VPX uninstall-reinstall problems, Mercalli V2 activation problem

browj2 wrote on 1/13/2017, 12:46 PM

I was patched up to the current version, 15.0.3.130. I ran into a problem on my Surface Pro 4. When I tried to run Mercalli V2 under Video Effects, proDAD Mercalli v2.0, it asked me to Activate it. There is no activation code and it is just supposed to run. I raised a ticket with Magix and they first told me to use the one under Video Effects, not the one under Other effects. There is no Mercalli under Other effects on my Surface Pro, but there is on my desktop due to previous versions. Then they told me to delete the ini file and reinstall VPX. During the uninstall, there were problems and it seems that everything did not get uninstalled and a log file was created and sent to Magix. Everything seemed to be uninstalled so I reinstalled. Upon opening, I was not asked to activate. When I applied the patch, the message came up that it was already installed so I did a Repair. Back into VPX, About, the patch did not show up, only the initial version, and where the activation code should be, it said "0 days still remaining." I tried Mercalli V2 and it worked with no activation required.

I installed REVO uninstaller, and uninstalled everything and cleaned up the registry as best as I could. There were many items that popped up that were for Samplitude and Xara, so I had to be careful. Somewhere, I guess that I did not get rid of the activation code from the registry, because when I reinstalled, I ended up with the same problem.

Then Magix sent me a link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17588/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed

and I downloaded the app and ran it. It allowed me to get rid of the patch, and then the program.

I reinstalled from the link in the initial email instead of from my saved install file. The program installed but still no request to Activate and still with the 0 days still remaining message in the About screen.

I updated to the latest patch and this time it worked.

However, I'm back to square 1 with Mercalli as it asks me to Activate it.

Anyone have this problem and resolve it?

Anyone know where the Activation code is hiding in the registry so that I get rid of it next time I run REVO?

I replied to Magix but they are in weekend mode.

Thanks,

John

Comments

Scenestealer wrote on 1/13/2017, 4:55 PM

Hi John

Maybe you did not see my earlier post about problems reinstalling VPX and updates? Good to know I am not alone although there appear to be problems over in the German Forum with VPX updates. https://www.magix.info/uk/forum/neuester-video-pro-x8-update-lst-windows-7-absturz-aus--1182583/ . They are saying Support reported in Dec that they were having problems with the 10bit engine in recent updates, and thought it was graphics card related on some systems and that they are doing something about it in an upcoming patch - anyway have a look at that and see what you make of it.

If you read my post you will see I had problems updating and activating and did manage to achieve activation by deleting everything in Programs and Program Data anything that referred to VPX(8) (as per John EB's tutorial about reinstalling in Win10). Still cannot update beyond the .56 initial version though so you have got further than me, but I am keen to try that MS utility that Magix provided the link to, so I can clear whatever is in the registry that is telling me the .130 update is installed already when it is clearly not.

Keep in touch.

Peter

emmrecs wrote on 1/14/2017, 3:28 AM

John, understandable frustration!

I can't really add anything to what Peter has said but, like you, I don't ever remember being asked/required to Activate Mercalli 2! Because my current computer is a recent "new-build" I have only VPX5 and VPX(8) installed. The former does not seem to include Mercalli 2; as you know, Mercalli 4 came with VPX(8) (or possibly an earlier version?). I looked back through my emails and found the purchase confirmation/activation codes for VPX(8); Mercalli 4 was clearly listed there, but not 2!

I don't think I've ever used version 2 in VPX(8), though I have recently needed to make quite extensive use of 4. So I opened a project, selected to use version 2 on a clip and it opened and asked to analyse as you would expect! No need to "activate".

Random thought: is 4 activated on your Surface Pro? Does that activation also "give a kick" to version 2? I see you make no mention of 4 so do you have it installed?

Hope you are able to finally resolve all this.

Jeff

browj2 wrote on 1/14/2017, 12:43 PM

Aaaargh! I got logged out and lost my text, which was long. I did a select all, Ctrl+C before trying to post. Saw I was logged out, logged in, Ctrl+V and pasted everything on this page except my text. I select the wrong stuff and didn't notice.

So Peter and Jeff, here is the short version.

My mind went blank after reading about HEVC in your post, Peter, and I didn't remember anything about the rest. Senior's moment.

