Cannot activate PS 9.0

LH
Posted By
Larry_Harrah
Dec 19, 2007
Views
239
Replies
4
Status
Closed
Purchased retail PS CS2 upgrade 2 years ago, and installed/activated/upgraded successfully from PS 5.0. Subsequently discarded old PS 5.0 disks.

Recently had to repair WinXP OS on that PC, and now can’t bring up PS CS2 at all. Bought new HP Workstation, installed CS2 from the original retail upgrade CD, it seems to install OK, but when activation screen comes up it won’t accept the serial number shown on the CD case, it says "must enter a valid serial number . . ." and goes no further. The PS screen also shows "TRIAL SOFTWARE" as though I’ve downloaded a trial program.

I called Adobe support a few days ago, and spent 90 minutes bouncing from Adobe Tech Support to Adobe Customer Service to Adobe Activitation Support chatting with multiples of Adobe/India agents, none of which spoke even marginal english. None of them were even the slighest help and I finally hung up in disgust.

Does anyone know of a solution to reinstalling/reactivating CS2 Upgrade, without having the old original PS version available?

HP 4400
Intel core 2, 6400, 2.13 ghz
2mb ram
Win XP Pro, SP 2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 560
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DM
dave_milbut
Dec 19, 2007
Does anyone know of a solution to reinstalling/reactivating CS2 Upgrade, without having the old original PS version available?

you need your old disk OR serial #. if you registered, your serial will be on file at adobe.
LH
Larry_Harrah
Dec 19, 2007
I do not have the old disk. I do have the old serial number. The old version 5.0 serial number is not formatted the same as the serial number of the more recent CS2 upgrade (6 sets of 4 digit numbers), so the old serial number does not have enough digits to fit properly into the CS2 activation screen which shows up after reinstallation.

It does seem a bit strange that at no time did any of the multitude of support agents I spoke with suggest anything regarding the use of the old software or old serial number. I’m beginning to believe that any Adobe upgrade requires that you keep the old version of the software and old serial number around forever in order to do a reinstall. It just seems odd that when I do a reinstall, I’m never asked for the presence of an older version of PS on the system, it just installs as a TRIAL SOFTWARE and refuses to allow activation.

Maybe I’m the only guy to ever have this probalem, but anyway, thanks for your comments.
BL
Bob Levine
Dec 19, 2007
I do not have the old disk.

What you’ve done is very much like starting your car once and then throwing the key away.

The only workaround I can think of for you is to find someone who has PS
5.5 and have them send you a copy of the CD. Yes, it’s perfectly legal
as long as you have your own serial number.

Bob
DM
dave_milbut
Dec 19, 2007
that’s a good point. wonder if just the photshop folder will do or if it’s the actual cd that matters.

either way larry, if you call adobe with that serial # they should be able to get you an installation key that will work. ask to speak to a supervisor right away as you’ve been given the run around already.

you never answered (or i missed it) did you ever register the app? that will help your case enormously with adobe cust supp.

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