Mathcad 15 startup problems

[slaigaard]

Hi guys.

I really need some help with this, before my exams.

I've been using mathcad 14 for a year or so, and recently upgraded to 15 on a student license.
I had no problems installing it or running it for the first month or two.
But recently when using mathcad 15 (AT HOME) it takes mathcad 5 minutes or so, to start up, and freezes instantly for 2 minutes if I use ctrl. + c.
BUT when im in SCHOOL, it start up perfectly and doesn't freeze at all (wierd).
I thought it might be my wireless internet card on my pc, that was the problem - so i deactivated it when working at home - and then it worked fine!

IT SHOULD BE SAID, THAT EVERYBODY ELSE AT SCHOOL, USING MATHCAD 15, HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM AS ME!!

I went talking to our IT Manager at school - he said it might have something to do with the license, so he gave me a new license (code format).
Using a new license did not solve my problem, it still takes 5-6 minutes to start up mathcad - but now when deactivating my wireless internet card i get this message:

I would think that mathcad is a program, independent off the internet?? I might be wrong after all??
Can someone please help me? Exams approaching!

Best Regards
Simon Laigaard

[Werner_E]

The Mathcad license is bound to the MAC address of one of yor network interface cards (NICs). During installation Mathcad checks all NICs present and choses one (don't ask me how, I don't know) to be the "primary" NIC and requests a license file for that MAC address of this NIC from the PTC license server which is copied to your machine. When you start Mathcad it will read the license file and looks, if a NIC with the specified MAC address is present or throw the error message you showed otherwise. So Mathcad won't use the NIC to connect to the net (unless you have to use a floating license from a license server).

It looks like you had your wireless card activated during installation and Mathcad decided this to be the primary card. So when you deactivate the card - no Mathcad.

Do you have a NIC for cable in your machine and have the possibility to connect via cable during installation? Then you can try to get a new license file while you deactivate the WiFi Card. Probably you will need a new product code from your IT manager to be able to do so. You may also consider contacting PTC support and requesting a license file for the MAC of your cable bound NIC, but this can get rather tedious.

[slaigaard]

I will borrow a NIC cable at school tomorrow and then try - but still - it doesn't make any sense that i worked perfectly for the first couple of months?

[RichardJ]

Things on computers change. You install and uninstall software, new drivers, etc. Windows installs updates. Other software installs updates.

[RichardJ]

Try deactiviating the wired connection instead.

[slaigaard]

Tried - no change 😕

[RichardJ]

Is this your software, a copy that belongs to the school?

[slaigaard]

No it's a copy downloaded from PTC's website, and the school gives us the license keys.

[RichardJ]

So it belongs to the school, in which case the license key is probably not permanent. My guess is that when it has a network connection it checks in with a server at the school. When you are at school that's fast, but when you (and apparently everyone else) is at home there are problems. Your first key was locked to the ID of the wired adapter, so when you disabled the wireless adapter Mathcad could start, and you (presumably) had no network connection, so it did not attempt to check in with the server. Now you have a key that is locked to your wireless adapter you can't do that any more. It sounds like an IT problem to me. As a possible workaround, try going back to the previous key. Disable the wireless adapter before starting Mathcad, then when Mathcad is running enable it again. It may only try to check in on startup.

[slaigaard]

Well, that was my thought too, that was why i went to talk to my IT manager, but he claimed that mathcad was a completly independent program, not reliable to any servers at the school - so he was just as confused as me. But i will try your suggestion, using the old key.

[Werner_E]

I am not aware of that type of license.

The only way I can imagine Simon's Mathcad would try to connect to his school is when he is using a floating license.

@Simon: What did you get from your IT manager - a file which you were advised to copy in specific location on your computer, a server address and port number (presumably 7788) you had to type in, or was it a product key (a number/character combination beginning probvably with JA15...)?

The first or second case would surprise me, not at least because who would let open a license server without the need for authentification (via VPN e.g.) or restricting the netsegments or IPs. On the other hand it would be an explanation for the effect that all other pupils are affected the same way.

But if the license is bound to a NICs MAC I don't think that Mathcad would try to connect anywhere.

The errormessage Simon sent leads me to believe that his license is bound to a specific NIC, we see that MAC in the message and so I doubt it will try to connect to his school.

[slaigaard]

The license is a number/character combination..