I don't know about the Magix uninstall tool, think I used it once, John EB would know better.

VPX8 was the first version put on the Surface Pro 4, so no Mercalli V4. As I mentioned in another thread, V4 came with VPX7 for me along with an activation code. On my desktop, VPX8 uninstalled VPX7, but left the addons, including V4, in working order.

Maybe I should uninstall VPX8 from my Surface Pro, install VPX7, the 8 and see what happens.

At least the second copy of Neat Video and all Pixelan plugins work on the Surface Pro.

Peter, let us know if the Microsoft program works for you to uninstall the patch and then reinstall everything. Do you get the same 0 days serial number under About? At least it still works for me, just not Mercalli V2.

In the lost text, I mentioned other trials, tribulations and bugs, including not being able to find the second battery for my wireless mic when I went to film my Christmas greetings in front of the Church, at night, in the snow, in a hurry. The second battery was already in the receiver, not in the bag. Didn't check. Senior's moment. I used the camera's built-in mic. Wasn't able to stabilize some other handheld video that I used, but it worked anyways. So here are my belated Christmas/NY greetings that I was able to upload using my cell phone as a mobile hot spot (took me several days to figure out how to do that).

We'll see what Magix has to say next week.

Scenestealer wrote on 1/15/2017, 4:47 AM

Well I ran that MS uninstaller John and it did the trick! I am now up and running fully patched to the .130, registered and all. Many thanks for the link.

I tried running it and just selecting the VPX8 patch in the list but it took the whole program out as well but no worries.I just reinstalled from my original installer download without cleaning up any folders in Program files or Program data (didn't check if the MS tool had removed them or not), very quick, program started with the registration / activation page with the serial showing and ticked, pressed okay or activate, program was there with all previous plugins and extras working including Mercalli V2 & V4, had to activate Dolby digital codec at prompt, plus Mainconcept MPEG4 codec at no charge. Then performed online update which threw up the activation / rego window, again filled in already, Okayed, all good - Sweet!

BTW the 0 days in the Serial No. box means it thinks it is on the Trial version. I got that too in my original problem filled reinstall and everything seemed to work but I did not try V2. I imagine it may not work being a 3rd party plugin in a Trial version.

Thanks again.

Peter

browj2 wrote on 1/15/2017, 10:50 AM

Hi Peter,

I'm glad at least someone was successful. I ran the MS uninstaller again and selected just the patch. For me, it only took out the patch, not the program or any extras. I ran it again and took out the program, then the only 2 extra content packages. Installed from my downloaded file and once again got the trial version - no request to activate.

The only program that I did not remove was speedBurnR.

I'll try again to remove/install before adding in the patch.

More later.

EDIT: ok, a few minutes later. One interesting thing, with the install version, Mercalli V2 works - no activation request, no X on the image. So it must be the patch that is causing problems for me, probably coupled with the fact that the installed version is the trial version.

I also tested for the bugs in the Project Temp Folder (PTF) and didn't find any yet. However, the patch introduces bugs on both computers. For example, dragging several objects from the PTF only places one on the timeline. Selecting one and pressing 2 to insert adds the object to the end of the timeline, not at the playback marker. These work fine before the patch. I will report this to Magix.

And another one, just thought that I would check for the HDR Gamma and Rotation mirror problems in this initial install. They work fine with no impact on Video Mode HW acceleration. So it must have been a patch that was causing problems with these previously.

Now for the uninstall.

browj2 wrote on 1/15/2017, 12:12 PM

It's later. No way, no how, can I get this program to install with the Activation screen showing up. I keep getting the trial version at 0 days.

I uninstalled using:

The MS uninstaller
REVO Uninstaller (Safe mode)
Installing when already installed and selecting uninstall
I even tried Repair

then installing using the REVO installer and another time the normal execute of the install program.

I'll have to wait to see what Magix comes back with.

johnebaker wrote on 1/15/2017, 1:28 PM

. . . . the 0 days in the Serial No. box means it thinks it is on the Trial version . . . .

Just to add confusion I have this in MEP 2017 but not VPX 8 !!!!

. . . . I don't know about the Magix uninstall tool, think I used it once, John EB would know better. . . . .

The Magix Cleaner tool cleans the appropriate installation ini after you have uninstalled a product and asks you which product and version are to be cleaned up if you have multiple Magix products installed.

