This clearly indicates a bug in Adobe's licensing mechanism

Because of this I am not inclined to install under another admin account as I think its just a guess

Report · Sep 09, 2012

To me that clearly indicates a degradation of the computing environment you're providing to your applications.

Seems funny you're wanting to blame Adobe when even an application that was already installed and working has stopped working. What have you changed on your computer since it worked?

You could try to go through the details of determining just what's running your computer and what's different from when it worked properly. Most folks prefer to try to jump to a solution, though, and that's why Adobe might be recommending reinstallation of software.

You could remove the software, run the Creative Suite Cleaner Tool, then try a reinstall.

Some folks even reinstall their operating system when they find it all screwed up.

Assuming you have a Windows system you could try somethin like a System Restore. What system DO you have, by the way? That might help people suggest what to do.

-Noel

Report · Sep 09, 2012

Noel,

Seems funny you're wanting to blame Adobe when even an application that was already installed and working has stopped working. What have you changed on your computer since it worked?

I see this often. A user will point a finger at the first program, that ceases to run properly, when a sample of dozens of other programs, will exhibit issues too. The first program always gets the blame.

Also, as PS can stress a computer, and a video driver, unlike most other "simple" applications, one looks at it, "cross-ways."

Just an observation.

Hunt

Report · Sep 09, 2012

While I appreciate you, Noel & Hunt, wanting to see some objective point of view here, I am not just blaming the "NEXT" app.

My system, has been stable for quite a while. Its a Win7/64bit running on a quad core w/8gb of ram, fast drives, etc. It has run CS3 & CS5 flawlessly for at least two-plus years..

I installed CS6 & now I have an Adobe licensing problem. I think the most likely suspect has to be the CS6 installation. In addition, the tech support help has been providing suggestions to remedy a problem they have seen before. I have also seen on this very forum, the same exact issue where the user has to re-enter the security keys EVERY time they launch the application.

If I consider the fact, at some recent point, Adobe was considering a monthly licensing model only, it doesn't surprise me there is a licensing bug. On top of that, my CS5 app, which was trouble free until I installed CS6, now also requires re-entry of the license keys. I think the center of gravity on this issue points to Adobe's licensing scheme.

There's an old adage in debugging issues. You look for the last, most recent change made as a starting point. I might add, I have been in the software development & test world for about 30 years. I think I know how to approach problem isolation. Our customers depend on those skills.

I only wish Adobe had done a more thorough test regime on the licensing on systems with various prior installations. Where ever they are storing the encrypted security key information, the license manager doesn't know where it is or what to do with it. That's what troubles me.

On top of that, after spending several hours with their tech support chat trying various things that didn't work, they now want me to open another admin account on my computer & insttall CS6 there. I don't think that has any more chance of working than their other suggestions (renaming cache folders, etc) Now that the collateral damage includes the CS5 installation as well, what are they going to recommend for that? Re-install CS5 in the same manner??

If I suggested something like that to my customers it wouldn't be received well. I shouldn't have to re-arrange my system to work with new version of the CS as part of a debug solutions. If for some reason it was architected to need those changes, it should have been part of the installation procedure in the first place.

I think this is probably just coming to light to the Adobe CS teams and I am optimistic they will provide a solution, hopefully in the form of an upgrade. We already know that they have to roll the revisions of many of there packages to solve bugs. I suspect this will just be another. At present I think Adobe will solve this. Let see.

Noel, to your points

1.

"To me that clearly indicates a degradation of the computing environment you're providing to your applications."

Really, and how would you have determined that? I had a stable system & the CS6 install created what appears to be a known issue. How is that my system degrading, from Adobe software installations???

2.

"Seems funny you're wanting to blame Adobe when even an application that was already installed and working has stopped working. What have you changed on your computer since it worked?"

I've answered that critique.

Thanks for your comments

Dan

Report · Sep 10, 2012

The short answer is this: It doesn't do that for me (I have Windows 7 x64) or a whole bunch of other folks, so it may not be the systemic problem with Adobe's software that it seems to be based on your own experience with your one system. I'm not saying I'm sure they don't have a bug, but that your situation seems pretty isolated.

And yes, I agree that their phone support seems lacking.

Understand that folks visiting this forum are often not very technical, and your initial posts were not written as though by a technically adept person (you provided essentially no information that would be required for any meaningful debugging). It took you until post 13 to even say what OS you're running, and you called your serial number a "security code". Are you wanting to try to fix this, or just complain?

Since you have some experience and skills, let's get down to the nitty gritty...

