PC died - how much hassle with moving software?

[PapaLazarou]

Unfortunately it looks like my main PC which has most music software on it has died suddenly. I'm still trying to assess what could be wrong with it (I just unplugged it to tidy up some wiring at the back, and on plugging it back in it would not POST). I've got as far as removing the motherboard and attempting to get it to POST out of the case with just the bare essentials connected, changed PSU, used seperate GPU and integrated GPU, but no joy at all. I'm leaning towards motherboard and/or CPU being dead

Something I've never had to deal with before, so I want to prepare for the possibility, is getting software secured by iLok etc. moved None of it uses physical dongles, so all online activation. From memory (I'm obviously using another computer now) the software that was secured and registered to that PC was:

Tracktion 6 (online activation)
Melodyne Essentials
Cubase Elements 8 (eLicense Manager)
Ableton Live (online activation?)
UVI vintage synth pack
Xpand Air2 (iLok)
Korg M1 LE
AAS Lounge Lizard/Ultra Analog/Strum Session (iLok?)
May be others, but that is all I can remember at the moment.

If it is the case that the motherboard is dead (effectively meaning a new PC from the point of view of the software) how much hassle is it to get these moved to a new PC assuming I don't have access to the existing install to "de-activate" them?

Thanks

[BertKoor]

How old is the mobo?
Some won't boot if the CR2032 lithium cell battery has drained. I'd check that first.

How much hassle it is to move software: that depends...
Chances are if you only replace the mobo and keep the same harddisk, a fair percentage of your stuff will still work. The others just need reverification, you probably need to contact the vendor then.

[Musical Gym]

I think your serials and installers should be available in your account with the respective vendors or else available through their support portals. Then just reinstall.

[PapaLazarou]

How old is the mobo?
Some won't boot if the CR2032 lithium cell battery has drained. I'd check that first.

How much hassle it is to move software: that depends...
Chances are if you only replace the mobo and keep the same harddisk, a fair percentage of your stuff will still work. The others just need reverification, you probably need to contact the vendor then.

Mobo is about 18 months old, it's one of these - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4966#ov I'll put in a new cell to try it

I haven't got round to testing them yet, but hopefully everything on the disks is still intact.

I think your serials and installers should be available in your account with the respective vendors or else available through their support portals. Then just reinstall.

Great, not too much difficulty then hopefully!

[BertKoor]

18 months is way too soon for a mobo, let alone the battery to fail. The battery should last 10+ years.
I'd check your warranty: is it one or two years?

Do you get any beeps in the POST during boot attempt? Any lights on the mobo go on, or on the periferals?
Usually numlock will blink. Check your manual...
Also reseating the RAM sticks (put in bare essentials of that too) is something you can try.

[Kaine]

Yes, as Bert says I'm pretty sure GB's minimum warranty these days is three years. Even if not, its certainly over one year and a minimum of two, so you should probably get this looked at.

[Zexila]

18 months is way too soon for a mobo

Not for Gigabyte, friend changed two in a month period, heard other experiences online, quality isn't their thing it seems.

[sprnva]

Have you tried removing and re-seating the RAM sticks individually to see if any of them have gone bad?

AAS Session doesn't use iLok to my knowledge, but UVI do. For those that do, you've used up one activation. So try contacting the dev and explain the situation. They might be able to erase it or replace the key with a new one as some licences only allow for one activation. For UVI it's usually 3. You can check your licences/activations on the ilok website.

Korg have a system in place to ask for a new activation key so that should be ok. You can re-authorise Live too. They allow two installations per licence, so if you don't have one free, contact them and explain the situation. I'm sure they'll be cool.

[PapaLazarou]

Thanks for the suggestions and help. I've not been able to have another look at it until now. My case has no speaker (as seems to be common on modern cases) but I managed to get one from elsewhere. Was getting a 1 Long 3 Short beep code, which I understand is related to a GPU error. Puzzling, as there isn't one connected now - it should be using the integrated GPU on the i5-4670K processor.

Anyway, I left it for a bit, did nothing but remove and refit the memory, and reconnected the PSU to the board and powered it up. This time, after appearing to switch itself off, then on again a couple of times it issued one beep and I was greeted with a message on the screen : BIOS reset - load defaults? I loaded optimised defaults and so far have had it running Linux off a USB stick.

Obviously it would not do this if there was anything serious wrong with it. Puzzling though, it was to all intents and purposes dead last night and first thing this morning when I tried it again, and I had been through resetting BIOS etc.

So now to put it all back together and hope it still works!!! Fingers crossed...

[larm]

Man this is one of my nightmares about software licenses. Hate moving those things... Well if it boots to Win I think it would be a golden opportunity for you to check the backup situation with your licenses

[Nielzie]

AAS software does not use iLok but regular online activation. Since they are extremely kind and fast with their support it should not be a problem I think

Same with Ableton by the way.

[PapaLazarou]

Man this is one of my nightmares about software licenses. Hate moving those things... Well if it boots to Win I think it would be a golden opportunity for you to check the backup situation with your licenses

Indeed Definitely things like this good reminders to do proper backups.

Good to hear AAS are helpful.

[PapaLazarou]

Just to wrap this up, the Windows install was fine, and nothing lost! Backup now made... Bit puzzled about why/how this happened (I notice it's gone back to an earlier BIOS version since recovering, I presume the dual BIOS feature kicked in eventually?) Thanks again for all the suggestions and help on this.

[mosspa]

I'm currently switching DAW computers, and thus far it's been a nightmare. I have had trouble with both eLicenser and iLok systems. PACE has been working on the iLok issues for three days, and the folks at eLicenser support apparently don't understand English. I've been so frustrated by this experience that I will now refuse to buy software encrypted on either of these devices.

[The Noodlist]

Several years ago, I had a ASUS M5A97 that wouldn't post, I tried various permutations of peripherals, to no avail. The warranty had just expired.
Clutching at straws, I thought I'd try a new bios chip, and it worked.

I got the part from biosflash-de

Glad to see you got it resolved.