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ptc-52838851-Visitor
1-Visitor
October 25, 2013
Question

Problem with Mathcad

  • October 25, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 5899 views

Hello,

i have get a new computer (MS Surface 2 Pro) with (Windows 8.1).

Now i cant install Mathcad 15. Everytime i get this message: "Error: PTC-Setup could no properly detect Host ID that is required.“.

Please help me - max

2 replies

W
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
October 25, 2013

Did you manage to install it as a 30day trial?

In that case support should be able to send you a license file.

In any case I would suggest that you cantact PTC support.

P
ptc-52838851-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
October 25, 2013

The 30day trial doesnt work to.

How can i contact the support?

W
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
October 25, 2013

www.ptc.com

---> support

http://www.ptc.com/support/mathcad_supportCenter.htm

R
RichardJ19-Tanzanite
19-Tanzanite
October 27, 2013

PTC's licensing is locked to the MAC address of the computer. This is a really bad idea, but they don't seem to have any inclination to change it. It's a bad idea because it's not an ID for your computer, it's an ID for a network adapter. If you have more than one network adapter (e.g. wired and wireless) then you have more than one MAC address. If you disable your network adapters (when you are travelling and not connected this is a good thing to do, because it saves power and prevents anyone from gaining access to your computer, which is easier than most people think) then you have no MAC address, and you can't start Mathcad. On a notebook PC, if you licensed Mathcad with a wired connection, and the wireless connection disabled, and then you go on the road and disable the wired connection and enable the wireless connection, you can't start Mathcad.

So, do you have the WiFi enabled on the tablet? If not, that is probably the problem.

W
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
October 27, 2013

Things went even worse with Prime.

During installation Mathcad choses (by an algorithm not transparent to me) a "primary" adapter and PTCs license server will send an appropriate license file.

When running the software MC15 checks ALL NICs and if the one the license is bound to is present (primary or not) it will run.

Prime will insist that the license file is for the primary NIC. This means problems if you have a wired NIC and WIFI adapter. Installing Mathcad with disabled WIFI and running it with enabled WIFI will run MC15 in any case but Prime will eventually fail if it decides that the WIFI is "primary". Changing the Windows ordering of the NICs using the appropriate registry hacks does not help. In the past we already had problems with machines running virtual machines and therefore using virtual NICS. As long as we don't really USE Prime but for playing around this is no harm but it will be a problem if we would be forced to use Prime (unless we decide to say bye to Mathcad which, looking at the "development" of Prime, is a very realistic scenario).

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