• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Signlab for Versaworks 8.1, new install on Win11 - dongle error not found

D

daxtraj

New Member
I've got Signlabs 8.1 and Versaworks 5.5 installed and running on a Windows 11 PC. It was previously running fine on an older PC, which ran Windows 10. This PC has now been retired.

I can open and run both Versaworks and Signlabs. I can print to Versaworks from Signlabs.

The only thing remaining is the annoying dongle dialogue boxes that pop up "ERROR LOCATION SECURITY DEVICE". Things I've tried to mitgate this...

1. Been into device manager, tried to located USB Mass Storage device representing the dongle and attempted to set power saving settings to disabled - this was fruitless because the dongle doesnt appear in device manager as mass storage device, but instead has three entries under USB CONTROLLER listed as "Hasp", etc.. with no driver issues reported

2. Been into Windows 11 Power Settings and set USB to disable power saving

I can't find the dongle installer - to re-install the driver - does anyone know where to download an up to date version?

Anything else I can check? Is it a licence issue? I haven't specifically added any licence file to the installation, nor has it asked for one
 
d fleming

d fleming

Premium Subscriber
Is your dongle for 32 or 64 bit machine? I am running 8.1 and had the pc it is running on built with windows 7 just for that reason.
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
The latest Signlab still just lists Win 10 as the officially supported (atleast what I could find). Signlab is on what 9 or 10 now I think. I would speculate that it's an issue of trying to run legacy software on newer hardware (arch as mentioned above could be part of that as there are no official 32bit builds of Windows (even some newer versions of 10 as well), although 64 bit Windows does still have 32bit libs, but if the lib in question isn't there, no bueno). I don't even think you can get Signlab 8 as a legacy download from CADlink, so I really think there are going to have to be some Herculean workarounds to fix everything that may pop up, either now or in the future.

Best bet is to either get a legacy box with the appropriate version of Windows or attempt to setup a VM environment (still will need a legacy version of Windows however, just don't have to worry about the physical box, only do this if the new computer is spec'ed decently well for it, it is running two computers on the same hardware after all).
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
WildWestDesigns said:
The latest Signlab still just lists Win 10 as the officially supported (atleast what I could find). Signlab is on what 9 or 10 now I think. I would speculate that it's an issue of trying to run legacy software on newer hardware (arch as mentioned above could be part of that as there are no official 32bit builds of Windows (even some newer versions of 10 as well), although 64 bit Windows does still have 32bit libs, but if the lib in question isn't there, no bueno). I don't even think you can get Signlab 8 as a legacy download from CADlink, so I really think there are going to have to be some Herculean workarounds to fix everything that may pop up, either now or in the future.

Best bet is to either get a legacy box with the appropriate version of Windows or attempt to setup a VM environment (still will need a legacy version of Windows however, just don't have to worry about the physical box, only do this if the new computer is spec'ed decently well for it, it is running two computers on the same hardware after all).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was hoping not to go down the route of a VM. Like I say it ran fine on the previous Win10 x64 system
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
does the licence file have to be manually assigned? For some reason I have a backup copy of this on the old PC, but can't remember what it was for?
 
M

Mobby

New Member
daxtraj said:
I've got Signlabs 8.1 and Versaworks 5.5 installed and running on a Windows 11 PC. It was previously running fine on an older PC, which ran Windows 10. This PC has now been retired.

I can open and run both Versaworks and Signlabs. I can print to Versaworks from Signlabs.

The only thing remaining is the annoying dongle dialogue boxes that pop up "ERROR LOCATION SECURITY DEVICE". Things I've tried to mitgate this...

1. Been into device manager, tried to located USB Mass Storage device representing the dongle and attempted to set power saving settings to disabled - this was fruitless because the dongle doesnt appear in device manager as mass storage device, but instead has three entries under USB CONTROLLER listed as "Hasp", etc.. with no driver issues reported

2. Been into Windows 11 Power Settings and set USB to disable power saving

I can't find the dongle installer - to re-install the driver - does anyone know where to download an up to date version?

Anything else I can check? Is it a licence issue? I haven't specifically added any licence file to the installation, nor has it asked for one
Click to expand...
Disable device security in windows 11 security. Blocking the driver from loading.
 
T

Timotyen

New Member
You get this message when you use the wrong license files with your dongle.
You can install your software with another license, but when you start the program, your USB dongle does not recognize the license and you get an error message.

