MR retirement

#1

Hi there,

On my Academic copy of XSI Advanced 32-bit MR just decided to simply retire.
Starting >Material Manager >Render region tool >Render Preview >Render current pass
or anything MR related simply causes XSI to crash to the desktop.

No messages, simply a crash.
Iā€™ve reinstalled, it seems the license is still active since XSI starts up ok,
but thereā€™s no MR functionality left. Do I need to re-activate the license maybe?

Must say I didnā€™t expect this one.

Everything else seems to work, even screen capturing, except no MR functionality whatsoever. Just wanted to ask if anyone else experienced this?
Iā€™m pretty annoyed and not looking forward to formatting my machine if I have to.
Even since I donā€™t seem to be able to re-activate my license online (can you re-activate?)

So if I format I donā€™t know how Iā€™m going to activate my copy if License Server canā€™t connect to SI servers. Anyone know if you can activate XSi with the downloaded license only? Anyone else had this problem? Would appreciate.

#2

Hi

It is not the license.
If you can start XSI then the mental ray functionality should be available.

No, you cannot activate an active license.

If you are going to format the computer, remember to deactivate the license first (in the License Manager, click Server > Deactivate).

#3

Before you format, try this. go to C:\users\User\Softimage\XSI_7.0, yours might be a bit different, but you are looking for the xsi 7.0 folder (6.5) if you are on that and cut it to your desktop, then open xsi, it will write a new folder, that may work for you.

#4

Thanks for being so helpful. I love this community already.
No, renaming the user folder does cause XSI to create a new one but the problem persists. Basically MR is crashing on startup and XSI doesnā€™t seem to be affected.

Otherwise everything on my machine seems to be working,
including other renderers like Gelato strangely enough.

This all started after I insisted on opening the sample files for the book XSI Illuminated:Character by Mesmer due to itā€™s sheer awesomeness. Unfortunately it seems the project files included with it are for XSI 3 and caused endless crashing.

I had about 2 dozen crashes trying to determine/fix which files were opening from the samples. Trying to render from these files seems to have started the problem, or at least thatā€™s when it started ocurring. I wonder if they have some sort of copyright protection on them that messed up the XSI installation?

Looks like opening old XSI 3 files are a definite no no :frowning:

#5

Thanks Steve Iā€™ll remember to deactivate if all else fails.
So far am very willing to help troubleshoot.
SI support is simply the best.

Hope you guys donā€™t change with your new boss :slight_smile:

#6

I would say just reinstall xsi should do it then no need to formatt, just delete the two xsi folders so its all nice and fresh.

No intention of changeing just cause of autodesk, xsi is to good to let that worry me.

#7

Ok fresh installing next.
Wanted to ask is there any way of sending some sort of ā€œresetā€ command to Mental?

Maybe itā€™s only a MR setting that ended up in the wrong place,
with the old files, and all thatā€™s needed is setting it back?

#8

Fresh reinstall didnā€™t work :frowning:

Just wondering if youā€™re making me format do you think the problem might come back?
Could this be a Windows update problem? Iā€™m really pulling my hair here.

MR does not start neither does Material Manager.
XSI simply crashes to the desktop, and on the command line it simply exits without any messages.

Is this a novelty problem? Cause Iā€™m not sure about formatting, as it is I can run XSI
and do screen capturing. Wondering if activation goes wrong on my next installation I wonā€™t be able to do even that. Can you activate offline at all?
Iā€™m not too sure Internet access is reliable here where I stay.

#9

Did you delete both these folders before you reinstalled XSI

C:\users\User\Softimage

C:\Softimage

If not, uninstall xsi, delete these folders then reinstall XSI.

If that isnt helping then im sorry but i dont know what else to do, might be a registry thing and i know jack about that. I am pretty sure you will have to activate over the net but im sure the file it downloads isnt large so any internet connections should work. I know withour v6 lic manager we have a file that was sent to us and all we have to do is point the lic manager to that so no need for the net, but with the v7 lic manager we have to let it connect to the net.

#10

Hi kiwi3D.
Thanks I did delete those folders also cleaned up any registry that was left after uninstallation.

Glad to know about activation being easy. Maybe itā€™ll be easy at late hours here.
Last time it activated OK. Iā€™m still going to be trying to troubleshoot a little before I give up.
Would love to know whatā€™s causing the problem since who knows, it could even happen again?

Before I format Iā€™ll try deactivate activate the license too see if it works?
I reckon if it deactivates, then I shouldnā€™t have problems after that?
Itā€™s just that Internet access in this country is weird,
say I never got online games to work here. But so far so good otherwiseā€¦

#11

I would be more suspicious of something OTHER than XSI or even MR for causing the problem. Have you installed anything recently? Load a different program that also uses MR? Install a new firewall or antiivirus? If MR was working and a fres instal of XSI doesnā€™t fix the problem itā€™s probably not related to XSI at all, but something else. Have you done a virus scan recently?

#12

Yes I changed anti-virus recently and it could definitely be related.
You know itā€™s the one thing that can mess things up, changing anti-virus.

Iā€™m using PC Tools Antivirus and so far itā€™s already disappointed me by deciding that a sequence of TGA files inside a zip archive (that i created after rendering) is a virus.
Funny enough it causes it to crash as well. I know itā€™s a false positive too.

So if this antivirus doesnā€™t like image sequences and my renderer wonā€™t start up things are beginning to look fishy. Iā€™ll try uninstall it sometime next too.
But so far I simply canā€™t bring MR back to life and itā€™s been a couple of daysā€¦

#13

Hey peeps I just recovered :smiley:

Canā€™t pinpoint the problem yet but stay tuned.
Yes MR is now working again, and no I didnā€™t have a virus.
Man itā€™s about time WTH (what the heck?)

  • UPDATE *

Do not install the current version of PC TOOLS ANTIVIRUS on your workstation.
It effectively prevents MR from running on your machine.
Iā€™ll try report this to them sometime, but itā€™s simply not compatible here at present.

So there.

  • It wasnā€™t the entire memory that I tested.
  • Scanning and rescanning for viruses and spyware didnā€™t work.
  • None of SoftImageā€™s amazing tech support suggestions worked (thanks guys!)
  • Reinstalling uninstalling clean installing XSI didnā€™t work.
  • Reinstalling the graphics driver didnā€™t work.
  • Uninstalling Google Chrome didnā€™t work.
  • Installing reinstalling Windows security updates didnā€™t work.
  • Installing reinstalling the ZA firewall didnā€™t work.

And when all else failed,

> It wasnā€™t the TV show on the Gene Simmons party that did it.
> It wasnā€™t Ron Jeremy the special guest and not his girls either lol
> It wasnā€™t the amazing numbers of girls per square inch on that tape.

>> Removing the antivirus was the wise decision looks like <<

#14

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