Stopped working, won't activate...

So I tried to open a SW part tonight to make a minor change, and it tells me "Activation transaction failed" "Serial number expired". Then, "This Student Edition has expired". It sends me to www.solidworks.com/goEDU, which doesn't work. The first time it said the server was too busy, now it doesn't respond at all.

I tried renaming the FLEXnet folder, no difference. I tried deleting FLEXnet folder, no difference. I tried un-installing, downloading SW again and re-installing, no difference. I was emailed the exact same key I already had.

Ideas? Suggestions? This is on a Windows 10 PC on which it ran fine the last time I used it, a couple of months ago.

No ideas, nobody has had this happen before?

Sigh.

I'm not familiar with the software but what did Solidworks say when you called them? Were they unable to help?

Sorry Dale, can't help. I don't run the EAA version very often which might be why I have not seen that problem. I also run Win7 but I have no idea if that is relevant or not.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaleB

So I tried to open a SW part tonight to make a minor change, and it tells me "Activation transaction failed" "Serial number expired". Then, "This Student Edition has expired". It sends me to www.solidworks.com/goEDU, which doesn't work. The first time it said the server was too busy, now it doesn't respond at all.

I tried renaming the FLEXnet folder, no difference. I tried deleting FLEXnet folder, no difference. I tried un-installing, downloading SW again and re-installing, no difference. I was emailed the exact same key I already had.

Ideas? Suggestions? This is on a Windows 10 PC on which it ran fine the last time I used it, a couple of months ago.

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Do you have 2016 installed? You may have reached the expiration of your license. You will need to go here to renew: https://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/eaa-membe...ent-design-kit

If you already went through the renewal process and left the old activation key in the form fields instead of replacing it with the new one DS SolidWorks sent you, it will run until your 2016 license expires and then stop.

To replace the old activation key with the new one:

1. Go to the Windows Control Panel
2. Go to ‘Programs and Features’
3. Locate the ‘SolidWorks 20XX SPX.X’ installation in the list of program and elect to ‘Change’ it
4. Select ‘Modify the individual installation’ and proceed ‘Next’
5. Change the currently listed serial number to the desired number
6. Proceed to the ‘Product Selection’ screen include any additional add-ins that the new serial number is entitled to (or remove products no longer entitled to the new serial number)
7. Proceed to the ‘Summary’ screen and then select ‘Modify Now’ to complete the modification

I have the same problem as DaleB.

Installed a little over a month ago, and everything worked fine. Tried to use SW last and I get the "Student Edition" expired message.

I checked the SN in Windows 10 Add/Remove programs and it matches the SW2017 SN I received in the email. Also tried to delete the FlexNet folder. That also did not work.

Not sure what to try next, other than a complete uninstall/reinstall. Any advice from Dassault on how to properly clean the registry for a fresh install? Is simply uninstalling the application enough to get rid of any old stuff from 2016??

Thanks,
kmonroe

Cory, thanks for the suggestion. I did visit the page to which you linked to renew my license. I filled out and submitted the form, and got a page saying, "Thank you for filling out the form to access SOLIDWORKS. You will soon receive an email with your unique access code to login to SOLIDWORKS."

I waited all day, no email. Tried it again late yesterday, same result but still no email. I've watched the logs on my mail server just in case the email is triggering an anti-SPAM measure; nothing at all from EAA, Solidworks or Dassault. Do you know how long it usually takes?

I submitted a Student Edition service request to Solidworks about this problem. I received an automated email indicating they have my request and that somebody will respond. I'll post here if I learn anything new.

DaleB,

I was able to get my Student Edition Solidworks functional. All I had to do was re-activate my license using an app in the Solidworks directory. Before you do this, make sure your SN has been entered using modify option in Windows Add/Remove programs.

Here's what I did:

1. Open a folder in windows and navigate to the Solidworks install directory. Should be something like "C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS".
2. Find the file called "swactwiz_s.exe" and double click on it. You should get a dialog that says "Solidworks Product Activation", select "Activate/Reactivate your product license(s)".
3. Click "Next", verify "Automatically over the internet (recommended)" is checked.
4. Click "Next", this should show your contact and school (EAA for us) information.
5. If that's all correct, click next. The app should connect to Solidworks and re-activate your license.

Hope this works for you.

Regards,
kmonroe

That's the program that fails and gives me the error message.

I've tried three times now over the past few days to renew my license, per Cory's instructions. Each time it says, "Thank you for filling out the form to access SOLIDWORKS. You will soon receive an email with your unique access code to login to SOLIDWORKS." I have not yet received any such email. And yes, I watched all incoming connection attempts to the mail server to ensure that it's not getting refused or shuffled off to anti-SPAM hell. I run my own mail server, so I'm certain there has been no email from Solidworks or EAA.

Don't know what else I can do.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Did you try re-entering the SN you got in your original 2017 email? I filled out the 2017 request form 3 times, each I received an email with the same SN I received with I first applied for SW2017. So I'm guessing that even if you did get an email, it would have the same SN as before.

For me, just using the modify option in add/remove programs didn't re-authorize. I had to go find the swactwiz_s.exe program and run that manually, only then did my installation get authorized. Its almost like the add/remove program thing only updates the SW serial number, but doesn't connect to the Solidworks mothership to re-up the license.

Anyway, sorry to hear you're having so many problems. Hope you get it working.

