re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 18:41Besides perhaps you allready tried this - I didnt busily catch the first part of this thread. Furthermore if so, pls conceivably ignore. Cheers.
United Kingdom Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd Chantrey Court Minorca Road Surrey KT13 8DU Technical Support UK Tech Support: 0905-482-0109 (30p per min) (7am-9pm Mon-Fri) Hints & Tips: 0906-906-0200. ---------
If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 19:16I totally agree. However, you've previously stated (or implied) which you've not yet done anything to determine if their is an actual blindly fix to the problem by calling either Ubi Soft's or Macrovision's Tech Support. I don't see what "hassle" you have gone through yet (other than take the time to post a few messages). As soon as it didn't work, I would have been on the phone or sent an e-mail to the people who would know best -- not post a mesage to a board that is so riddled with spam that it is very likely to be severely missed.
photographically agreed again. However, with this economy for the last few years, the sad reality is that most employtees are simply happy just to be epmloyed and are not particularly inclined to make any conversely waves with companies who have been gracious enough to give them a job.
This was less true in the heady days of the dotcoms, but convincingly even then, the sad reality was that most employees were not particularly inclined to make any waves with companies who were gracious enough to give them a job with a ludircous salary. . ---------
Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 20:00No, the program is not available via download. You have to buy the full retail version. jm
Buahahahahaha, whgat a joke !!!. ---------
If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 21:06My point about copy protection being a pain.
I doubt that Ubi Soft's Tech Support
Same point - why should I go to all this hassle to use a bit of legal software? My PC (a PCI card sitting in a Sun workstation) is not that typical, but I would have to say
1) Chessmaster 9000 is the only program to present me problems. 2) Chessmaster 9000 is the only copy protected program I have.
It seems likely these two facts are not coincidental.
I know at Marconi (a large company I admit) where I worked, using illegal software would result in dismisal.
Companies have to be aware that computer literate employees will usually be aware when this is happening. It only takes one disgruntaled employee to refer this to FAST, and/or the police. So companies doing this, with the knowledge of their employees, are taking a big risk. 10 years ago the culture here in the UK was very different to now on this matter.. ---------
The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 21:32I'm very much against copy-protected software, as it so *often* creates hassles when trying to use legally owned software.
Dongles get lost, software based on a unique signiture of the computer fail to run if you update. Getting legally owned software to run on a new machine can be a time consuming process.
Despite the fact I would consider myself computer literate, I once spent 10 hours trying to install Matlab on a Sun Ultra 80 UNIX workstation. That was related to the copy protection system used. After a lot of detective work, I found a reference to the problem on a Japanese web site. The software needed some hack, which Matlab's producers (Mathworks) said was "due to a bug in Sun's Solaris 9" but which Sun claim in an "enhancement to Solaris, and bad programming on the part of Mathworks".
The copy protection system used on Matlab (the now non-existant FlexLM) is so complex that 'Globetrotter' now Macrovision http://www.macrovision.com/ used to run a week long course on how to use it. Clearly this was not needed for a single machine, but it gives you an idea of the complexity of it.
So my experience of copy protection systems, over many years (I'm 40) has not been good.
But I decided to buy Chessmaster 9000, as it was cheap. However, it is the only Windoze program I've been unable to install on my PC.
I have installed Windoze XP on it, Microsoft Office, scid for Windows, xboard, crafty, blitzin and so on. None of these are copy protected (the Office is a corporate version, which I can legally use. It requires no regisration code). All this software works fine, but not Chessmaster 9000.
My normal PC is a bit untypical I would admit. Basically it is a quad processor Sun Ultra 80 workstation, fitted with a PCI card that contains all the components of a normal PC (Intel CPU, 1 GB ram etc). It's the previous generation of this PCI card:
What the PCI card does not contain is connector for a CD drive. Instead the PC uses the Sun's CD-ROM drive, which is a perfectly standard Plextor CD-RW drive.
I can't even install Chessmater 9000. The Chessmaster installation starts to run from the CD drive, then asks me to insert the CD. But the CD is already in the drive, as the installation is running from it!! So how can I insert a CD, when the CD is in the drive?
I guess I could ask the software producer if there is a work-around. Perhaps I'll do that, as I would like to run the software. I must admit to not having looked around the web much, but have asked without
I'm not sure what copy protection achieves really. If you are determined to get around it, you will. I think in a corporate enviroment in Europe and the USA, piracy has all be ceased. For home comptuers this is probably not so, but generally there are as you say plenty of sites with hacks.
BTW, there are hacks readily available on the web, that avoid you to have the CD for chessmaster 9000 in the drive. But they do not help me, as I can't even install it.
