Do serial numbers "expire"?

[kcrossen]

The original serial number that was sent when I bought your product worked when I bought the product. It continued to work for a couple of months worth of updates (I downloaded and used two upgrades). The original serial number does not work now. The new serial number you sent (thank you for that by the way) does work.

I can't figure out why the old serial number still doesn't work now, even with the original product download and the two subsequent updates for which that old serial number did work originally. Do serial numbers "expire"? For example, as actually happened to me, if I install your product on one machine which fails 6+ months later, will the same serial number allow me to install on the replacement machine?

I'm just trying to understand how to avoid this period of not being able to use your software. During this period, I found and bought another AVCHD codec, which works fine, and which I could use as an inconvenient alternative with some significant effort. I much prefer your product because of its convenience and features, but reliability is far more important to me.

When I bought the product, my understanding was that my serial number would work for the product I bought (plus some number of subsequent upgrades) "forever" (on an Intel/WinXP machine, etc, etc). Is this understanding correct?

Ken

[Nick]

We change serial number each time when we change major version, e.g. 2.1 to 3.0. You should get new serial number for using product. Thank you.

[kcrossen]

My question is:

Should my old serial number still be working? There has been no change of major version since I bought your product.

Ken

[Nick]

Your serial number must work on new version. But if you download new version from our web site, it is not work. Because it is demo version.  You can't activate demo version. If you want to get new version, you should write to our technical support (tsup@elecard.net.ru), they will sent you full version (not demo). Thank you.

[kcrossen]

My explanation must be bad, let me try again.

When I purchased your product, Elecard sent me a link via email to download the full version, which I did download and archive. Let's call this the original download. I also received a serial number, let's call this the original serial number.

The original serial number now does not work with the original download.

Is this expected behavior?

Ken

[kcrossen]

According to what you say:

• I'm supposed to figure out on my own that a new version is now available for which my license is valid
• I have to ask for the upgrade

It seems to me that you should email out a link for downloading any upgrade to everyone who has a valid license for that upgrade. You should be happy to put your product in the hands of people who are willing to pay.

I don't know any Russian folk saying that would describe your policy, but in English it's called "biting the hand that feeds you". I suspect there's a Russian equivalent.

Ken

[vlad_marchenko]

My explanation must be bad, let me try again.

When I purchased your product, Elecard sent me a link via email to download the full version, which I did download and archive. Let's call this the original download. I also received a serial number, let's call this the original serial number.

The original serial number now does not work with the original download.

Is this expected behavior?

Ken

Hi Ken,

Of course, this is not expected behaviour and let me try to help you solve this problem.
If you say that everything worked just fine and then after some updates serial number doesn't work anymore then we should "dig into that direction". May be you noticed that the issue appeared after some particular program installation. Or, you installed some service pack or even switched to another operating system?

By the way, if you try to activate our products under Vista you need to run Registrator with Administrator privileges (right click on the icon and select appropriate point from the context menu).

Also I would like to take a look at the report-file from our Registrator and DxDiag report from you machine:

- click Start -> Run and type DxDiag in "Open" line;
- click "OK" and you'll see the "DirectX Diagnostic Tool" window;
- click "Save All Information" and send us this file to tsup@elecard.ru.

[kcrossen]

I thought just as you did. So I tried the following:

I tried on a machine that has never been updated (original XP/SP2 as shipped) and has never been connected to the internet, just like the original machine.

The operating system and installed software is nearly identical to the machine that died, as identical as I can make it anyway.

The one difference that I know about is that the original machine was a IBM/ThinkPad T61 Core 2 duo 2.0GHz while the machine where the install failed was a Lenovo/ThinkPad T61 Single Core 1.86GHz.

I next tried to install on an AMD (not Intel) Single Core 2.4GHz machine, same XP/SP2. This one is internet connected and gets updated occasionally. Failed here too.

[vlad_marchenko]

Hello Ken,

Could you contact us by this e-mail please? Please attach report file from the Registrator program to your request and also clarify what happens when you try to enter the serial number: is it accepted successfully but the application stays in evaluation mode or the Registrator says that serial number is incorrect?

If the first case we definitely need to take a look at Registrator's log-file.
In the second case we'll generate and send another serial number.

P.S. We are really sorry for this issue and inconvenience caused.

[kcrossen]

It's the second case, i.e., "Registrator says that serial number is incorrect". And bless you, your colleague(s) have already sent me another serial number which works.

The Registrator is somewhat confusing. It presents an "Explorer-style" outline in which the container (folder) can be "activated" while the contained item (seen when you expand the node) which appears to be identical, can not be "activated". All of this ambiguity/confusion contributes to the fright-factor when something goes wrong.