Check the "Dongle Number" printed on your dongle with the software dongle number.

Email cadlink software and provide the dongle number printed on the dongle. You get the right license.
 
M

Milo

New Member
Call tech support at Cadlink for $75 and let them figure it out. My policy is we pay a yearly fee for any software issues and they are wonderful problem solvers.
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
Timotyen said:
You get this message when you use the wrong license files with your dongle.
You can install your software with another license, but when you start the program, your USB dongle does not recognize the license and you get an error message.

Check the "Dongle Number" printed on your dongle with the software dongle number.

Email cadlink software and provide the dongle number printed on the dongle. You get the right license.
Click to expand...
I'm getting no error when first starting the program. It almost seems a timer is started when the program is launched, so a couple of minutes in, it does a dongle check and then brings up the dialogue. Prior to that pop-up, I can access all menus and even print to Versaworks. So if this was a licence issue, would this manifest sooner, after launching the program?
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Milo said:
Call tech support at Cadlink for $75 and let them figure it out. My policy is we pay a yearly fee for any software issues and they are wonderful problem solvers.
Click to expand...
I have to wonder if they are motivated really for a legacy piece of software and if there answer isn't just going to be "upgrade" to latest version (which, also isn't officially supported on Win 11, at least what I found on their website).




Disabling security, running as root (admin) etc, while still are a thing and a valid suggestion (depending on the situation/issues that one is getting), they really shouldn't be. Things like this, I would say are a hold over from the days of when permissions, users etc in Windows were non existent. Those should be handled appropriately nowadays, but again, this is legacy software, so maybe it has been taken care of with the latest version. But that is a separate issue, those solutions may indeed work.

daxtraj said:
I'm getting no error when first starting the program. It almost seems a timer is started when the program is launched, so a couple of minutes in, it does a dongle check and then brings up the dialogue. Prior to that pop-up, I can access all menus and even print to Versaworks. So if this was a licence issue, would this manifest sooner, after launching the program?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily, it depends on when it's programmed to check for appropriate license/activation etc.
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
daxtraj said:
Thanks - will give that a try - also Bitdefender might interfere. Will try disabling
Click to expand...
Did you means Device Security (TPM) or Virus and threat protection?

I've dsabled virus and threat protection - still same
Uninstalled Bitdefender - still same
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
WildWestDesigns said:
I have to wonder if they are motivated really for a legacy piece of software and if there answer isn't just going to be "upgrade" to latest version (which, also isn't officially supported on Win 11, at least what I found on their website).




Disabling security, running as root (admin) etc, while still are a thing and a valid suggestion (depending on the situation/issues that one is getting), they really shouldn't be. Things like this, I would say are a hold over from the days of when permissions, users etc in Windows were non existent. Those should be handled appropriately nowadays, but again, this is legacy software, so maybe it has been taken care of with the latest version. But that is a separate issue, those solutions may indeed work.


Not necessarily, it depends on when it's programmed to check for appropriate license/activation etc.
Click to expand...
agreed - would see it as a temporary measure as a proof, then make a decision from there
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
daxtraj said:
Did you means Device Security (TPM) or Virus and threat protection?
Click to expand...
I would be hesitant with turning off TPM on Windows. While it is indeed possible to turn that off, if I'm not mistaken there is some functionality that would require it to still be on within Windows. Now if one doesn't need said functionality, that may be something else.

Personally, not a fan of TPM, nor it's requirement (along with other requirements and what else is coming down the pipeline, but I digress).
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
WildWestDesigns said:
I would be hesitant with turning off TPM on Windows. While it is indeed possible to turn that off, if I'm not mistaken there is some functionality that would require it to still be on within Windows. Now if one doesn't need said functionality, that may be something else.

Personally, not a fan of TPM, nor it's requirement (along with other requirements and what else is coming down the pipeline, but I digress).
Click to expand...
yes, totally agree - if this is the fix, then I won't pursue it
 
D

daxtraj

New Member
OK, here's a list of things I've tied:

Uninstalled Bitdefender - temporarily
Turned off Window device security > windows anti virus, etc...
Uninstalled the HASP drivers
Reboot, reinstall HASP drivers - all show up correctly in device manager as before
Ran Signalbs in various windows compatibility modes
Ran as admin (the user is admin anyway)

None of this worked - still getting the error dialogue in Signlabs about a minute into running

Might be time to look at a new version for my client with an activation code and not a bloody dongle(!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top