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Now HASP Driver repairs are needed occasionally

  • 10 January 2022
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Since upgrading to the latest Zemax OpticStudio version 21.3.2 (or maybe after a minor Windows 10 update?), I have been having license issues with my Subscription Professional license.

Especially after sitting idle for a week or more, I get the Zemax License Manager popup showing no licenses.  I have found that I can click “Check & Repair HASP Drivers” on the Troubleshoot page, and then get the “Service restarted successfully” message (see attached image).

After restarting the HASP service (whatever that means), then View License shows my license and OpticStudio runs as usual.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

-- Greg

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Best answer by Don Dickinson 10 January 2022, 21:47

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Hello!

Odd, the service should stay running all the time.

One thing you can do is set up the licensing service to automatically restart upon errors. This may give it OpticStudio a chance to find the license again before it times out and shuts down. Note that it will take 1-1.5 minutes to restart itself when it stop working even with this setup, so be patient.

Open the Start menu and search for SERVICES.MSC. Locate the Sentinel LDK License Manager service and double-click it to open the properties. Click the Recovery tab. See the screen shot for an example of what settings to use.

 

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Thanks, Don.  This might prove helpful to others who are observing the same issue.

From your reply, I’m assuming that you had not heard of this before.  FYI, this has happened to me shortly after startup, with few if any other programs (such as maybe a web browser) running, aside from (recently updated) Norton 360 in the background.

Since your startup settings suggestion sounds like it might take longer than just “repairing the HASP drivers” (which is very fast), I think I’d rather do it the way I have been a few times already as described above.  Also, I think it might be hard to tell what is going on if OpticStudio is just taking a very long time to start up.

*** Is there any reason for you to discourage what I have been doing?

I still hope that others will report similar behavior to you.  I can pay more attention and see whether I can correlate this HASP(?) behavior with other changes to the computer (e.g. Windows or Nor*ton antivirus updates).

-- Greg

 

*possibly leading to head-scratching, cursing, and unnecessary restarting of the computer

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Oops, the asterisk (*) should have gone after “very long time to start up.” ...not in the middle of “Nor*ton”

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Good day!

The method i suggested is a one-time setup - It may keep you from having to manually repair the HASP drivers. Instead it will attempt to restart on it’s own if it stops. 

 

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Update: problem was resolved when I installed the latest version 22.1 of OpticStudio.

I have not encountered this HASP driver issue again since doing the update.

Before installing 22.1 (as is my habit to avoid buildup of old versions that might conflict),

I UNINSTALLED 21.3.2 first using the Apps & Features list.  This might have been the trick… I don’t know, but perhaps it will be a clue for Don and a suggestion for others who might encounter the same issue.

-- Greg

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Update from today after experiencing the same thing as originally described:

Your method using Services to set up the Sentinel LDK License Manager Recovery Properties to “Restart the Service” on first, second, and subsequent failures DOES NOT WORK for me.

After changing the Recovery settings, AND restarting the computer to check if they “stuck” (they did, show your suggested settings after restart), OpticStudio still couldn’t find the license.

But my method of Zemax License Manager > Troubleshoot > Check & Repair HASP Drivers DOES work to get my license to show, and then after doing so, OpticStudio successfully starts (automatically).

-- Greg

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Good day, and thanks for the update. Changing the settings after having it stop working won’t fix the service, it’s intended to avoid having it go down in the first place. If you’ve changed it, leave it in place. Of course you may have a different problem this setting does not address.

 

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I still have this (admittedly easily worked-around) problem (with ZOS 21.3.2).

Despite having the Services settings exactly the way Don recommended, I still have to manually Check & Repair HASP Drivers (Zemax License Manager comes up automatically showing no license) after restarting the computer.  Then during a session (between restarts), I don’t have to do it again, i.e. the “service” stays “restarted successfully” and I don’t have to redo this Check & Repair again.

I’ll remove ZOS Release 21.3.2, and download and install the brand-new 22.1, and report back as to whether that affects this HASP Driver issue...for better or worse!

 

BTW, might it help to set the “Restart service after:” setting in the Sentinel LDK License Manager Properties (Recovery tab) to a shorter time than 1 minute (e.g. 0 minutes)?  I seem to recall that was the original (default?) setting on the Recovery tab.

-- Greg

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Good day!

I dont think you can set it to zero minutes. Something is clearly keeping the license service from starting up or conflicting with it when you start the computer. There may not be a good way to track this down. Installing the new release wont hurt, but doesn’t have any license related changes that may help with this.  

One idea; here is a newer version of the licensing service in our repair kit. Download the license repair kit from the
“article attachments” at the top of this article. Then run the Haspusersetup.exe within the Zip file to update it.

https://support.zemax.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005488741-How-to-troubleshoot-softkey-license-issues

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