Having a bad day

wcoxe1 wrote on 2/21/2005, 8:02 AM

Although THIS forum recognizes me and my password, nothing else on this system seems to.

I have had nothing but problems since 5 February with Sony products. Oh, the products are fine, it is the registration system.

I have had to move from one machine and OS to another, and none of the products recognize their serial numbers. Worse, they don't even let me in to run as a demo.

After several days, VEGAS lets me run a demo and then I got that registered. But no go with SoundForge 6.0, Noise Reduction, or DVDA. The only message is: Serial Number Invalid, bye!

Then, it really gets interesting. I have tried about 4 or 5 times to send requests for support through their eMail support system. I write everything out and attempt to send it, but it wants my ACCOUNT Name, etc.

So, I enter all the data. It says that that account exists already. However, it won't let me in to that account when I try to sign in. It says that it is invalid.

I have tried with all three of my eMail address. Same results: That already exists, but you can't use it because the password is invalid. I sign in here, check the password and verify it, and come back a day later. Still invalid.

Thing is, I can't even get through with phone contact. I have tried the phone number listed on the web-site repeatedly. I have been trying for a LONG time over several weeks. No go. Their phones and people are too busy or something. Our schedules don't match well enough to just let me sit on the phone.

I looked for a GROUND MAIL address so I could write a paper letter. No go. Nothing that indicates where SUPPORT is.

Anybody have any ideas of what to do next? I hate to use this forum for this kind of request, but I have run out of ideas.

Sony EPM: You out there? You gave me some of the serial numbers to start with. I would REALLY Appreciate help so I could begin working again.

Thanks!

Comments

MyST wrote on 2/21/2005, 9:03 AM

In the U.S./Canada?
Call customer service at their toll free number.

Mario

BrianStanding wrote on 2/21/2005, 9:31 AM

Here's Sony's snail mail address:

Sony Media Software
1617 Sherman Ave.
Madison, WI 53704

Contact phone numbers are at:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/corporate/contacts.asp

filmy wrote on 2/21/2005, 11:53 AM

I believe the SN is relative to the machine ID (SN + machine ID = "activation"...at least in the downladable versions)(And Vegas 5 is a whole other story - Search and go back to when that came out and maybe something will rign a bell with your issue now). You say you moved from one machine to another - my guess is you just moved everything, as is, over? If you did this the machine ID would now be different but your reg info would not be...in other words simply using the same SN/activation would not work on the new machine. Call tech support with your new machine ID.

As far as email goes - might be the same thing. If you copied over all all your reg settings, cookies and user settings you may need to start deleteing things. I would start with any cookies first and see if you can log in.

If all else fails - short answer and a last resort - for me anyway - uninstall and re-install.

B.Verlik wrote on 2/21/2005, 12:17 PM

One of the things that brought me to this wonderful forum, by accident, was the fact that I got SO P.O.'d at the way Sony treats you, when you try to ask any question. It's the ultimate F.U. They just insult your intelligence with their reply's. They always seem to not understand the question and then they choose an answer that doesn't relate and send it back and they're through with you.
Sony should be damn thankful that this forum is probably helping them in the public relations department. But it's us, that make it this good. Not Sony.
I'm totally afraid of the same thing happening, when the time comes for me to transfer my Vegas to another computer.
One of the things that brought me here, was when I was having trouble 'printing back to tape', I came to Sony's website and finally found the 'tools' for Vegas, and tried to download the 'print to tape' tools. Sony asks for my S/N, before downloading, and then says "Your Serial Number is not valid." That was my total response.
It took two weeks for them to explain that the 'print to tape' tools were only available with Vegas 2.0 and that's why my S/N was not valid. TWO WEEKS DOWN THE TUBE for that explanation.
Then I accidently discovered this forum, and for the most part, have stopped a lot of my Sony complaining. Don't get me wrong. I like the products. I hate the way they treat you like your a number. (more like a lottery ticket, that already lost.)

Chienworks wrote on 2/21/2005, 12:47 PM

Your serial number remains constant forever (well, as long as you use the same version). The activation code will change with each reinstall. I don't even bother with the activation key. In fact, i haven't even seen a place to type it in in recent versions. Type in the serial number that you receive when you purchase the license, then register the software to activate it. If your computer is online then this process is fast, easy, and painless. If it's not, use the "register from another computer" option which generates a floppy disk that you then use on a computer that is online. You will receive the new activation key as a .reg file. Save this file on the floppy, take it to the computer you're running the SONY software on, and double-click the .reg file to activate the software.

jetdv wrote on 2/21/2005, 12:57 PM

Also, the key shown on the Help - About screen is NOT your serial number!