Since the Windows UAC feature gets in the way of users using their own computers more than it helps anything else, (and assuming you have UAC on) I'd start by running Photoshop As Administrator and seeing if something can be written that needs to be written but is being blocked when run without privileges. You haven't said whether you've done anything special to your folders, nor whether you have disks that were formatted on another system, nor any of a thousand other details.

Have you checked your Windows event logs? Are you seeing anythign going wrong or hints of security issues there?

What anti-malware / security software are you running? Have you tried disabling it temporarily to see if maybe it's blocking Adobe's online activation activities?

Adobe writes a log, PSErrorLog.txt, at the following path. What's in yours?

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings\PSErrorLog.txt

Please go into Photoshop and do Help - System Info, copy the contents of the dialog, paste it into a post here (redacting the serial number info if you like). Perhaps those who are experienced at looking such things over can spot problems or make suggestions based on what's there (such as plug-in problems, or suggestions to update drivers, or anything that might be brought to light with hard information as input).

-Noel

Report · Sep 10, 2012

Thanks for the feedback/info.

I wrote because it was late & frustrated after working with chat help

You're, right, system info/details would have been helpful.

I found this forum topic & noted there were others with same issue.

Don't know about what #post I finally got detailed.

I posted, then had other stuff going on for a few days.

I'm not a system guy, more high level embedded stuff,

so Windows is always a mystery when things get difficult.

I will dig around in a few days after I get back from some personal stuff.

Thanks

Dan

Dan Swiger Photography

www.danswigerphotography.wordpress.com

www.danswigerphotography.com

Report · Sep 11, 2012

I checked & there is no PSErrorLog.txt in my user space

I have tried disabling Firewall & anti-virus but to no effect.

I also tried this suggestion from Adobe help

"Thank you for contacting Adobe Technical Support. I am sorry to know that the issue is not yet resolved. Please navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe folder and give full permissions to 'Adobe folder' and then try to launch the software. If this still does not work then I request you to contact us back via Live Chat. You can initiate the chat from the following link :"

Only change in behaviour is that I only get ONE request for Security Key instead of TWO

OK, here is system info:

Adobe Photoshop Version: 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00) x64

Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit

Version: 6.1 Service Pack 1

System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:15, Stepping:11 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3

Physical processor count: 4

Processor speed: 2400 MHz

Built-in memory: 8191 MB

Free memory: 5028 MB

Memory available to Photoshop: 7251 MB

Memory used by Photoshop: 60 %

Image tile size: 128K

Image cache levels: 4

OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.

OpenGL Drawing Mode: Advanced

OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.

OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.

OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.

Video Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Video Card Renderer: GeForce 9500 GT/PCI/SSE2

Display: 1

Display Bounds:= top: 0, left: 0, bottom: 1050, right: 1680

Video Card Number: 1

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT

OpenCL Unavailable

Driver Version: 8.17.12.8562

Driver Date: 20111015000000.000000-000

Video Card Driver: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um

Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors

Video Card Caption: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT

Video Card Memory: 512 MB

Video Rect Texture Size: 8192

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\

Temporary file path: C:\Users\Dan\AppData\Local\Temp\

Photoshop scratch has async I/O enabled

Scratch volume(s):

Startup, 111.8G, 15.8G free

Required Plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Required\

Primary Plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\

Additional Plug-ins folder: not set

Installed components:

A3DLIBS.dll A3DLIB Dynamic Link Library 9.2.0.112

ACE.dll ACE 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

adbeape.dll Adobe APE 2012/01/25-10:04:55 66.1025012 66.1025012

AdobeLinguistic.dll Adobe Linguisitc Library 6.0.0

AdobeOwl.dll Adobe Owl 2012/06/26-12:17:19 4.0.95 66.510504

AdobePDFL.dll PDFL 2011/12/12-16:12:37 66.419471 66.419471

AdobePIP.dll Adobe Product Improvement Program 6.0.0.1654

AdobeXMP.dll Adobe XMP Core 2012/02/06-14:56:27 66.145661 66.145661

AdobeXMPFiles.dll Adobe XMP Files 2012/02/06-14:56:27 66.145661 66.145661

AdobeXMPScript.dll Adobe XMP Script 2012/02/06-14:56:27 66.145661 66.145661

adobe_caps.dll Adobe CAPS 6,0,29,0

AGM.dll AGM 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

ahclient.dll AdobeHelp Dynamic Link Library 1,7,0,56

aif_core.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

aif_ocl.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

aif_ogl.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

amtlib.dll AMTLib (64 Bit) 6.0.0.75 (BuildVersion: 6.0; BuildDate: Mon Jan 16 2012 18:00:00) 1.000000

