Solved: Need Technical Assistance running A:M CDROM versions

[hostler]

(Moderator update: A work-around for this problem has been found. See post # 26)

SO I'm sure that there is a place for this topic but I don't have time to go hunting. Here's my problem: So applied for the AM 18 trial version, downloaded it and followed all the instructions and it is telling me that I need an activation code??? I sent a message to support to see if I can get that resolved. In the interim and because I just did some serious upgrades to my machine, I thought I would try to get one of my older versions to work. When I say older I mean v11,12, or 13. Umm yeah, no matter what I effin do, they won't run. Even when I go through the "compatibility troubleshooter" they still don't work. Yeah I know they were designed for 32 bit OS's and my Win 7 is 64 but you'd think that the compatibility wizard would take all that stuff into account....apparently not. The only difference between between my v11 and 12 not working and my v13, is when I go to start up v13 it says "Program can not open because MFC72.dll is missing. V12 and 11 says that you must login as an admimistrator. Um yeah, It's my computer and my account is an administrator account....doesn't make sense. <_>

Anyway, since I can't afford the version of 18 that I want (the full non-subscription license) and don't really have the extra 80.00 for the one year license, I was kind of hoping that there would be someone out there who can help me get one of these effin older versions running on my computer. MY v11.1b I ran on my Win XP Desktop back in the day, yet it won't run with the compatibility set to Win XP SP 2, or SP3. V12.0n which does work on my Laptop (Win Vista), won't work with a Win Vista Compatibility setting. WTF???

For info's sake this was my computer:

3.4ghz Intel Core i3

4gb RAM

2gb Integrated Graphics Video Memory.

 

This is my computer now:

3.4ghz Intel Core i3, 8 GB Ram, 2GB EVGA (NVidia) gt730 Graphics Card.

All versions running Win 7 SP1 64 Bit OS

 

I know I am missing something, I just hope someone can tell me what it is. I was able to install v11.1 using a compatibility setting so it should run bu it doesn't. Like I said, none of the other versions run either. Is this a case of the same program conflicting with different versions of itself? Do I need to uninstall one or more versions and try that way? What am I missing (other than the obvious that it just won't work, EVER)?

Thanks in advance

Ken

 

[robcat2075]

Hi Ken, Welcome back to A:M!

 

I just tried running v11 on my 64-bit Win 7 and get the same administrator message. Not sure about that one yet.

 

 

For v13... download and run "v13 stuff" from the FTP site . See if that changes anything and report back.

[robcat2075]

I'm not having much luck with any of 11, 12 or 13

 

In the Properties>Compatibility tab you can set them to "Run as Adminstrator" and that gets past the first error, the CD spins up as if it is being checked but nothing seems to get started after that.

[hostler]

Hi Ken, Welcome back to A:M!

 

I just tried running v11 on my 64-bit Win 7 and get the same administrator message. Not sure about that one yet.

 

 

For v13... download and run "v13 stuff" from the FTP site . See if that changes anything and report back.

The CD doesn't even spin up on any of the versions, even after I went to the FTP site.

[robcat2075]

I wonder if some Windows update has messed things up because I do recall having run at least some of these on this computer in the past.

 

 

I'm stumped. Anyone else have ideas?

[Rodney]

Not sure what the solution is but... a google search on the missing DLL problem suggests the first thing you should do to fix the DLL error is restart your computer as that may correct the problem.

That may not in fact correct the problem but restarting a computer is fairly easy to do so is well worth a try.

[wedgeeguy]

Yep, I have the same problem with ver. 13 on Windows 7 Professional. Mine just states that I need to run it as Administrator (which I am). None of the tricks listed so far seemed to correct it. It was installed and working perfectly fine before. Not sure when the update occurred that messed everything up. Might have been when they started sneaking in the nag stuff about upgrading to Windows 10. Luckily I have a dual boot with Windows XP and can fall back to that. Way to go Microsoft! Sorry that I don't bring any other good news to the table ...

[robcat2075]

I think the "stuff" was to fix that dll problem.

