Technical Support - Detail

Why would JAWS run fine with a properly activated ILM license, then suddenly start asking for activation and run in 40 minute mode?

A properly activated Internet License Manager (ILM) based license may cease to work if:
* You are using a network license and the network connection is down.
* You choose "Remove Product Activation" from the Start Menu, Programs, JAWS, Tools menu.
* You change an important hardware component.

The Freedom Scientific Internet License Manager (ILM) activation scheme relates directly to the identity, or "fingerprint," of your computer. Changing certain hardware components can modify the unique computer fingerprint. For many hardware changes, such as installing a new video card, you can simply reactivate your ILM license by selecting Update Authorization from the JAWS Help menu. Some hardware changes require more than simply reactivating your license and this document provides you with information on dealing with this situation. These changes include the following:

A. You install a new hard drive and port the current drive image to the new drive.
B. The size of the drive or drive partition where Windows is installed changes.
C. Any of the following items existed when you last activated your license, but no longer exist now:
* IDE device
* Video adapter card
* Sound adapter card
* CD-ROM drive (desktop only)
* PCMCIA adapter card (laptop only)
* Windows Product Activation file (Windows XP only)

If any of the above hardware changes, with JAWS 6.10 or later you are asked to reactivate your license after the hardware change. After you reactivate your license, JAWS runs as expected. You do not need to perform the process below.

If you are using JAWS 6.0 or 5.10, and the above hardware changes, you must remove the currently stored activation information using the FSLicenseClean utility.

1. Press WINDOWS Key+R.
2. Type or copy and paste one of the command strings listed below. Be sure to type the quotation marks and the spaces. If your Freedom Scientific product activation files are stored on a drive other than C, substitute the appropriate drive letter.

For a local license with JAWS 6.0:
"C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\Activator\1.1\FsLicenseClean.exe" jaws 0 1

For a network license on a designated license server with JAWS 6.0:
"C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\Activator\1.1\FsLicenseClean.exe" jaws 1 1

For a local license with JAWS 5.1:
"C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\Activator\1.0\FsLicenseClean.exe" jaws 0 1

For a network license on a designated license server with JAWS 5.1:
"C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\Activator\1.0\FsLicenseClean.exe" jaws 1 1

3. Press ENTER. The next time you start JAWS, the activation process begins and you can reactivate the license as requested.

This information specifically applies to a limited set of products using Internet License Manager (ILM) based activation, available from Freedom Scientific starting Fall 2004. This information does not affect products using dongle and Quella (3.5" diskette based) authorization methods.

Last updated March, 2005