ARE.dll ARE 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

AXE8SharedExpat.dll AXE8SharedExpat 2011/12/16-15:10:49 66.26830 66.26830

AXEDOMCore.dll AXEDOMCore 2011/12/16-15:10:49 66.26830 66.26830

Bib.dll BIB 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

BIBUtils.dll BIBUtils 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

boost_date_time.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

boost_signals.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

boost_system.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

boost_threads.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

cg.dll NVIDIA Cg Runtime 3.0.00007

cgGL.dll NVIDIA Cg Runtime 3.0.00007

CIT.dll Adobe CIT 2.0.5.19287 2.0.5.19287

CoolType.dll CoolType 2012/06/05-15:16:32 66.507768 66.507768

data_flow.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

dvaaudiodevice.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvacore.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvamarshal.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvamediatypes.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvaplayer.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvatransport.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dvaunittesting.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

dynamiclink.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

ExtendScript.dll ExtendScript 2011/12/14-15:08:46 66.490082 66.490082

FileInfo.dll Adobe XMP FileInfo 2012/01/17-15:11:19 66.145433 66.145433

filter_graph.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

hydra_filters.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

icucnv40.dll International Components for Unicode 2011/11/15-16:30:22 Build gtlib_3.0.16615

icudt40.dll International Components for Unicode 2011/11/15-16:30:22 Build gtlib_3.0.16615

image_compiler.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

image_flow.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

image_runtime.dll AIF 3.0 62.490293

JP2KLib.dll JP2KLib 2011/12/12-16:12:37 66.236923 66.236923

libifcoremd.dll Intel(r) Visual Fortran Compiler 10.0 (Update A)

libmmd.dll Intel(r) C Compiler, Intel(r) C++ Compiler, Intel(r) Fortran Compiler 10.0

LogSession.dll LogSession 2.1.2.1640

mediacoreif.dll DVA Product 6.0.0

MPS.dll MPS 2012/02/03-10:33:13 66.495174 66.495174

msvcm80.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 8.00.50727.6195

msvcm90.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 9.00.30729.1

msvcp100.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 10.00.40219.1

msvcp80.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 8.00.50727.6195

msvcp90.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 9.00.30729.1

msvcr100.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 10.00.40219.1

msvcr80.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 8.00.50727.6195

msvcr90.dll Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 9.00.30729.1

pdfsettings.dll Adobe PDFSettings 1.04

Photoshop.dll Adobe Photoshop CS6 CS6

Plugin.dll Adobe Photoshop CS6 CS6

PlugPlug.dll Adobe(R) CSXS PlugPlug Standard Dll (64 bit) 3.0.0.383

PSArt.dll Adobe Photoshop CS6 CS6

PSViews.dll Adobe Photoshop CS6 CS6

SCCore.dll ScCore 2011/12/14-15:08:46 66.490082 66.490082

ScriptUIFlex.dll ScriptUIFlex 2011/12/14-15:08:46 66.490082 66.490082

tbb.dll Intel(R) Threading Building Blocks for Windows 3, 0, 2010, 0406

tbbmalloc.dll Intel(R) Threading Building Blocks for Windows 3, 0, 2010, 0406

TfFontMgr.dll FontMgr 9.3.0.113

TfKernel.dll Kernel 9.3.0.113

TFKGEOM.dll Kernel Geom 9.3.0.113

TFUGEOM.dll Adobe, UGeom© 9.3.0.113

updaternotifications.dll Adobe Updater Notifications Library 6.0.0.24 (BuildVersion: 1.0; BuildDate: BUILDDATETIME) 6.0.0.24

WRServices.dll WRServices Friday January 27 2012 13:22:12 Build 0.17112 0.17112

wu3d.dll U3D Writer 9.3.0.113

Required plug-ins:

3D Studio 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Accented Edges 13.0

Adaptive Wide Angle 13.0

ADM 3.11x01

Angled Strokes 13.0

Average 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Bas Relief 13.0

BMP 13.0

Camera Raw 7.1

Chalk & Charcoal 13.0

Charcoal 13.0

Chrome 13.0

Cineon 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Clouds 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Collada 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Color Halftone 13.0

Colored Pencil 13.0

CompuServe GIF 13.0

Conté Crayon 13.0

Craquelure 13.0

Crop and Straighten Photos 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Crop and Straighten Photos Filter 13.0

Crosshatch 13.0

Crystallize 13.0

Cutout 13.0

Dark Strokes 13.0

De-Interlace 13.0

Dicom 13.0

Difference Clouds 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Diffuse Glow 13.0

Displace 13.0

Dry Brush 13.0

Eazel Acquire 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Embed Watermark 4.0

Entropy 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Extrude 13.0

FastCore Routines 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Fibers 13.0

