the activation system is down and cust svc isn’t available until monday.
I love Photoshop. I don’t mind activation. I hate REactivation. I started saying this when CS came out. We now have CS3 and Adobe still ignores the problem. Can’t reactivate on weekends. Just plain stupid.
Q
There’s a relatively recent update available from Tech Support for the ALM service that may be relevant to your issue.
Down??? ,until monday, who pays me the lost ifi can’t deliver my photo’s on monday morning? I [deleted by forum host] payed for this program.
I don’t care how upset you are…use of that type of language is clear violation of the TOS you agreed to when you registered here.
This is a professional forum. Please act professionally.
Bob
I don’t mind activation. I hate REactivation. I started saying this when CS came out. We now have CS3 and Adobe still ignores the problem.
man, i just had a horrible flashback!!! 🙂
I’ve been against the way activation has been implemented since CS…
Re-activation is a goddamn abortion. I’ve had to do it three times in the same number of weeks. ..and that’s only with one license on two machines. I can’t imagine how places like university IT departments keep up.
The activation staff in the Philippines is simply dense, obdurate, and wholly inflexible. Most of them would have made great Soviet bureaucrats or cold war commisars.
Thank God someone in Adobe, San Jose, California, USA reached out to the activation people for me…
Keith
I can’t imagine how places like university IT departments keep up.
AFAIK, volume licenses do not require activation.
Bob
I’m glad to report that I finally managed to reactivate just now, only having lost 2 days of potential productivity (weekends are when I get to spend most of my quality Photoshop time). I guess that just means the exhibition prints are another week late 🙁 Given how critical activation is to Adobe products, I am rather stunned that the system could be down so long, though, and the fact that I had to reactivate at all after making no obviously significant changes to my PC is distinctly annoying.
Dave
From the Adobe website <
http://www.adobe.com/products/activation/#section-6>, and questions posed regarding Activation:
Q: How is Customer Care prepared to support users during the activation process?
A: The Adobe Customer Care team is fully prepared to address all customer concerns during the activation process. We believe that in most cases, customers will have a smooth experience either by activating via the Internet or by using the 24-hour automated Activation Voice Response system and will not need to contact Adobe Customer Care. Adobe also provides for unforeseen circumstances (such as communication outages)so that Customer Care can respond to customer calls or extend the activation period until full communications are restored.
Funny…I’d have thought that if the activation server is down, that would be considered a communication outage. And yet I think Customer Care is not available on weekends or perhaps just within a narrow timeframe. So, in failing to ensure a means is available 24/7 for a customer to reactivate PS CS (or later versions for that matter) when it fails erroneously, Adobe has likewise failed to show appropriate concern for their customers. Whether or not the activation server is down is moot…whatever algorithm Adobe employs to create an authorization code should be provided via a tool on the customer support/tech support representative’s own computer so that they can generate the authorization code in response to data given them by the customer who is in need of activation or reactivation. It would then be that representative’s responsibility to ensure the generated data is later entered into the activation server as a record update for the customer.
Of course, the better solution would be to provide an updated patch for the now defunct PS CS, which disables activation altogether. Adobe owes this to their PS CS customers who choose not to upgrade.
Regards,
Daryl
DAVE AND FLASHBACK.
Yea, I remember that we had so many posts concerning this. So many of us could not understand how something as simple as using a program like GO BACK to restore our systems forced us to REactivate.
My story involved how a hurricane knocked out our electricity and phone service for nearly two weeks. Power was not a problem because my neighbor had a powerful generator and was nice enough to let me plug in to it to run my computer and printer. My problem was no phone service so I could not REactivate for 10 days. Therefore, no Photoshop, version CS.
My history of using Photoshop is: Started with a "COPY" of Photoshop 5.0. Used it for no longer than 6 weeks to see if my feeble mind could grasp it. Bought a full version of 5.5. Bought 6.0 upgrade, 7.0 upgrade and finally CS.
