Hello,

I keep having problems using the program on Vista.  I followed the directions on your forum, and it still doesn't work. Today, I tried ot open the program and it wouldn't work at all.  It said "Error with license Control. WRONG PASSORD" Then it says INVALID LFHANDLE.

So I tried what the forum said to do again. When I run as administrator, I got the "30 day program" warning, and entered my infromation again. This worked. When I got in, however, all of my data was gone. Even the taxonomies I'd created and the one that was purchased.

So I closed the program and tried again. This time when I entered my information it said "This license ID has already been used the allotted amount of times." It said to contact the "sales" email at Birders Diary, but I've not heard anything.

Hello Michael,

Sorry for all the trouble.

Can I get onto your system and have a look to get this all working again? All you need is to run a program from this site that allows me access; and your computer has to be connected to the internet.

Just respond back here as to when you might be at your computer next and we can setup a time.

Jeff

p.s. I deleted a duplicate post of this issue in this forum and kept this one.

Hi Michael,

I understand. I already reset your license activations. So you are good to go there. But it sounds like you have multiple issues beyond license activation.

If this doesn't work, please let me know. At a minimum, you may need to re-run the installation from the Downloads page on this site for the latest version of v3.6. Make sure you specify the same installation directory as where you have it installed now. To find out, right-click on your BD desktop icon and choose Properties. Then select the Shortcut TAB, and look in the Target text field. During the re-installation, it will ask where you want to install BD, choose the same location as that of the Target field.

But, that error you mention sounds as if you entered the wrong password. It appears that when you registered your licenses with the Online Store that you changed your password from that which is on your CD labels. Please email me at support@birdersdiary.com if you need a password reminder.

Let's start here, and please let me know how it goes.

Jeff

Hi Michael,

Sounds like the installation is corrupted. Did you try a re-installation as I suggested above?

What kind of OS are you running here? 32-bit or 64-bit machine?

Did BD ever work on this machine? If so, for how long?

What occurred between the last time it worked and when it first started having problems? This sounds like either a virus situation, bad hard drive or you installed some software which corrupted BD's installation.

Please answer the questions above for me and we will proceed form here.

Jeff

Hi Michael,

Are you running XP, Vista, what?

If your computer froze mid-session it may have corrupted your BD database.

Make a copy of your database which will be in .../birder's diary/data/database.mdb and move it to your desktop or elsewhere for safe keeping right now. Your database has all your data, tax lists, etc.

I will offer again, to get onto your computer and attempt to fix this. You can watch everything I do while there. This will be the most probably quickest path to getting you up and running.

Else, you should try (after making a copy of your database) the reinstallation as specified in my previous post.

Let me know,

Jeff

BD runs very well with no known issues on a MAC under Parallels. Many customers have used it for years.

No need to uninstall BD first. Simply run the installation again. It should repair/replace any missing files. If that doesn't work, then go ahead and try uninstalling first. Can't hurt; might help.

fyi

Jeff

Hi, Jeff.

I uninstalled, then reinstalled BD, and it seems as if nothing has changed. Just to recap and let you know what I attempted...

I first tried to run the program normally. It said "Error with license Control. WRONG PASSORD" Then it said "... INVALID LFHANDLE".

I then ran as administrator, I got the "30 day program" warning, and entered my infromation again. I was able to enter the progam. I entered license ID and password for taxonomy "Birds - AOU - North America -  2008". It shows up in the "Licensed Features" window. But when I tried to view data, using that taxonomy, when I click on the taxonomy in the View/Edit window, the "Taxonomic List Not Licensed" window appears. I then tried the "Western Paleartic - 2004", which it would allow me to select. I closed BD.

I then copied the old databae file over, reran the application as Admin, and tried to look at my wordl list. I still could not access any data, even with the allowed taxonomy. I then also noticed that "Birds - AOU - North America -  2008" no longer even appeared in the list of taxonomies as it had just a minute earlier. I then tried to import a taxonomy a friend made. I clicked File: Import/Export, and the following error box popped up: Run-time error '339': Component 'TABCTL32.OCX' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid. I was forced to click OK, and the program automatically closed.

Any ideas?

I'll probably be able to give you access to the computer after 17:00 EDT tomorrow, Monday, if you'd like to take a look at it yourself.

HI Michael,

It definitely sounds like sytem corruption. But something that running the installation again might have fixed.

I definitely want to take a look at this. So please contact me when you are ready today between 1700 and 1830p EDT. I will reply with instructions.

Simply send email to support@birdersdiary.com.

Jeff

Wanted to update status on this after being on Michael's system...

Michael had originally installed BD into the "/Program Files" directory - which, on Vista, is a no-no anymore. That accounts for some of the strangeness about data disappearing. Once I installed into the C: root directory, BD functions almost normally.

Then there is a licensing problem. I believe this has to do with file corruption on the system. I have seen this about 1 out of 1,000 times. The symptoms are that BD starts and states that you are in Demo mode and that you are not licensed. If you close that message, then open Help | License Information, you will find that it now says you are fully licensed with any licenses you activated. I have instructed Michael to go ahead with using BD and let me know if it ever gets to a point where BD inactivates. I don't believe it will.

In the past, when this has been seen, it has been because of a corruption in one of the many hidden files that the licensing software creates/uses for its validation. Finding and removing this file is quite difficult and requires installation of file-watching software. Without this, if Windows is reinstalled and BD reinstalled, BD will always work again.

fyi

Jeff