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Anonymous

Question

FYI - Activation Servers

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
July 28, 2008
10 replies
16833 views

Just thought I'd post a little FYI for anyone out there looking for another reason to upgrade to RoboHelp 7.

Last week, we reinstalled two licenses of RH X5.02, but weren't able to activate either one. When I called Support on Tuesday, 7/22 (since activation over the Internet doesn't seem to work for X5), they said "call back on Thursday." I did, then they said the activation servers are still down, probably until sometime this week. They gave me a link to a patch, which I can use in the interim.

Me: Are the activation servers for version 7 working?
Adobe: Yes, they're working fine.
Me: and the servers for version 5 are not?
Adobe: That's correct.

It's understandable, I guess, since 5 is an older product and they no longer provide support plans for it.

Jim

This topic has been closed for replies.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Chris

You don't need to go in via the backdoor. They have procedures in place.

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

Well, Adobe finally came through and offered a free upgrade to X5 since the activation servers are down indefinitely. It took an insanely long time to resolve, but in the end, they came through. Thought I'd let everyone know in case they are in the same boat as me...

Thanks,
Chris

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AlwaysThinkin

Participant

I got the same deal on free RoboHelp5 and with the advice here was able to install the 501 and 502 patches and forego activation.

BUT, I was actually trying to restore my ability to use RoboScreenCapture which I purchased stand alone from eHelp. Adobe's Customer Support offered to give me RH5 claiming that it contained a Screen Capture tool—wrong! I still can't use RoboScreen Capture because it's trying to activate independently against eHelp's old servers.

I'm trying to force them to give me RoboHelp6 or higher since 6 was the first version that supplies Screen Capture. Or I'll just resort to software piracy.

As for their support, it's obvious that Adobe has merged way too many companies and products for them to properly support them without far greater investment in their support division. By all means outsource support if it will save you money...but use the savings to improve the quality!

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Chris

Is this because you cannot get X4 activated but there is a patch for X5?

If it is, then get on to Customer Service and don't take any nonsense. Insist you want X4 activated or an acceptable alternative. They should know what to do.

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

Yes, that is why I'm looking for an X5 trial. Not exactly "kosher", but what's guy to do?

I'm such a softy. I guess I'll call them for the 15th time and see what being more firm will get me...

Chris

MergeThis

Inspiring

Peter:

Just verifying that the X5 activation instructions at that Adobe KB location work perfectly. One of our writers got a new machine and had no problem getting back to work in RH.

Thanks!
Leon

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Anonymous

Hello a1z2s3x4, Chris, and ankit79,

Our legacy eHelp/Macromedia activation server cluster was brought down to multiple issues that did not fit within our corporate policies. I do apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused. We are currently attempting to transfer this server cluster to a much more suitable location. I do not currently have an estimated time frame for when this process should be completed. Once this server is back up and running, activations will only be processed via phone as the internet activation access will be removed.

This server issue should not impact Adobe RoboHelp 6 or 7 as they are using the traditional Adobe activation servers. Products that are impacted by this change are all legacy eHelp applications that use activation and any Macromedia branded eHelp product. This includes the RoboHelp line (X5 and older), RoboDemo, older releases of RoboScreen Capture, etc. As stated above, there is a patch available for RoboHelp X5 to bypass activation. Once you install this patch, RoboHelp X5 should no longer prompt for activation.

I understand that this is inconvenient, but the only solution for the other products effected would be to upgrade to a newer version.

Thank you,

Bobby Walker
Adobe Systems Incorporated

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

Bobby,

Thanks foir your reply. I understand the issues with the activation servers. However, I feel I must quote the Adobe Activation FAQ....

<quote>
Will Macromedia use activation to force me to upgrade? No, Macromedia will not use activation as a tool to force people to upgrade. Activation is merely an anti-piracy tool, nothing else.
</quote>

Contrary to your FAQ, this seems to be exactly what is happening. (Of course, Macromedia is no more. But, Adobe has left this verbiage in the activation FAQ). There are other things that could be done in the meantime. I am stuck with Robohelp X4 and Robodemo 4 and I cannot get them activated during this server outage. I am losing hundreds of dollars/day because I cannot perform work that a client has requested of me. Internally to Adobe, there should be the technical expertise to either provide a patched EXE or provide whatever registry entry is required to activate this software. Adobe has all the power here and I have none, but I'll say it anyway...waiting for an indefinite amount of time is not acceptable.

How about a free upgrade to X5 so that I and others can use the available patched EXE? It can't be a temporary X5 license, because once I update my client's help files, they will need X5 to work on them in the future. That would help me with Robohelp, but I'm not sure how I will be able to activate Robodemo...

Chris

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

<crickets chirping>........