At that point I had invested more than $1,000 in the program. And the thanks I got from Adobe is that I could not use it because of no phone service. They got a thousand dollars of my hard earned money and, in return, treated me like a criminal.
I skipped CS2 because making the change to digital photography was/is a rather expensive thing for me. Plus, I was still pi**ed about CS and REactivation.
I wanted to purchase CS3 but SEE NEXT POST.
Q
CS3. Do I understand correctly?
1. CS3 does not include Image Ready.
2. Does not contain Adobe Gamma.
3. CS3, for no logical reason, no longer keeps your most recent printer settings which means they must be reset for EACH print. Centering prints is also a problem.
4. CS3 may be very difficult, or even impossible, to install.
5. CS3 full version is no longer the full version but is the basic version of the full version which is now called the Extended version.
6. CS3 upgrade, with all of these faults, costs more than any previous upgrade.
IF THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE TRUE, I think the people at Adobe must be out of their minds. They have taken Photoshop, a truly great program, and ruined it.
Changing the printing setup makes no sense. Why would they change something that was working perfectly well? WHY would they make printing our work more difficult?
When I bought my first full version of Photoshop it was with the belief that I could ALWAYS upgrade to the newer full versions at a reasonable price. I didn’t buy "Elements", I bought the FULL VERSION PHOTOSHOP. "Extended", it’s a rip-off, plain and simple.
And we still have to put up with REactivation? If you are a photographer and do on location work during the weekends you better pray that you have no need to REactivate.
Q
hmm. 1-6: YES.
you’ve summed it up quite nicely Q.
Agree with all except Point #5.
As Dave knows, I think the Extended version offers additional features which are useful only to a small percentage of Photoshop users.
They should have called it "Photoshop Video/3d" or something. (Although I gather the 3D features are a bit limited.)
I’m really glad I didn’t go for it!
But, if you keep CS2, CS3 is a good step forward in many respects.
Dear Adobe,
Adobe also provides for unforeseen circumstances (such as communication outages)so that Customer Care can respond to customer calls or extend the activation period until full communications are restored.
Ummm… If Customer Care isn’t running 24/7, how the _ _ _ _ can they respond to customer calls or extend the activation period until full communications are restored in unforeseen circumstances?!!!
Talk about "internally contradictory obfuscatory marketing-speak," SHEESH!!!
Everyone who loses money should send that statement to Adobe’s attorneys accompanied by a _ _ _ _ ing bill for their lost wages/cost based upon "reasonable reliance" on that very representation by Adobe.
…and you know what will happen? If Adobe gets sued they’ll pay the suits and then change the statement instead of fixing the shortfall in service they have created by the draconian way activation and re-activation works.
Beyond which, the Adobe License Manager fix should be OPENLY posted with Adobe’s updates to affected products, instead of being only available from Tech Support and/or Activation Support AFTER problems hit.
Given the problem it fixes is apparently related to multiple hard drives and/or multiple CPUs, in a computing environment more and more typified by multicore CPUs and multiple drives, it makes no sense not to post it in that manner.
You can read about the patch here:
<
http://blog.herbtyson.com/?p=55>
(Not my blog)
Of course, the patch has existed AT LEAST since March, but is it on the updates page? NO!!
So, I have to spend several phone calls and hours with reactivations before Activation Support finally mentions the patch!!
"hmm. 1-6: YES".
Thank you Dave
And John Joslin,
I accept that you disagree on Point 5. Your opinion is respected. I, however, can not accept that you caused the Beatles breakup. Shame on you…
Q
When I bought my first full version of Photoshop it was with the belief that I could ALWAYS upgrade to the newer full versions at a reasonable price.
7. Starting with CS3, the upgrade policy has changed from ANY previous version to three versions back.
8. Printed User Manual not included. (Available at extra cost…)
Still, I really like CS3(Basic) except for the printing misbehavior.
Good points Rick,
I thought I was forgetting something.
