Photoshop Deactivation

Hi Guys

Talk about frustrating.

I run two office desktop PCs as well as a laptop which I use in the field (I'm a full time photographer and I use the laptop for urgent news stuff that can be edited and transmitted 'on the spot' as it were).

I bought Photoshop CS3 as a full version (i.e. not an upgrade) and Adobe in their wisdom, restrict the licence to two PCs at any one time which I found out AFTER buying the product. They will not let you buy just ONE extra licence so I have to deactivate the version on one of the PCs when I want to use the laptop.

A bit of a chore but no big deal until today. For some reason, I cannot deactivate the laptop version any more.

A quick net search sees this reported in a few places and apparently (and I use the word deliberately as there seems to be no hard evidence), Adobe have built in a restriction as to how many times you can activate or deactivate the software (although Adobe themselves appear not to confirm this).

I value the opinions of guys on this forum so I have a couple of questions.

Firstly, has anybody else experienced this and i so, is there anything that can be done?

Secondly, is there a way of buying an extra licence for just ONE PC. Adobe in the UK told me on the 'phone (some while ago) that I have to buy another FULL PRODUCT (really want to do that!).

Thanks for any help or guidance

Barrie

May I suggest that you seriously look at Graphic Converter by Lemke Software - www.lemkesoft.com. They have a trial version and I think that you will be pleasantly surprised as to the results. I believe you can transfer files if necessary to PS - need be.

I would keep this on my laptop since you want to do some massaging and use your home/office computers for PS.

A whole lot more simple and much less expensive.

Thanks Joseph. I'll take a look.

Problem is, I now have a version of PS on the laptop that can't be deactivated! I'll have to speak to Mr Adobe when they open tomorrow (Monday)

Thanks again

Barrie

Barrie:
I found this articles in the Adobe Forums:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b53378

Looks like there is a limit of deactivations: 21 in fact.

Cheers,

Bernie
Toronto, Ontario

Thanks Bernie

I did do some research but didn't find that information.

Barrie

My question is how does Adobe know that the program is installed on more than one computer unless you registered it online each time you installed it? And how does it know that there is more than one active copy running at the same time as long as the computer is off line when it is being used? I have CS2 installed on 2 computers right now so before I run into trouble in the future I'd like to know how this works? Thanks--Larry

Larry - When you run PS the first time, you HAVE to have an internet connection (or at least a modem) to activate it. I haven't done the un-install, but I'm guessing to have to have the computer you un-installed it on connected as well, to let them know you un-installed it. Otherwise, next time you installed, your license would still be tied up by the computer you un-installed it on.

I guess you're screwed if you don't have an internet connection. I was thinking about upgrading to CS3 from CS2 but maybe now I'll just concentrate on learning how to maximize my skills with CS2. Thanks--Larry

Well Larry - not an "internet" connection per se, but at least a modem. I think they have a provision for you to have the modem dial into one of their servers for activation, but I'm not sure.