Photoshop CS2 – no activation with "Activate" and "Transfer Activation" disabled

I have identical behaviour with a new, sealed copy of CS2. I have tried it on my main graphic box and also laptop. On both (XPP-SP2) registration is fine but activation remains greyed out.

I did find that Adobe LM (license manager) service had not been started and was set to ‘manual’ in Control Panel|Administrative Tools| Compnent services|Local services. But setting it to ‘auto’ and restarting has changed nothing.

If you found any solution please let me know. I’ve searched around Adobe and found no reference to this behaviour, just helpful suggestions for activation problems like ‘format your hard disk, install Windows and only Adobe Software’. I have no doubt that the software will disable itself after 30 days, and I’m not even slightly amused.

Me too. I bought mine through an Amazon dealer and the activate button does nothing. I called the activation phone line at Adobe and was told the serial number is invalid. He directed me to general customer service, who said the same thing. So it looks like now I get to fight to get my money back. Or possibly get a valid serial number. I am hoping Amazon’s buyer’s garuntee will cover it.

On Aug 30, 1:06 am, stewart wrote:

I found Photoshop CS2 (Win XP) in the discount bin at a local military PX/store yesterday ($290 sealed in box with CD’s, serial, & users guide), decided to give it a try in spite of it being an older version (cheaper then CS3 in the same store), and installed it from the CD this morning. No problems with the installation, serial number, online registration, or updates afterwards. The software seems to be working perfectly.

However, contrary to what the user guide says, it did not ask for activation when I started the software. Further, "Activate" under the "Help" menu does absolutely nothing (no response whatsoever) and "Transfer Activation" under the same menu is disabled (grayed out). I’ve opened and closed the program at least two dozen times this morning, still with no request for activation.

Is this normal or did something go wrong during the installation?
stewart

On Sep 15, 2:59 pm, ""
wrote:

Me too. I bought mine through an Amazon dealer and theactivate button does nothing. I called the activation phone line at Adobe and was told the serial number is invalid. He directed me to general customer service, who said the same thing. So it looks like now I get to fight to get my money back. Or possibly get a valid serial number. I am hoping Amazon’s buyer’s garuntee will cover it.

On Aug 30, 1:06 am, stewart wrote:

I found Photoshop CS2 (Win XP) in the discount bin at a local military PX/store yesterday ($290 sealed in box with CD’s, serial, & users guide), decided to give it a try in spite of it being an older version (cheaper then CS3 in the same store), and installed it from the CD this morning. No problems with the installation, serial number, online registration, or updates afterwards. The software seems to be working perfectly.

However, contrary to what the user guide says, it did not ask for activation when I started the software. Further, "Activate" under the "Help" menu does absolutely nothing (no response whatsoever) and "Transfer Activation" under the same menu is disabled (grayed out). I’ve opened and closed the program at least two dozen times this morning, still with no request for activation.

Is this normal or did something go wrong during the installation?

stewart

The vendor wrote back to me and offered to exchange my cs2 for cs3, but he’s not saying anything about activation…

wrote:

On Sep 15, 2:59 pm, ""
wrote:

Me too. I bought mine through an Amazon dealer and theactivate button does nothing. I called the activation phone line at Adobe and was told the serial number is invalid. He directed me to general customer service, who said the same thing. So it looks like now I get to fight to get my money back. Or possibly get a valid serial number. I am hoping Amazon’s buyer’s garuntee will cover it.

On Aug 30, 1:06 am, stewart wrote:

I found Photoshop CS2 (Win XP) in the discount bin at a local military PX/store yesterday ($290 sealed in box with CD’s, serial, & users guide), decided to give it a try in spite of it being an older version (cheaper then CS3 in the same store), and installed it from the CD this morning. No problems with the installation, serial number, online registration, or updates afterwards. The software seems to be working perfectly.

However, contrary to what the user guide says, it did not ask for activation when I started the software. Further, "Activate" under the "Help" menu does absolutely nothing (no response whatsoever) and "Transfer Activation" under the same menu is disabled (grayed out). I’ve opened and closed the program at least two dozen times this morning, still with no request for activation.

Is this normal or did something go wrong during the installation?

stewart

The vendor wrote back to me and offered to exchange my cs2 for cs3, but he’s not saying anything about activation…

If there is no money exchanged then it will be a bargain –

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<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:</a> wrote: <blockquote
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<pre wrap="">Me too. I bought mine through an Amazon dealer and the activate button does nothing. I called the activation phone line at Adobe and was told the serial number is invalid. He directed me to general customer service, who said the same thing. So it looks like now I get to fight to get my money back. Or possibly get a valid serial number. I am hoping Amazon’s buyer’s garuntee will cover it.

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The appeal that Linux along with Gimp and other software that is free eliminates this kind of aggravation.&nbsp; I am not advocating that Gimp is either better than or as good as Photoshop but it does appear that the next version of Gimp coming out shortly will be at the very least good enough.&nbsp; If more people did the switch and soon they will be doing that the clear message to the software pigs will be given.<br> <blockquote
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On Aug 30, 1:06 am, stewart <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:&gt;</a> wrote:
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<pre wrap="">I found Photoshop CS2 (Win XP) in the discount bin at a local military PX/store yesterday ($290 sealed in box with CD’s, serial, &amp; users guide), decided to give it a try in spite of it being an older version (cheaper then CS3 in the same store), and installed it from the CD this morning. No problems with the installation, serial number, online registration, or updates afterwards. The software seems to be working perfectly.

However, contrary to what the user guide says, it did not ask for activation when I started the software. Further, "Activate" under the "Help" menu does absolutely nothing (no response whatsoever) and "Transfer Activation" under the same menu is disabled (grayed out). I’ve opened and closed the program at least two dozen times this morning, still with no request for activation.

Is this normal or did something go wrong during the installation?

stewart
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