Rednroll wrote on 2/21/2005, 1:28 PM

Sorry for your bad experience. One other thing worth mentioning is that when you do the register from another computer and send them your serial and computer ID, you will get an automated activation code sent to your email you provided. Save this activation code in a safe place. If you ever need to reinstall Vegas, just enter the activation code into the area where it asks for your serial number, and no online registration process is needed. Basically, the Sony protection works this way. You get a serial number when you purchase Vegas. The computer you put Vegas on has a unique Computer ID#. With the combination of your S/N and your computer ID a, "Activation Code" is generated to open the software.

Although, you had problems I have found Sony's registration process the easiest and most flexible of anything else out there, so I'm not sure why you had problems. Just don't let it discourage you. After, you've lived through Steinberg dongle problems, and Propellar heads registration copy protection schemes, or something with Pace ILok on it, you'll thank Sony for their easy process.

filmy wrote on 2/21/2005, 4:59 PM

>>>Your serial number remains constant forever (well, as long as you use the same version). The activation code will change with each reinstall. <<<

But as I read the issue his serials came back as invalid. Which would lead me to think everything was just transfered over. The would go along with something like the email issue. I know they are two individual things however if I just unhooked my hard drive and moved it to a new machine I would have issues anymore. Not with old products that took "only" a serial number but with products that base their SN/Activation off of machine ID's. Same might be going on with some sites and log-ons and so on. As I said - go back to vegas 5 and th eissues with that. If you installed a Demo it would not "uninstall" and trying to re-install would not allow you to do so. I was one of the people who had the demo crap out in less than a day and could not do anything about it. Yeah the Demo serial number did not change - but it would not do anything after the crap out. I tried to uninstall and re-insatll and got the "invalid SN" message - that is when it came out that you could not uninstall and re-install on the same machine.

Recent things like wcoxe1 asks have gone on with me - this system is a new system, I moved settings over however the cookies were on another machine so log ons to some sites were invalid. I had to, in at least one case, do the entire register process again. On the other hand I just rebuilt my old system and in doing so created back ups but now, for example, I try to run flash and I get the whole register/activation thing again. The old info is still there in the back up, however something must have changed...wiping the hard drive for the rebuild? When these forums switched over I had somewhat of the same issue with log-in - it kept telling me it was an invalid user name, I tried to register again with my user name but it came back with "Already in use". I could not access my user setting because the password was invalid. In the long run it had something to do with cookies on my end and the change from SoFo to Sony on the other end.

In the old Amiga days you had to look in the manual for certian words. Some software was done where it would vary - so you couldn't just say "Yeah the SN is 12345 and the word is little." A few yeas ago I got an Amiga 2000 as a base back up from my Studio 16 set up and it came with a box load of software. I tried a few but it would ask for words - "Go to page 5, third paragraph, 5th sentence, first word". Course in this case the manual was long gone so the software is usless. But at least you had th eneeded info handy from system to system - didn't "need" to be online.

Chienworks wrote on 2/21/2005, 5:09 PM

You do realize that you can't just simply move a program from one computer to another right? You have to install it on each computer it will be used on. Even if you install it on a removable drive and then move that drive to a different PC, it isn't installed on that other PC. The software may be there physically on the drive, but it isn't installed on that computer yet because Windows and the registry don't know anything about it. You'll have to install it again even though it's already on the drive.

Generally it makes no sense to install software on a removable drive. Use removable drives only for data files, not for software.

filmy wrote on 2/21/2005, 9:26 PM

>>> You do realize that you can't just simply move a program from one computer to another right?<<<

Not sure if that was being asked of me or not - but yes, I do know this. My examples were based on rebuilding a system and not wanting to try and reinstall software that is some cases is 5 or more years old. I used Ghost FWIW - so the fact that things like Flash now need to be re-regged lead me to think something else is going on as well...and in this case it was rebuilding the same system...well, sans about 3 hard drives. And in the case of my new system I did a "new" install. The only drives I moved over were video drives - with footage on them. I did, however, move over settings for email and what not. But this is part of what I was trying to explain as well - if wcoxe1 was "moving", as opposed to "re-installing", all things SoFo/Sony than I could understand why there might be an invalid SN message. And this mainly stems from my negative experiance with Vegas 5...on the one system I tried to install it on. If myself and others had issues with SN and activation, in my case "demo" activation no less, when trying to install I can only imagine what would happen if one tried to move it to another system.