[RichardJ]

I'm not familiar with how the floating license scheme works. As far as I was aware Mathcad with a floating license can run independently of the server, but not forever. At some point the license expires, and is once again available on the server. I assumed that process takes place at least partly via communication with the server. I thought the fact that is was also locked to the NIC was just another twist on PTCs customer friendly licensing .

[slaigaard]

I have now tried to enter the old key - still no change.
I might as well burn my PC! argh!

[RichardJ]

No change? But mathcad should now start quickly with the wireless adapter disabled, right? That's what you said it did before.

[Werner_E]

We have floating licenses, normal node locked single user and node locked student licenses in our environment.

You can borrow a license from a (floating) license server for a while (two weeks? we disallow it). Mathcad will then be independent from any NIC or license server for that time period.

I thought the fact that is was also locked to the NIC was just another twist on PTCs customer friendly licensing .

Shhhh! Not so loud! If the hear that ... Licensing sure is "customer friendly" enough as it is!

Simon already wrote back that he got a product key. So his license shoul be boiund to a NIC and running MC should not require any network connection. If the lic is bound to the LAN adapter it would not be necessary to have any connection, the NIC just has to be enabled. What puzzles me is that Simon reports that all (most, some, ...?) of his fellow students experience the same problem. If I understand it correctly he IS able to use MC with enabled WiFi card, but experiences a long delay on startup. As all MC does is checking the MAC on ALL NICs which usually should not result in a delay. So I never heard of such a behaviour nor do I have any explanation. So my suggestion to try to bind the license to the wired LAN adapter is just sort of a rather helpless try - I see no reason for the delay when bound to the WiFi adapter.

[slaigaard]

Correct, ALL of my fellow students have the same problem, all of us have tried different things like defragmentation of disc, deleting caches and stuff like that...

[RichardJ]

I don't think anything like that will help. It's clearly something to do with internet access.

[slaigaard]

OKAY, this is strange!!!

I went back to my old key. Which did not have any effect.. So i tried something else - changing from dynamic IP-adress, I changed it to static, and with the IP-adress I have on the school..
This resulted in mathcad starting up after 30 sec... But still, it freezes using ctrl. + c and my internet is not connected.

I have no clue of what's going on!

[Werner_E]

Strange indeed. Changing the IP address to the same you have at school would normally cut you off the internet (unless your scholl is your provider and allowas for that).

Can you see if the old license is bound to the same MAC as the new one or, as I understood, to another one (the cabled one).

[slaigaard]

Hmm, if I deactivate the NIC again, and start up mathcad now, i get the exact same message as I showed in the orginal post, with identical host ID and all.
I don't know how else to check which MAC adress it's connected to

[Werner_E]

The license file is a normal text file which you usually should find in the programme directory (C:\programs\Mathcad\Mathcad 15\licenses\license.dat

But guess you are aware of that - how else would you have changed from one license to the other.

You may look in the license file using any text editor (notepad). You will see MAC Addess multiple times in that file in the form XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Don't be tempted to change anything in that file but it may be a good idea to save a copy somewhere else for security reasons.

[slaigaard]

Yes, and the MAC adress here, is similar to my wireless NIC.

[slaigaard]

In CMD, the MAC adress to my wireless NIC matches with the Host ID of mathcad!

[RichardJ]

Changing the IP address to the same you have at school would normally cut you off the internet

Maybe that's why it was fast again. No internet connection.

[Werner_E]

Yes, but why should MC try to do connect? If it was a virus (which could be an explanation others are affected as well) it would happen with other programs too.

[RichardJ]

If it's a virus it would probably also be slow at school.

Rolling the discussion back to the beginning, the only difference was the network connection: home or school. One has a fixed address, the other a dynamic address. There has to be more to it than that though, because most people (including me) have a dynamic address, and we don't see this problem. This is the first report of it (that I have seen, anyway). It seems to be something specific to the school.

[slaigaard]

But when i deactivated my NIC completly = no internet, i couldn't run mathcad at all? That's when i got the error message

[Werner_E]

But when i deactivated my NIC completly = no internet, i couldn't run mathcad at all?

The WiFi NIC the license is bound to, yes?

Thats normal behaviour as it should be (from the point of PTC). The license is bound to your NIC to avoid that you or somebody else can use the software on multiple machines. So if Mathcad does not find the network card its license file is bound to it assumes its running on a different machine and refuses to work,

[slaigaard]

I get your point, but it just seems wierd that it worked perfectly a week ago on the same license, and that all of the sudden 20 students simultaneously gets the same issue with the same program running on 20 different licenses.. Maybe a windows update blew it all up!