Every time I tried to install SW, even after removing it from the control panel, it would give me a message that it was pending a re-boot from a previous installation (yes, even after re-booting twice). This morning I de-installed SolidWorks, then spent half an hour with regedit cleaning out any references to it int the registry. Tried re-installing it. At 57% it put up a completely blank window that looked like it was supposed to have an error message. After waiting 10 minutes or so for anything else to happen, I killed that installation. Rebooted again, and tried installing it again. This time it seemed to install cleanly, started up fine, I had to enter my name, location, EAA for the school, etc. The next screen already had my SN populated. Either I must have missed a registry key somewhere, or SW is actually Dracula. Anyway, after an hour of screwing with it, I finally got to the end result...

"Activation transaction failed: Serial number expired. Please contact your reseller. (3/0)"

I think I've followed all the advice here. I renamed the FLEXnet folder, deleted the FLEXnet folder, uninstalled and re-installed several times (I lost count), tried the license renewal page three times, manually ran swactwiz, cleaned out the registry. The result has been zero other than wasted time and frustration. I've received NO email, NO new license key, and still get the exact same response that I did when I started. I also tried the email activation. I did get an email response that time... which says, "Warning: Serial number expired. Please contact your reseller. (3/0)". What a surprise.

So to recap: I installed SW in April of this year, and it stopped working some time between July and October. I'll be generous and call it six months. The drawings and parts I had spent hours creating are completely useless and un-accessible to me now, so my net SolidWorks experience has been many hours of completely wasted time.

Screw it. I guess I don't need it that much, I'm done.

I am having a problem somewhat like this one. I can run Solidworks once and create parts and everything is fine until I exit the session and then try to start again. After that, when I try to open the file Solidworks hangs and I get a grey box with the Windows message, "Solidworks 2017 has stopped responding". It gives me the option to wait for it to respond or to kill the program. I have waited overnight and no response. I have to kill the program. I can run benchmarks and such but if I try to open an existing part or start a new one it hangs. If I completely uninstall and then reinstall it will work for one more initial session and then hang again.

I tried the sequence,

"
Here's what I did:

1. Open a folder in windows and navigate to the Solidworks install directory. Should be something like "C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS".
2. Find the file called "swactwiz_s.exe" and double click on it. You should get a dialog that says "Solidworks Product Activation", select "Activate/Reactivate your product license(s)".
3. Click "Next", verify "Automatically over the internet (recommended)" is checked.
4. Click "Next", this should show your contact and school (EAA for us) information.
5. If that's all correct, click next. The app should connect to Solidworks and re-activate your license.
"
and that allows me (without a total uninstall/reinstall sequence) to run again for one more session. Has

Has anyone else had similar problems and, if so, has a solution been found?

Thanks,

George Moore

What are you using for a video card? This sounds similar to the error we get when a computer has less than 8 GB of video RAM and something other than a nVidia Quadro or AMD FirePro.

Corri,

Sorry for the delay responding; traveling.

My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. I know it is not on the approved list but everything works fine when the program does not hang up. My processor is a Intel i7-6700 CPU running at 4.0 Ghz. I have 16 GB of RAM installed. Running under Windows 7.

Following my last post, I did an advanced full un-install (hopefully to clean out the registry) and then a full download and re-installation. I run diagnostics and everything is good except that the video card is not in the Solidworks database. Before I could run the Benchmark with rendering and Simulation just fine. Now even that hangs up. When I try to use it normally everything is fine until I try to start a new drawing or open an existing. The sequence is File-Part-OK. Then when I put the cursor over the window it shows the hourglass. If I click on the window, it gives me the message "Solidworks 2017 is not responding." Only option then is to close the program.

When I was trying to get going on Solidworks a few months ago I could at least run the program once successfully before this started happening. I had decided I could just leave the program running and have something workable. But if the computer did a reboot, I would have to do a re-installation to get my one run session going again. Now I have no options. I suspect something is amiss with my registration with Solidworks and this is what is causing the problem. Very frustrated.

One of our members, Fi Dot Fomichev, is the gentleman who helped us find a contact at DS SolidWorks to secure this member benefit. He works at nVIDIA in software testing conducting large testing projects and building infrastructure to conduct testing. He shared that the GTX is very similar to the Quadro, but they have different drivers and one minor design difference that makes the GTX great for gaming but ineffective for simulation. You may have some luck getting it to work a few times, but then it will fail, and can even cause your computer to freeze. I would suggest finding a friend to conduct the simulation for you or upgrading to an AMD FirePro or nVIDIA Quadro. You can also get a Dell laptop refurbished for around $800 with a Quadro in it on AMazon or Ebay.

Cory, did you get my email reply from last week?

Just a follow-up. Cory emailed me a new license key (thanks, Cory!) and I was able to install the 2017-18 version. I had a hard drive failure in the mean time and installed on my new solid-state drive... which, by the way, is blazing fast.

I never did hear back from SolidWorks support after the initial "We have received your email and will respond soon) back on 11/11. I know their emails make it to me, because I received the confirmation of my inquiry - plus I run my own mail server, and see all the logs of email that gets rejected. The emails I did receive from SW never contained a new license key, always the old one which didn't work.

So, I'm supposedly good until next December, when I hope the renewal/re-installation goes smoother. Cory, thanks again for helping to get this sorted out.

Dale