Can anyone point me to a X5 trial download?

Chris

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

As soon as I hear from my contact, I will post to this thread.

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ankit79

Participant

I'm also trying to get X4 activated since over 10 days now.

Today again I called up the India number from the above link and the care guy replied me that the activation servers are not up at this moment and it will take another month to be completely ready and up ... that's too much time. Is there any alternative at all??

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I have established that it should be possible to activate X4 by phone but I don't know why you are encountering so much trouble with that.

I have contacted someone else but they are out of office today so you will have to bear with me.

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

Well, today's daily activation phone call was a little different. The customer service rep took my product install ID and said that he was escalating my case to his supervisor, who would email me the X4 activation number. I hope he comes through for me because my grace period ended this morning and now I can't access robohelp at all.

Chris

ps. Mr Grainge, thank you for helping to track down an avenue for activation. If you hear anything, please continue to post here as you have been doing.

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

Wow. I left the house to do some work outside. I just came back in to hear an almost completely unintelligible message being left on my answering machine. The only words I can make out are "when update we call you back"... I am assuming the rest of the message wasn't good news. There was a phone number left, but I can't make it out....This is getting ridiculous. Over a week...

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

I am trying to find out if there is anything similar for X4. However, you will have to be patient as we are all on different continents.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Don't know. I'll let you know if I can find anything. Meantime, are you using the phone numbers on the page I linked to above or something else?

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a1z2s3x4

Participating Frequently

I used both the phone number on the page you supplied and the one for activation that is provided by the software when you select "phone activation".

I've been through at least a dozen customer service people and activation team members. Not to sound crass, but communication with each one of them has been difficult due to language barriers. It appears they are reading from a script most of the time, too, since every conversation goes the same way.....

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Here's what you need to get X5 running.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403696

You might like to point the support people to it. :-)

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Anonymous

Excuse me for bringing this up again, but my coworker--who isn't in today--said she did as instructed in the TechNote, and rebooted, but still gets the activation dialog when she tries to use RH X5. It was recently reinstalled after she was upgraded to a newer machine, still running XP.

I'm trying to help her with this. Referring to the TechNote below,

--1) On the Adobe download page referred to in the TechNote, I don't see the 5.0.1 patch explicitly listed. There is a 501 file under the download for Word 2003 Support Update. Is that the one?

--2) Does step 3 of the Tech Note refer to the .exes of the 501 and 502 patches? If not, then what? I downloaded and saved the patches when they were issued, and I don't see a Robohtml.exe or a Robohelp.exe among them. I have a RHO_x501.exe and a RHO13_x502.exe.

Thanks,

Mike

Turn off activation with RoboHelp X5.

Due to activation issues with Adobe RoboHelp X5, the following may be completed to turn off activation with RoboHelp X5.

Install RoboHelp X5.
Install Patch X501 and X502 from the following link: http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/downloads.html
Download RoboHelp.exe and RoboHTML.exe and replace the installed versions with the downloaded versions. The installed versions are in <Install Directory of X5>/RoboHELP/RoboHelp.exe and <Install Directory of X5>/RoboHTML/RoboHTML.exe respectively.
You now will be able to run Adobe RoboHelp X5 without any activation.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

Hi Colum,

In step 3 above, I downloaded the two exes to the desktop, and ran Robohelp.exe. An error message indicated that vxdbms.dll is not found and I need to reinstall. However, the file is actually located appropriately in the original installations for RoboHelp and RoboHelp HTML.

Because the downloads are intended to install over the original (RHx5.02), I assume it isn't necessary to remove the originals, correct?

What's amiss?

Thank you,

Linda

Did you save the exe files to the two locations in Program Files replacing the previous copies?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

X5 is no longer activated by a server so you will wait a long time.

Phone the appropriate number from this page.

http://www.adobe.com/activation/phonenumbers.html

I believe they have a means of providing a code for you. If they claim otherwise, please post back and let me know.

Just because they no longer support it does not mean you are not entitled to use it.

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Anonymous

quote:

Originally posted by: Peter Grainge
X5 is no longer activated by a server so you will wait a long time.

Phone the appropriate number from this page.

http://www.adobe.com/activation/phonenumbers.html

I believe they have a means of providing a code for you. If they claim otherwise, please post back and let me know.

Just because they no longer support it does not mean you are not entitled to use it.

Peter,

I'd like to echo a1z2s3x4's post from earlier today. I'm also trying to activate version 4.1 and have met with no success.

I've tried the 866-772-3623 number for assistance with an activation code and, while everyone I've dealt with has been professional and courteous, they haven't been able to provide me with a code.

If you can point me in another direction for a solution or offer any other assistance, that would be greatly appreciated.

- Chris

Turn off activation with RoboHelp X5.

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