Q
Agree with all except Point #5.
bite me john! 🙂 😛
I, however, can not accept that you caused the Beatles breakup. Shame on you…
dern tootin’!!! 🙂
Bob,
Post #4 is offensive but #7 is not?
Jake
Lets just say I use the same standards as the FCC.
Bob
Not that I really care one way or the other, but I agree with John-Pierre. Both #4 & # 7 were equally offensive. Neither reply should have included profanities. I’m no angel but I never swear here.
My English ain’t so good but I’m real proficient at profanity. Just not in polite company.
Q
My English ain’t so good but I’m real proficient at profanity. Just not in polite company.
are you kidding me q? your engrish is perfect. i wouldn’t have expected you to be a non-native speaker!
Lets just say I use the same standards as the FCC.
1) Before or after Dubya’s and Fallwell’s clones started running it?
2) I certainly hope Todie doesn’t ever have a wardrobe malfunction then. It could be more than just really ugly, it could be REALLY expensive.
Keith
The FCC’s "standards" are anything but. As the court of appeals recently found, the agency’s indecency decisions are completely arbitrary.
Well after 3 days and 13 install/deletes of cs2 I am still no closer to installing cs2 on a second machine. I get this error:
Your adobe photoshop user name,organization or serial number is missing or invalid The application cannot continue and must now exit. Now they will help me if I pay $40.00. Why should I have to pay for what is a software problem ? Im sure that there are keys left on the machine after uninstalling the software that can only be read by the software. I just don’t know how to fix this problem.
Chaos
Sean,
Are you familiar with using the Windows Registry Editor, launched via Start > Run and then entering "regedit" in the Run dialog? If not, be very careful to only perform the specific steps given here, nothing more. And if you are familiar with Regedit, the same rule applies. 🙂
Daryl
1. Ensure you do not have Photoshop CS2 installed.
2. Launch Regedit to open the Windows Registry
3. In the left pane of the editor, browse to locate each of the following keys (represented by folder icons as if expanding a folder/file structure). If the key exists, examine the data listed in the right pane of the editor to ensure nothing apart from PS CS2 related information is presented. In most cases, the keys contain data that shouldn’t affect an installation, but we’ll delete all keys that are CS2-related. And that is the next action to take…Delete the key via right-clicking and selecting Delete, or by using the keyboard Delete key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Registration <- May apply to multiple Adobe products, so only look to see if it exists. If so, and if you only had Photoshop CS2 installed and nothing else, you can safely delete this key.
4. Now, browse to locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Uninstall
5. Right-click on that Uninstall key and select Find, entering "Photoshop" into the Find dialog, and begin the search. For each instance found, review the content in the right pane to see if that is Photoshop CS2-related (or Photoshop\9.0) information. If so, you should be able to safely delete the key in the left pane. What you are particularly looking for is the key that contains the user personalization information, identfiable in the right pane as items named "RegCompany", "RegOwner", "Serial", and numerous others. If that data is blank or not consistent with the serialization data you’re entering, that is likely the source of your problems. In any case, delete the key in the left pane that contains all these data items.
6. Repeat your search for "Photoshop" by depressign the F3 key and review each instance found for being specific to Photoshop CS2 (9.0). If you can clearly identify that the contents of each key is only applicable to Photoshop CS2 (9.0), then delete the key and continue your search; otherwise leave the key and data items alone.
7. Repeat step 6 until you’ve searched to the end of the Windows Registry, then close Regedit.
8. Reboot (probably unnecessary, but a good precautionary step to take to clean things up) then reinstall PS CS2. Hopefully this time it will take your serial number and personalization data properly.
Hope that helps,
Daryl
wrote:
I love Photoshop. I don’t mind activation. I hate REactivation. I started saying this when CS came out. We now have CS3 and Adobe still ignores the problem. Can’t reactivate on weekends. Just plain stupid.
Q
It’s enough to drive people to Demonoid!