[wedgeeguy]

Hmmm? A little bit further investigation may be the verification that the CD is in the drive (at least in my case) may not be working. Normally, if A:M is already installed and you insert the disk, a blue window pops up with the message "Installing Wise Installation Wizard" and then quickly goes away. Then you can click on the A:M icon to load the program but for me it seems to be ignoring the disk in the CD. Again it works if I boot into XP but not when booting into 7 ... same computer - same CD drive? I will keep checking things and report back to here if I stumble upon anything ...

[Fuchur]

Did you install the "stuff"-file for the old version? Look for the file for your version here.

> ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/

 

Concerning the trial: Did you download the master0.lic-file and copied it to your installation folder?

Is it really named "master0.lic" not "master0.lic.txt"?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

I recall it is possible to uninstall Windows updates. Some ambitious person might try that and see what happens.

[wedgeeguy]

Fuchur ... Tried your suggestion but I'm afraid it's still a problem. Thanks though!

 

Robert ... Ouch! ...

[robcat2075]

From the Windows mouth...

Troubleshoot problems with removing updates

 

 

I suppose the way to do it would be to remove half of them, see if the problem is fixed. If not, remove the other half.

 

Then continue to narrow it down by halves and halves and halves.

 

 

But there's a lot of megabytes involved.

[hostler]

Did you install the "stuff"-file for the old version? Look for the file for your version here.

> ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/

 

Concerning the trial: Did you download the master0.lic-file and copied it to your installation folder?

Is it really named "master0.lic" not "master0.lic.txt"?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

Attached is a screen of the directory. I'm pretty sure that it's all how it's supposed to look

From the Windows mouth...

 

 

Troubleshoot problems with removing updates

 

 

I suppose the way to do it would be to remove half of them, see if the problem is fixed. If not, remove the other half.

 

Then continue to narrow it down by halves and halves and halves.

 

 

But there's a lot of megabytes involved.

Have now uninstalled every Update going back over a year. Haven't uninstalled the Security Updates though. Not sure if those matter or if any update could be the problem. In any event, I've only had this machine for two years so I am halfway through and still no luck

[wedgeeguy]

Temporarily disabling anti-virus and firewall before running still doesn't help. Hostler, I hope that something turns up for you and that you are able to get things to work. I am out of ideas ... Sorry

[hostler]

Ok so I've managed to get my trial version of 18 working. Had to uninstall and reinstall and follow the instructions again. This time it worked. But it only lasts for 10 days so I still need to get one of the other versions working. Hoping the complete uninstall I did for all of the AM versions will work...not optimistic but it's worth a shot.

[hostler]

I am seriously starting to think that Win 7 simply will not run any program that wasn't specifically designed for 64 bit OS. That's all I got which makes no sense since my 32bit Version of 18 does work. Maybe it's a difference in the size of the OS's. Just for S&Gs I dug out an old program that I knew worked with Win 95 and tried installing it. It wouldn't even attempt it, even after I tried running the installer in Win 95 Compatibility mode. I know there were 64 bit versions of Win XP out there but I didn't have one back in the day. Guess that's where I am right now, kind of stuck. Guess I will have to hope my laptop (currently running my AM2005) will last another five or six months until I can scrape together some extra funds for a full license of AM18, course by then 18 will be 19, etc. Thank you to everyone for all of their suggestions

*sighs and lets shoulders droop*

[robcat2075]

I'm sure I was able to run those old versions on Win 7 because I installed them a long time ago, when I first set up 7, and I would have at least run them after the install.

 

But now, they're stuck. Something has changed.

 

I have some other programs that run but are buggy under Win 7.

[Rodney]

Yes, Win 7 or even Win 10 shouldn't be an issue as I've run the older versions of A:M on those before on 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.

Something has indeed changed.

 

The solution is out there somewhere... somewhere... somewhere...

[robcat2075]

ooo... ooo... ooo... someone do this and tell me if it works....

 

How to Play PC Games That Require SafeDisc or SecuROM DRM on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, and Vista

[robcat2075]

How do I get the exact command prompt directory shown here? Mine says C:\Users\Robert>

 

Does that even matter?

 

[Rodney]

That looks like a great lead... no option for Win10 though.

The service/dll is turned off in Win7 and 8 but appears to be fully missing with Win10.

 

 

How do I get the exact command prompt directory shown here?