Film Grain 13.0

Filter Gallery 13.0

Flash 3D 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Fresco 13.0

Glass 13.0

Glowing Edges 13.0

Google Earth 4 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Grain 13.0

Graphic Pen 13.0

Halftone Pattern 13.0

HDRMergeUI 13.0

IFF Format 13.0

Ink Outlines 13.0

JPEG 2000 13.0

Kurtosis 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Lens Blur 13.0

Lens Correction 13.0

Lens Flare 13.0

Liquify 13.0

Matlab Operation 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Maximum 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Mean 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Measurement Core 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Median 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Mezzotint 13.0

Minimum 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

MMXCore Routines 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Mosaic Tiles 13.0

Multiprocessor Support 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Neon Glow 13.0

Note Paper 13.0

NTSC Colors 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Ocean Ripple 13.0

Oil Paint 13.0

OpenEXR 13.0

Paint Daubs 13.0

Palette Knife 13.0

Patchwork 13.0

Paths to Illustrator 13.0

PCX 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Photocopy 13.0

Photoshop 3D Engine 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Picture Package Filter 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Pinch 13.0

Pixar 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Plaster 13.0

Plastic Wrap 13.0

PNG 13.0

Pointillize 13.0

Polar Coordinates 13.0

Portable Bit Map 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Poster Edges 13.0

Radial Blur 13.0

Radiance 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Range 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Read Watermark 4.0

Reticulation 13.0

Ripple 13.0

Rough Pastels 13.0

Save for Web 13.0

ScriptingSupport 13.0.1

Shear 13.0

Skewness 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Smart Blur 13.0

Smudge Stick 13.0

Solarize 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Spatter 13.0

Spherize 13.0

Sponge 13.0

Sprayed Strokes 13.0

Stained Glass 13.0

Stamp 13.0

Standard Deviation 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Sumi-e 13.0

Summation 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Targa 13.0

Texturizer 13.0

Tiles 13.0

Torn Edges 13.0

Twirl 13.0

U3D 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Underpainting 13.0

Vanishing Point 13.0

Variance 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Variations 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Water Paper 13.0

Watercolor 13.0

Wave 13.0

Wavefront|OBJ 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

WIA Support 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

Wind 13.0

Wireless Bitmap 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00)

ZigZag 13.0

Optional and third party plug-ins:

Noise Ninja NO VERSION

Plug-ins that failed to load: NONE

Flash:

Mini Bridge

Kuler

Installed TWAIN devices: NONE

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Thanks for following up with more info.

I can see you're up to date with the 13.0.1 update and Camera Raw 7.1. Good.

Your display driver is a bit out of date, as it is showing an October 15, 2011 date. But that may not be the issue, since the GPU sniffer seems to have set it up to use the expected advanced OpenGL modes.

Did Adobe really write the sentence "Please navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe folder and give full permissions to 'Adobe folder' and then try to launch the software"? I'm disappointed in them for that - they should know enough about windows to give you a bit more explicit instruction than that! I believe they meant for you to grant Full Permissions control to your username to that folder and all files and subfolders within it. Did you do it?

I see you have a Noise Ninja plug-in installed, and the indication "NO VERSION" bothers me a bit. Normally one expects to see a version number. I don't know if it's typical with this plug-in, as I don't have it.

Outside the older display driver and possible Noise Ninja plug-in problem, your System Info doesn't really reveal any obvious problems.

You also haven't said whether you tried running Photoshop As Administrator one time.

What I would suggest, since we're dotting all the 'i's and crossing all the 't's here to try to get to the bottom of a difficult issue, is for you to do these things. I'd do them one at a time, then close and restart Photoshop to see if the problem persists.

1. If you haven't tried it, run Photoshop As Administrator. You can do this, for example, by right-clicking on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit) entry in your Start menu and choosing Run as administrator. Enter your serial number activation info, confirm all responses, then immediately close Photoshop. Now test by running it normally. Does the problem persist?

2. Assuming you have no specific reason for avoiding doing so, visit the nVidia.com web site and seek out their newest release for the GeForce 9500 GT and Windows 7 x64. Download and install this software. From what I can see, the latest version was released for your card is 301.42, released in May, 2012.

3. Temporarily rename the Noise Ninja plug-in .8bi file under your C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\ subfolder. Put a ~ (tilde) in front of the name to keep Photoshop from enumerating it during startup. If it doesn't help, reverse the renaming operation and Photoshop will recognize the plug-in at its next startup.

