3DS Max 2011 licensing issue. Advice needed.

KyleJensen

I'm using a student version of 3DS Max 2011 and there's a licensing problem. I was planning on doing some high poly modeling during break today (I'm using 3ds max on a laptop). So I click the icon and it says 3DS Max 2011 is initializing. After a few seconds my computer's battery decides to die on me.


So I plug in the computer and I tried to run the program again but this time I was getting "Software license checkout failed Error 20". It kept doing that and wouldn't allow me to start the program.

I checked online for troubleshooting and it seemed like people solved the problem by deleting stuff in the Flexnet folder or activating the service under the windows services tab, so I did both.

Neither of those helped, so I did what one would normally do if a program isn't functioning properly even after troubleshooting, I uninstalled the program and did a clean reinstall.

So here I am now and the program is asking for me to activate it, but I can't be cause apparently I've already used the limited amount of activations.

I've only activated this on one other computer, but this is the computer I originally installed the program on and it still won't let me activate it.


(serial and request code blurred for security purposes)



I've already sent Autodesk a customer service request. I don't know much about Autodesk tech support, but I'm assuming they're not going to do much to solve the problem.

Any advice on how I should go about solving this problem?

SpeCter

Just wait, you will get an email with a new licence code(the one with 24 digits).
It could happen that you have to state why you need a new one and so on and they will check that.

If you have to reinstall it on one day, don´t forget to use the Licence Transfer Utility.

r_fletch_r

Autodesk have been very helpfull when i've contacted them. I'd say sit tight.
Your lucky this isnt adobe, I've had so real problems with them

Tom Ellis

Yeah AD support are awesome.

I recently changed my computer and needed reactivation codes for Max, Mudbox and AutoCAD. I sent them an email and within 24 hours I was back up and running.

Also, the support departments are not specific to the Student Community so you'll get the same level of service as any other Autodesk Licensee.

renderhjs

I had trouble with AD, very nasty support if you are not a US resident. Had to get through our US office (i am here in Sydney) to get certain stuff downloaded or fixed because they didn't care here.
Also when asking about online purchase from Australia through their US shop (its 2+ x the price here, but 100% the same code and product / language) we got blunt ignores or "sorry we can't help you". It was the same in Germany when a company I worked at or my uni wanted to get our hands on the original US version it was really hard to get it or 3x / 2x the price. Obviously that puts me often in rage for many reasons.
Oh and we didn't had these problems with Maya so far, so not sure if this relates to just the 3dsMax division but it sure sucks.

SpeCter

No problems here in germany so far, maybe it was just bad luck.I only had to wait for 3 days because of weekend, but that´s nothing to argue about.

Neox

whos your reseller? at least here they do the better service, to them you are a direct customer while you for autodesk are just one individual in a pool of hundreds of huge companies. If i have a problem i always call my reseller first.

Mark Dygert

That happened to me once with the full US version of 2010, my net connection dropped while it was transferring a license key and was stuck in limbo for two days while I went back and forth with their service rep via their web support site trying different things. I ended up deleting some files that allowed it to reauthorize, but they had to do something to release the authorization on their end for it to work.

Did you try this:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/3d-Max-2011-License-Transfer-Utility-will-not-open/m-p/2892750
Specifically this:

if this doesnt work, uninstall the product, delete the following following folder; then try reinstall

Windows XP: C:/Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Adlm
Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:/ProgramData\Autodesk\Adlm

KyleJensen

All right. I got the program up and running again. Thanks for the advice/help, guys. I greatly appreciated it.