It does not remove the other files left behind as detailed in my tutorial.

John EB

browj2 wrote on 1/15/2017, 1:37 PM

Hi John EB,

This happened to me, I think, because of the reinstallation. Then again, I didn't check before uninstalling VPX8 to see if it really was activated properly.

Scenestealer wrote on 1/15/2017, 4:30 PM

Hi John CB

If you go to the support site to My products and it will show you if your product is registered and activated (previously). As you have it on 2 machines I guess you should see 2 activations used. Try deactivating one or both while you are there perhaps.

What finally brought up the activation window for me was going to an earlier Restore point in Windows - see below:-

Rolled back to an earlier restore point prior to a windows update earlier in December and, referring to John EB's procedure I uninstalled again and deleted or moved all the references I could find to VPX8, reinstalled with similar errors as before but this time I could re register and all showed up in the program - cool. However it still resists my attempts to update to the latest patch (130) saying it is already installed. Does anyone know how to deinstall an online update?

Re this comment

And another one, just thought that I would check for the HDR Gamma and Rotation mirror problems in this initial install. They work fine with no impact on Video Mode HW acceleration. So it must have been a patch that was causing problems with these previously.

I am pretty sure the HWA problem started at patch .98 when the enabled the 10bit video engine, but unfortunately now that Magix seem to have made manual downloads of patches unavailable, you may get that back if you patch to the latest .130. All good here though.

Peter

browj2 wrote on 1/15/2017, 5:18 PM

Hi Peter,

Thanks. I will wait for Magix tomorrow before trying the deactivation. I also have MusicMaker and Samplitude Pro X3 Suite on the Surface Pro, although the latter has a separate registration web site.

I want to get back to creating the tutorial and drawing in MEP using a point. Terry asked.

browj2 wrote on 1/18/2017, 2:34 PM

The saga continues with my Surface Pro 4. Magix had me first, reinstall VPX8 again (I had uninstalled different ways several times) and now check some internet and security parameters. All were ok and the reinstall still didn't work.

So, I uninstalled VPX8, installed the base program of VPX6, activated it without problems, added RG Looks, and uninstalled it except for Looks. Installed VPX7 - cannot Activate. At least the screen shows up and I can put in the code, but then when the activation hourglass starts turning, it crashes the program (at 9 o'clock on the hourglass). Impossible to activate. I tried rebooting. I can use the trial, but I can't install anything else. I wanted to install Mercalli V4 and the NewBlue Premium Effects to see if I was missing something in VPX8.

Anyone install VPX7 successfully on the Surface Pro? Have the same problems?

I will report this step to Magix.

Next step is VPX8 again.

Edit: Well I'll be ....... VPX8 worked this time. Maybe the VPX6 and VPX7 did something to make this happen. More later after walking the dog.

browj2 wrote on 1/19/2017, 9:01 AM

Update: Still can't install VPX7 - it hangs on activation, but VPX8 is working fine along with Mercalli V2.

For anyone with similar problems, here are some of the things to look at as proposed by Magix:

"You will need to manually adjust something in the Windows/IE Internet settings. Please go to the system's Control Panel and proceed to "Internet Options". Switch to the "Advanced" tab and find the "Security" section in the long list of checkboxes. Among other things you will find entries for the different Internet communication
protocols here.

Please check whether the options TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 are ticked. If that is not the case, please enable/tick these options and confirm your settings. Then try again with our program. If the program persists, please send a screenshot of the dialogue described here, showing the relevant TSL protocol settings.
If you're still not getting on with the activation, there's one more aspect we have discovered that seems to have helped in such a situation: A crucial operating system service that should be running by default had been disabled.

In order to check this, please bring up the Windows "Computer Management", e.g. by opening the Windows Start menu, right-clicking on "Computer" and choosing "Manage". In the Computer Management screen, navigate to the "Services and Applications" section on the left-hand side and proceed to the "Services" sub
section. Find the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" in the alphabetic list of services and check whether the status for this service is "started". If not, right-click on this entry and start/resume it.

Then try the program activation again."

Once again, for anyone who has trouble uninstalling the program or especially if a patch does not uninstall, download and run the Microsoft Uninstaller available at:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17588/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed

Then reinstall.

I will post again if I ever get VPX7 running on the Surface Pro 4.