4. You could try disabling Windows UAC entirely, rebooting, then trying to see if Photoshop will activate. This is kind of a "supersized" version of step 1 above. You could try turning it back on again if it seems to help. It's not inherently bad to run without UAC in the long-term, though you have to be more careful to keep malware from running on your computer, which could involve making changes to your browser configuration and browsing habits.

If none of the above helps, you might have a look in your various Windows event logs to see if there are any messages logged there that gives an indication of why Photoshop might not be able to write its files. I'd be especially interested in whether Photoshop is crashing quietly on exit, which should be logged in the Application event log if it's happening.

Good luck!

-Noel

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Noel,

Tried the Admin launch, no joy, same thing

Looked into logs & saw this from days ago, not today's launch

Log Name:	Application
Source:	Application Error
Date:	9/5/2012 10:43:07 PM
Event ID:	1000

Task Category: (100)

Level:	Error
Keywords:	Classic
User:	N/A
Computer:	MAIN-HOME-W7-PC

Description:

Faulting application name: Photoshop.exe, version: 13.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4f61c045

Faulting module name: MSVCR100.dll, version: 10.0.40219.1, time stamp: 0x4d5f034a

Exception code: 0x40000015

Fault offset: 0x00000000000761c9

Faulting process id: 0x1488

Faulting application start time: 0x01cd8bf26a629708

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\MSVCR100.dll

Report Id: bbc01648-f7e5-11e1-bc92-00044b168a70

Event Xml:

	<Provider Name="Application Error" />
	<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
	<Level>2</Level>
	<Task>100</Task>
	<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
	<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-09-06T05:43:07.000000000Z" />
	<EventRecordID>1171530</EventRecordID>
	<Channel>Application</Channel>
	<Computer>MAIN-HOME-W7-PC</Computer>
	<Security />

</System>

	<Data>Photoshop.exe</Data>
	<Data>13.0.0.0</Data>
	<Data>4f61c045</Data>
	<Data>MSVCR100.dll</Data>
	<Data>10.0.40219.1</Data>
	<Data>4d5f034a</Data>
	<Data>40000015</Data>
	<Data>00000000000761c9</Data>
	<Data>1488</Data>
	<Data>01cd8bf26a629708</Data>
	<Data>C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe</Data>
	<Data>C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\MSVCR100.dll</Data>
	<Data>bbc01648-f7e5-11e1-bc92-00044b168a70</Data>

</EventData>

</Event>

Am going to upgrade driver, but can't see the connection to licensing.

Also will disable Ninja since I will have to pay for an upgrade for CS6 & want to see the Adobe product be stable & well behaved 1st.

Thanks for the suggestions, but it looks like to me something is wonky with the licensing.

It does seem like they are not writing the License validation/properly and this perpetuates the problem

Any fresh ideas 😉

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Here is what I told the help line that I expect from them to debug this

"I really need some expert help here on how to determine WHY Adobe CS6 is not preserving the status of the Security Keys.

You should be able to provide information on how to determine where it is written. I am sure its encrypted and that's OK, but we need to determine if in fact it recorded it.

OR does Adobe now record it online & not on the host computer? How does that work"

Report · Sep 12, 2012

d_swiger wrote:

Any fresh ideas 😉

I honestly don't know what else to suggest. As you can see, I was grasping at straws a bit before (e.g., the display driver update suggestion).

Adobe isn't forthcoming with how their licensing facility works, and I've not investigated it myself, having had nothing but good luck with their activation process.

There's always the "remove and reinstall the entire application" and even the "reinstall Windows" approach...

I can tell you it CAN work, so don't lose faith. I certainly wouldn't put up with having to reactivate the software every time I run it. What if your internet connection was to be offline?

-Noel

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Well I do have an Acronis image from a month back, so I can reset & go again.

Or I could do a restore.

What a pain!~!

Thanks

Dan

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Played around in the Administrator user space.

Microsoft really screwed up Windows 7 in this area.

When I'm in the Admin account, I get errors complaining I don't have Admin rights!!

Ok, I'll stop the whining 😉

I tried launching CS6 from the Admin account & the same security Key symptom persists.

I will wait a few days til I get get the time to revert to an early back up image & try a re-install under the admin account to see if it behaves there

I think if I do a "clean" install, I will try the offline installation suggested here

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4409509#4409509

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Did you try disabling UAC? That's the source of that "screwing up" you mentioned.

-Noel

Report · Sep 12, 2012

Yes I did and it still complained.

I will look into it over the weekend after my wife gets back from hospital.

I am going to use the earlier image, install from the Admin account offline.

I will review the Admin setup UAC settings first

Thanks

Dan

Dan Swiger Photography

www.danswigerphotography.wordpress.com

www.danswigerphotography.com

Photoshop CS6 Subscription Activation Question

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