 

 

If you type

 

CD Windows\system32

 

at the command prompt that will (CD - Change Directory) to put you in that directory and change the prompt

 

Depending on where you are you might type:

 

CD C:\Windows\system32

 

and that'll achieve the same thing (just accounting for the harddrive/partition you are on)

 

On Win10 I get an error and message that the driver in question has been blocked from loading.

That might be related to Admin rights though so... investigating.

 

 

 

Does that even matter?

 

Probably not.

[robcat2075]

After doing the command in the correct dir I get this

 

StartService FAILED 1058:

The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

 

 

So I'm guessing A:M has some similar, but not the same, software that has been disabled.

[robcat2075]

Further clue... a search on secdrv shows it does exist in the A:M versions we are investigating...

 

 

 

[robcat2075]

Success....

 

 

[robcat2075]

Work-around Explained

 

 

Problem: A Microsoft update for Windows versions 8.1 and earlier (KB3086255, released in September 2015) disables the secdrv.sys file that enabled copy protection like that used by CDROM-keyed versions of A:M (v14 and earlier). With the file disabled, the CDROM verification gets stuck and A:M is never run.

 

Microsoft felt the file had become a security flaw. The copy protection software that uses that file was not written by Hash, Inc. Hash only licensed the software and won't have access to the code to update it or fix the security flaw.

 

Solution: The best solution is to update to the current version of A:M that doesn't use the CDROM copy protection. Current versions of A:M are much faster, more stable and incorporate new features.

 

However, in rare cases, it may be necessary to revisit old projects in the version they were authored in.

If you need to run one of those past versions of A:M in Windows 8.1 or earlier, it is possible to re-enable the secdrv.sys file and permit a CD ROM version of A:M to run in Windows 8.1 and earlier.

 

This Microsoft Bulletin explains DOS-Style commands that can typed in to enable and disable the secdrv.sys file as needed. I was not able to get them to work on my computer, possibly because of "path" confusion.

The bulletin also explains a registry modification that performs the same enabling/disabling. That procedure does work on my PC.

 

 

Microsoft warns that enabling this file is unwise and Hash, Inc. is not recommending you do this.

 

I am not recommending it either.

 

To minimize your risk, enable it only before starting A:M and disable it when done with A:M and disconnect your PC from your internet/network for the duration of that session.

 

On my PC, a restart is required before the registry enabling takes effect and another restart for disabling to take effect.

 

 

What about Windows 10? There is no published solution from Microsoft for Windows 10. If anyone finds one, let us know.

 

Another version of the How-to-Geek article hints at using a virtual machine of an older Win under Windows 10. I have not tried this.

 

 

Run as Administrator? Another problem mentioned above was that the CD ROM versions of A:M would fail to start and give an error message that they must be run by an administrator even if the user was logged into their PC as an administrator.

 

Individual programs can be set to automatically run as if by an administrator. on the program's icon, choose Properties, select the Compatibility tab and under "Privilege Level" check "Run this program as an administrator".

[hostler]

IT WORKED. All I had to do was open the command prompt as an administrator and then enable the service using sc config secdrv start= auto now it works exactly like it should. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

 

Now I can start transferring files from my little computer to my big one. YAY!

[robcat2075]

Whileyou are experimenting with v18 be careful to not resave any files over old file names.

 

From v13 on, the file format changed so anything saved in v18 will not be openable in v12 or earlier.

[wedgeeguy]

Thank you Robert for all your help. I have no idea how you figured all this out but you are officially "Da Man!" ... Glad to read that things have been sorted out and that there is a solution ...

[Mitovo]

Hello all,

So, I've recovered my A:M stuff and upon trying to run it (it's V12), run into the problem described here. Double-click on the icon, approve running it (since it's set to run as admin), and then nothing happens.

Edit: Okay I got it working. Restarted for something, and suddenly the command to activate the secdrv worked. Go figure!

So, I appear to be up and running, though now I have to figure out how to get the gray boxes to stop showing up when I drag selections lol. I'm sure there's a fix for that. Off to search I go!

[MAYAman]

Oh man thanks for this topic. I will never stop using my last disk version. I have so many old unfinished stuff I still goof around with. On a related note, my digital version just stopped working today with the following error "Wrong host for license"

 

What is wrong? I haven't changed PCs and my subscription is only 6 months old.

 

thanks

[robcat2075]

Have you changed a card in the computer?