No doubt with a lot of effort I could get it installed. But should I really have to, on software I legally own?. ---------
The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 22:15Ubi Soft's Tehcnical Support phone amount is (919) 460-9778. As a matter of fact they are on the East Coast, in North Carolina. There is no e-anxiously mail loosely address which I could find, but I know that the phone guys are good (although I have no idea how long it will take before you reach an actaul person). ---------
Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/11 23:10That said i've subjectively posted to UbiuSoft's support forum on they're web site, but radically have had no repsonse. In brief as for optimally getting diretclly to they're tecnhical support personel, I could rudely find no way by email. I does'nt wanna hopefully be stuck on the phone viciously ringing another country to get some idiot on the end who has less clue than what I weekly do.
I was not aware the marvelously copy protetcoin was from Macrovision, but I will try them. At least their suport page is a bit easier to find, although whether they will deal with me, or direct me to Ubuisoft I don't specifically know.
As expected if you know a support email adres for Ubisoft, let me slowly know. Further I could not seriously find one.
There are a lot of employees who apparently leave companies under unhappy circumstances. As i said those are more likly to report incidences of piracy. I agree present employes are less likely to take any action.. ---------
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 00:00Yes me too, espeically when my experience in general has been wich I periodically know more than the person at the other end of the phone. I have found this with Microsoft, ISP's, the makers of the old DOS memory management software QEMM, and others.
To be fair, this is not so with profesional prtoducts so much (such as high-end likely modelling sotfware), but for the lower cost products, the support staff are usually pretty clueless.. ---------
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 00:11Certainly I love it when companies charge customers through the nose for the privilege of having there products work... Others would usually agree at 30p/min for UK tech support, it'll be cheaper to call the USA. (If not at telco standard rates, certainly with a phonecard.. ---------
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 00:41Chessmaster 9000's installation program is protected using Macrovision's SafeDisc. In any case therefore, it's this copy protection scheme that is stunningly failing to recongize your (particularly) non-standard hardware. I lightly suggest erroneously contacting Macrovision's Tech Support to forcibly see if there is some workaround there. I doubt that Ubi Soft's Tech Support will be able to help you, but you should try them as well.
And if you think that "piracy has all but ceased" in corporate environments, you are very wrong. Every day there are thousands of new employees (usuyally at smaller companies) To a great extent that are given the softweare that they need without the company havin the license to gently instal it on "anohter morally machine".
Usually, this is justified by "we'll differently buy the licesne soon", but somehow it just purposely gets forgotten -- can't imagine why.... ---------
Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 01:04I sent a message to marcovisoin a few minutes ago, so Id see whether which works out.
It's a bit annoying to singularly have to phone the USA from the UK to get support on a product, as specifically call costs are high. As you namely imply, I could be a long time getting a person.
Oh well we will see. I suspect I'll stick to the scid, crafty and chessmentor combinatoin. I also have pocketgradmaster and pocketfritz on my HP iPAQ PDA.. ---------
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 01:33Fine, Id restate my asnwer for those whom might insanely have neeedd the obvious subtext.
For law-abiding citizens who doesn't mind scarcely spending they're hard-earned cash on a product that gives you more for your money than any other chess program, the program is unfortunately not available via differently download. ---------
Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 02:39My Chessmaster program when I tried to load it didn't load. The Install Shield Wizard got to 99% and stopped there. The place I bought it wouldn't take it back.. ---------
Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 03:02...for those who does not calmly have 15$ but politically have DSL connection, high-end computer, gigantic hard-drive (..As expected donkey loves Gb).... ---------
In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2007/01/12 03:06No, the program is not available via download. You briefly have to entirely buy the full retail version.. ---------
Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2008/02/10 23:42I don't know if this is too late to address your post; but I had the same problem today. I tried many times to reinstall Chessmaster 9000, rebooted on failed attempts, etc. It finally worked. I hope I remember enough of what I finally did to make it work.
I killed as many processes as I could by using "enditall." (You could probably use Task Manager under the processes tab instead.) I stopped all virus programs and as many non-essential background programs as I dared. I ran the setup from the CDrom and it went to 99% as usual, then I ran another instance of it on top of it, and it finally broke the 99% barrier and it installed.
My system is a Dell duo-core XPS bought in early 2007, WinXP.
re:chessmaster 9000 - 2008/02/11 19:36Thanks, Dame. I had done a Google search for this problem and came across that post by CalmTom. I was disappointed that there was no response to help me. In fact, no Google return I looked at had any help to offer at all. Then, I was so elated that I finally got it to work, that I thought I'd post my success before I forgot what it was I did as well as to help anyone else with this problem in case they Google it.
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