This (I hope) is the last post on my long running battle to get valid activation codes. Yesterday, I commented on the "no support" from tech support. Well, got an email offering a refund. Nice, but I don't want a refund, I just want activations codes that work.
For the benefit of others having registration problems, or those just curious, I'm detailing what happened:
I called customer service. For the first time, Sonic Foundry admits "you can have problems IF you try to register offline". No kidding! By the way, did you use the batch file to remove some registry settings? What? No, I was never told that in the over dozen times I called in the past.
Finally, are we getting somewhere? Told to uninstall VF, then use the Registry batch file, then reinstall VF, then phone back for new activation codes. Grrrrrrr.
1. Done add/remove from Control Panel. Twenty program files left behind in Video Factory folder. Moved to recycle bin.
2. Ran Microsoft's msizap (provided) from sent Sonic Foundry batch file. Note: Just removes 1 key, leaves others behind.
3. Reinstalled VF 2.0a build 91.
4. Fired up Video Factory, wrote down Computer ID. Interesting, the computer number never changed before, now it has for the first time. Getting hopeful. :-)
5. Called Customer Support back to get my product activation code and the infamous MPEG plug-in activation code.
6. Copied both activation codes to a floppy. Ran upstairs to my "video" computer.
7. Pasted ONLY product activation code into registration window.
8. Dragged a MPEG to timline. It worked. It had before, but wait, that was only after entering the MPEG activation code. I didn't this time.
9. Tried cookie cutter. It worked! First time in months. Note: Previously my computer ID was 1RK62PF-24, even with Windows XP installed. Now after running the msizap batch the number changed to IRK62PF-Q5. So something did get zapped in the Registry.
So what's the surprise? I NEVER entered my new MPEG activation code! So somehow, and nobody at Sonic Foundry I talked to today has any idea why, all of a sudden the "old" activation code still obviously lurking somewhere in the Registry now apparently was found by Video Factory. That folks is BROKEN software as I've been saying all along.
Not out of the woods yet...
I called Customer Support back, mainly to report what I wrote above. They tell me to click on the custom button after selecting save as MPEG and tell them how many shots I got left, so I can type in the MPEG activation code. Guess what, no such information and still no way to register the MPEG plug-in. The registration window is MIA.
So according to Sonic Foundry I may have only 19 uses left, then Video Factory may very well start nagging to register all over again. First I had terrible problems trying to get the registration window to go away and now I can't get it to pop up to pop in the latest MPEG activation code.
What else I learned:
The activation code does not time out. You will need a new one if you format your hard disk and/or change operating systems. So the numbers you got should work, if you don't do any of the above.
For the benefit of others having registration problems, or those just curious, I'm detailing what happened:
I called customer service. For the first time, Sonic Foundry admits "you can have problems IF you try to register offline". No kidding! By the way, did you use the batch file to remove some registry settings? What? No, I was never told that in the over dozen times I called in the past.
Finally, are we getting somewhere? Told to uninstall VF, then use the Registry batch file, then reinstall VF, then phone back for new activation codes. Grrrrrrr.
1. Done add/remove from Control Panel. Twenty program files left behind in Video Factory folder. Moved to recycle bin.
2. Ran Microsoft's msizap (provided) from sent Sonic Foundry batch file. Note: Just removes 1 key, leaves others behind.
3. Reinstalled VF 2.0a build 91.
4. Fired up Video Factory, wrote down Computer ID. Interesting, the computer number never changed before, now it has for the first time. Getting hopeful. :-)
5. Called Customer Support back to get my product activation code and the infamous MPEG plug-in activation code.
6. Copied both activation codes to a floppy. Ran upstairs to my "video" computer.
7. Pasted ONLY product activation code into registration window.
8. Dragged a MPEG to timline. It worked. It had before, but wait, that was only after entering the MPEG activation code. I didn't this time.
9. Tried cookie cutter. It worked! First time in months. Note: Previously my computer ID was 1RK62PF-24, even with Windows XP installed. Now after running the msizap batch the number changed to IRK62PF-Q5. So something did get zapped in the Registry.
So what's the surprise? I NEVER entered my new MPEG activation code! So somehow, and nobody at Sonic Foundry I talked to today has any idea why, all of a sudden the "old" activation code still obviously lurking somewhere in the Registry now apparently was found by Video Factory. That folks is BROKEN software as I've been saying all along.
Not out of the woods yet...
I called Customer Support back, mainly to report what I wrote above. They tell me to click on the custom button after selecting save as MPEG and tell them how many shots I got left, so I can type in the MPEG activation code. Guess what, no such information and still no way to register the MPEG plug-in. The registration window is MIA.
So according to Sonic Foundry I may have only 19 uses left, then Video Factory may very well start nagging to register all over again. First I had terrible problems trying to get the registration window to go away and now I can't get it to pop up to pop in the latest MPEG activation code.
What else I learned:
The activation code does not time out. You will need a new one if you format your hard disk and/or change operating systems. So the numbers you got should work, if you don't do any of the above.