KVR Audio

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:35 pm

Dear Waves,
Congratulations. Your copy protection is now SO effective that it even prevents *paying customers* from using Waves software. Your new 'Waves central' program has uninstalled all my Waves plugins. When I try to install them using either 'easy install', 'install' or 'offline install' I get a long wait followed by a really helpful and informative error message that states 'An error has occurred while performing installation'. Are the vague and generalised error messages meant to prevent piracy as well? Well done.

Above message was sent to Waves support.
Any ideas how to fix this?

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:36 am

I ran into that error message, too, on my Windows 10 x64 PC while upgrading to the new Waves Central command program. Remnants from the previous Waves manager app may be confusing the new installer.

I cannot exactly remember how I finally managed to get it all working again. I think I hunted down every vestige of Waves existence on my PC (C:\ProgramData, C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming, etc.) and moved it to the recycle bin (just in case I needed to bring any of it back). I rebooted the PC and then re-ran the Waves Central installer.

IObit Uninstaller is a useful tool to help ensure that you perform a complete uninstallation.

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:32 pm

@tonedef71 - If you could remember exactly what you did I would be super grateful

I tried an extensive file hunt, and I cleaned the registry but still get the same error.

Oh, and Waves support are ignoring me.

Andy Gone · Post by **Andy Gone** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 3:35 pm

skitchy wrote: <...>
Oh, and Waves support are ignoring me.

Call them.

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:30 pm

... on an international number? From the UK? With UK phone rates? I might as well just buy a new computer - it would be cheaper.

Andy Gone · Post by **Andy Gone** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:45 pm

skitchy wrote:... on an international number? From the UK? With UK phone rates? I might as well just buy a new computer - it would be cheaper.

Then e-mail them and demand a callback. They do this for free.

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 7:10 pm

I've emailed them twice in 2 days and got precisely nothing.

Andy Gone · Post by **Andy Gone** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 8:03 pm

skitchy wrote:I've emailed them twice in 2 days and got precisely nothing.

Then call them, one or two minutes should not cost a fortune, and demand a callback.

But generally it's strange, normally they do it automatically. Are you just sending e-mails? Or are you creating support tickets?

Tpot · Post by **Tpot** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:07 pm

I found the new Waves installer confusing too. It uninstalled all my old plugins and then I couldn't go any further. In my case it was simply that I hadn't gone to my "Waves » My Account » Get Latest Version" to activate the plugins. After doing that they all installed fine.
I don't remember having any error message like skitchy's though.

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:56 pm

A really 'helpful' guy just got back to me explaining which files to delete on a Mac. Which would be great if I wasn't on PC. And hadn't told them that. On 2 separate support tickets.
He also tried to blame the problem on Cubase. I can't actually get the plugins installed using Waves Centre, the error is being thrown by Waves Centre, and he's already trying to blame the DAW. Un-f*cking-believable.

skitchy · Post by **skitchy** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:31 am

Contacted again with Windows instructions to delete files. I'd already tried it about 15 times, but I dutifully tried again. Still not working.
Then they contacted me again asking what the error message was :/ I've only told them 7 times now :
"An error has occurred while performing installation"
Gave them a screenshot.

DubLifeSD · Post by **DubLifeSD** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:52 am

It still blows my mind that a company can come up with hundreds of world class plugins, yet not a user friendly system to install them lol. They should rename it 'Waves Circus'. I've been trying to demo some plugins all afternoon to no avail, it's been a headache to say the least.

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:09 am

I think the old Waves 9 uninstaller may leave behind remnants in the Windows registry that could cause problems with Waves Central.

[1] The IObit Uninstaller can help you remove all traces from the registry and file system with its "Powerful Scan" feature. Download, install, and run IObit Uninstaller. You can download it from here: http://downloads.portableapps.com/porta ... .7.paf.exe

[2] Use IObit Uninstaller to uninstall Waves Central. You may have to reboot afterwards.

[3] You will need to download and install the previous version of Waves 9 so that you can ensure any traces are removed by letting IObit Uninstaller uninstall it. You can get it from here: http://installers.waves.com/Version9/Wi ... _V9r30.exe

[4] Use IObit Uninstaller to uninstall Waves v9r30. You may have to reboot afterwards.

[5] Double check to ensure that Waves folders are gone:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3\WaveShell-VST3 9.6.vst3
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\WPAPI
C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\WaveShell-VST3 9.6_x64.vst3
C:\Program Files\VSTPlugIns\WaveShell-VST 9.6_x64.dll
C:\ProgramData\Waves Audio
C:\Users\Public\Waves Audio
C:\Users\YourUserID\AppData\Roaming\Waves Audio
C:\Users\YourUserID\AppData\Local\Waves Audio

[6] Re-install Waves Central. You may have to reboot afterwards.

Hopefully, this helps to clean your system and remove any corruption.

If you still have problems, go into the Windows Control panel and ensure you have the appropriate Visual C++ runtimes. You can use the manifest of my Windows 10 PC as a guide:

Good luck!

c_voltage · Post by **c_voltage** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:10 pm

Very bad feeling from the new registration\download system.
(or rather, to the registration no complaints, but the process of downloading and installing almost ruined)
Everything falls on the system partition without choice of location (a bunch of very different places).
A few random errors when trying to create offline installer (via central).
As a result, removed all (had to work hard

) and download v9r30 again.
I do not understand what the guys are doing.

pc2000 · Post by **pc2000** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:08 am

I think a part of the issue with tech support-is that a number of these folks are not programmers! I checked windows event viewer and found an error message related to waves central. The event log references a {side by side} error. This is the actual log my system generated:Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Applications\Waves Central\Waves Central.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Applications\Waves Central\WavesQtLibs_5.1.1_Win32_Release\WavesQtLibs_5.1.1_Win32_Release.MANIFEST" on line 8. Component identity found in manifest does not match the identity of the component requested. Reference is WavesQtLibs_5.1.1_Win32_Release,processorArchitecture="AMD64",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0". Definition is WavesQtLibs_5.1.1_Win32_Release,processorArchitecture="x86",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0". Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

I've done some research about side-by-side errors on microsoft's website and even other sites, and neither stated it had anything to do with security settings or windows UAC, or the systems time and date. These are the things the tech is telling me to address with instructions on how. I provided the tech with this very log, yet he directs me to the things I've mentioned. I'm no tech wiz, but it seems that the log clearly references a conflict within the program. It's possible that there is some type of coding error by the programmers- that affect certain systems. I don't want to mess with and change settings needlessly, if they aren't the actual issue!

Waves 'An error has occurred while performing installation'