Cannot activate mathcad prime 3.1 using licence files

[Mko]

I am a long time mathcad user.  After retirement in 2016, I purchased a permanent licence for mathcad prime 3.1.  It was working fine until recently, when the installation reverted to express mode.

my attempts to “re-activate” the installation to to full functionality have been unsuccessful.

I have obtained licence files through the self-serve tools, but when I try to use them, I get a message stating that the server is unavailable or down.  Because I do not have an active support account, the PTC support team is inaccessible to me.

I find this to be maddening, because I have a permanent licence for Mathcad, I cannot get it to work, and I can’t find any help at PTC.

any suggestions or assistance would be appreciated 

mike o’neill

[Mko]

I am a long time mathcad user.  After retirement in 2016, I purchased a permanent licence for mathcad prime 3.1.  It was working fine until recently, when the installation reverted to express mode.

my attempts to “re-activate” the installation to to full functionality have been unsuccessful.

I have obtained licence files through the self-serve tools, but when I try to use them, I get a message stating that the server is unavailable or down.  Because I do not have an active support account, the PTC support team is inaccessible to me.

I find this to be maddening, because I have a permanent licence for Mathcad, I cannot get it to work, and I can’t find any help at PTC.

any suggestions or assistance would be appreciated 

mike o’neill

[VipulT]

Hello @Mko

Can you please confirm the error message you are getting or capture the error message following the below steps.

Launch Mathcad > Click on M icon (on top left corner) > Options > License

Thanks,

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,
Thanks for the response.

Yes, I have tried to activate my copy using the method described in your response, but I always get the following message:

“ (-96) licence server is down or not responding “

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Do you have a node locked or floating license?

You can attach the screenshot of the summary table from your license file.

[Mko]

Vipul,
It’s floating point - I tried to send a screen shot but it bounced

Mike

[Mko]

Vipul

here are the screen shots 

thanks for your help

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko

As you have the floating license you need to set up Flexnet license server. But as you mentioned that you it used to work fine I believe the flexnet license license server is already installed. 

Add the host name of the server machine and the port (default is 7788) and see if it works. To get the host-name of the system follow below steps

Open Command Prompt > hostname 

[Mko]

Vipul,

it didn't work,  my system hostname is Feynman.  See attached screenshot.

i had tried this earlier, but with the host ID: 98-EE-CB-5F-DA-CC, but it did not work.

thanks - any other ideas

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Browse to the location 

C>Program Files>PTC>Flexnet license Server>Licensing>

Open license.dat file and verify the host-name and daemon line is mentioned correctly in the license file. For daemon line it should be the location of ptc_d

[Mko]

Vipul,

thanks for all your help so far.

I looked at the licence.dat file.  It is attached.

The server line looks correct.  However, I noticed that the Daemon line points to “ ...\i486_nt\…” directory, whereas in the ptc\flexnet admin license server directory there is “x86e_win64” directory.

could this be the problem?

thanks 

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Please change this to the correct location of ptc_d.

The default location is C:\Program Files\PTC\FLEXnet Admin License Server\x86e_win64\obj\ptc_d.exe

Once changed restart the lmadmin service from services.

Also, verify the extension of the license should be .dat and not .txt

Thanks,

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul
Very good- I will update as suggested, and let you know how I make out

[Mko]

Vipul,

i updated the license.dat file.

however, where is the IMADMIN service?

sorry about being so uninformed about this.  Your assistance is greatly appreciated 

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Please follow the below steps. 

1. Right-click on the Start button to open the WinX Menu
2. Select Run
3. Type services.msc in the Run box which opens
4. Windows Services Manager will open.

Look for lmadmin and restart the service. 

Thanks, 

Vipul 

[Mko]

Vipul,

lmadmin does not appear in in the ms services listing.

 The lmadmin.exe file is in the “FLEXnet ...” directory.  I tried running it but nothing happened.

thanks for sticking with me on this

mike

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Just try to restart the service for PTC flexnet license server and then check if Mathcad is up and running or if giving error please capture the screenshot 

Thanks, 

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

i am sorry, but I do not know how to restart the flexnet server.

can you tell me what to do?

Mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Mike,

When you open service manager in that list one service would be for PTC flexnet license server. The default name if lmadmin if you are unable to locate that look for Flexnet license server for PTC or check if any other name was given while creating the service. Once you find out the service you just need to restart that particular service.

After restarting the service; enter the host name and port and see if Mathcad fetches the license from the server. 

Thanks,

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

ran the services manager, but did not find lmadmin, or anything related to ptc or flexnet. Also looked for anything that might be useful. 

Any Ideas as to what to do now?

thanks for helping me.

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko

Mike,

You can try to reconfigure the license server. Browse to the installation location default location is C:\Program Files\PTC\FLEXnet Admin License Server\bin  and run reconfigure.exe. Browse to the license file and see if the status shown is available. 

Thanks, 

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

thanks for all your assistance so far.

I will do as you suggest and get back to you.

mike

[Mko]

Vipul,

Ok - I ran the reconfigure application and it connected me to PTC

The status of my license is in the first screenshot (SS1), which shows that "7788@feynman" is unreachable.  I don't imagine that this good news

I then entered my SO# clicked on the "install licensing" button.  After a couple of minute, I got a "success!" indication but the process seemed to hang and would not progress to the "finish" state (ss2).I also got another licence file sent to me, also attached.

Is any of this helpful?

Thanks

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Mike, 

Once you run reconfigure.exe remove the existing entry "7788@feynman" using - sign. Drag and drop the latest license file you attached to the previous comment under source column. Let me know the status once you perform these steps.

Thanks,

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

I did as you suggested, and application appears to accept the licence file, displays the message "installing licence server ..", and then appears to hang.  Does it take more than several minutes for the process to complete?

Thanks again for your help.

mike

[VipulT]

@Mko,

Mike,

Is it still installing? I believe by now it would have installed. 

Kindly check if it has created service named lmadmin_ptc in services window manager 

Thanks, 

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

Sorry, the installation never finished and the lmadmin_ptc service does not appear in the services list.

the reconfigure screen shot is attached.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again.

mike

[VipulT · Accepted solution]

Mike,

Did you run the reconfigure.exe as administrator? If not please try that. 

Please verify the host id mentioned in the license file matches with the system physical address on which your workstation is active on. You can open command prompt and use  net config rdr  to check the host ID 

Also, can you confirm or capture the screen shot of the folder structure of the flexnet License server. As below.

Thanks,

Vipul

[Mko]

Vipul,

Will do.

My wife thinks that we are very perseverant.  Thank you very much!

mike

[Mko]

Vipul,

1) Ran reconfig as administrator, but had the same result (SS7).  However, I noted that PTC authenticated the licence file first, and then tried to install it, and that is where it hangs.  I manually exited after ~10 minutes.

2) the host id in the license matches the info returned from the net config rdr command - see SS5

3) Lastly, the flexnet licence server directory is attached as SS6

Thanks again

mike

[Mko]

Vipul

One other thing.  I got the attached "license summary" off the PTC system,

Maybe it will be helpful