Service Center Crash in Windows 7 - workarounds

Hi folks

I've read a lot of blog posts lately about NI service centre crashing on both Mac and PC. My experience with this issue has been on a PC running Windows 7 (64 bit) But I have to say NI are very consistent in being able to get it to crash on both PCs and Macs, well done guys

I installed the latest update to service centre found on the NI website and tried to activate my new Kontakt sampler, and wham! service centre crashed everytime I started the program.

What I found was, if you hit the CANCEL button in service centre the minute it starts up and before it installs any further updates, it defaults to the manual activation mode, where you can do an "offline" activation.

If it gets through it's automated update process before you manage to click Cancel, then it will crash every time you start it. The only way to get it to work then, is to uninstall it, then reinstall it again and hit cancel before it updates. Then it's usable in offline activation mode.

So I tried this, and when I clicked on the activation request file that service centre generated it went to the NI activation webpage. And nothing happened, it should have returned an activation file (according to NI helpdesk), but the offline activation request didn't work. Tried this on 3 different computers including a Mac, and same thing.

Ok so called NI directly and told them about this, and they promised to send me an activation file by email within 10 minutes. 3 days later I got one lol, ok well maybe it takes electrons longer to travel from the northern hemisphere to the southern :lol:

But in the mean time I found an easy work around to the service centre crashes in windows 7:

1. login to your existing Windows user account
2. create a new account with administrator rights
3. log into your new account and run service centre from there
4. And hey presto it works! no crashes, and registered my Kontakt sampler with no problems within minutes

When I ran service centre from the new user account in windows 7 it worked as it should with no crashes, you don't have to worry about pressing cancel or doing offline activations. For me it activated automatically and found my Kontakt sampler without any problems.

If all else fails and service centre keeps crashing: try this:

1. When you start up service centre for the first time after installation - click the CANCEL button immediately ( before it does it's autoupdate).

Note: If you're not quick enough and it autoupdates, it will crash no matter what you do, so uninstall it, and reinstall it again, then try step 1.

2. Once it starts up you need to use Offline-registration mode. You enter your serial number for the product you want to activate and generate an offline activation request file on your desktop

3. Email this file to NI support, I wouldn't bother trying to activate online yourself because I found this doesn't work, it might work for you, but it didn't for me.

4. NI will probably respond within 3 days and email you an activation file.

5 Start up service centre again, click cancel immediately, and click the OPEN button in offline activation mode to open your activation file

6. your product should be activated


NI know about these issues, they told me in their email, but they didn't say what they were doing about them, if anything.

Hope this is helpful to anyone who has had the same nightmare problems trying to activate their NI products. This problem seems to be quite widespread, with many posts on different forums. It's not an isolated issue. What surprises me is that NI have been keeping so quiet about it, and not had the decency to offer people work-arounds to this problem, this is not good for customer relations NI . :angry:

So if you buy something from NI as I did then beware, your activation may not be a smooth one. On the other hand I know that it worked faultlessly for many people first time. You might be lucky

This solution applies to PCs running windows 7.

Cheers and may the force be with you
TC

 

Thank you Theo!

I tried your suggestion per creating a new WIN 7 64-bit user ID and running service center under that one and it worked. Thank you SO MUCH! I was at my wits end trying to get my stupid software to install.

I can't BELIEVE that NI is ignoring this problem; there have to be hundreds or thousands of us in the same situation. I get almost daily emails from them offering me some fantastic opportunity to purchase more software from them, but absolutely nothing letting me know that they are aware of this problem or even making any kind of attempt to fix it. Very disappointing...

Thank goodness for folks like you who persevere, find their own solution and then are kind enough to share with the rest of us. Very much appreciated!

Thanks again
Neil Wright

 

It's nearly six months since these were posted and I have a new win 7 64 machine and service centre just crashes as soon as I run it. I have emailed NI support twice and each time got one email asking for more information, which I provided. Then nothing. Silencio!
Expecting customers to Dance through the hoops detailed above is just not acceptable
My advice is, no matter how nice NI goodies look. they aren't worth the money as their support are completely uninterested in their customers.
So unless you are stuck with a NI product and can't just ebay it, avoid them.