Illustrate! v.5.5 (MAX) by David Gould Installation problem - gfx elite forums

Marta · #1 (**permalink**) January 4, 2009, 23:21

The new Illustrate! for 3dsMax 2009 (v.5.5) is an update from 5.4. According to the website if you have had Illustrate! installed into a previous copy of MAX it locks itself into a particular hardware configuration.

It obviously buries itself deep into the registry because even if MAX is deleted and re-installed, Illustrate! still refuses to load or authorise.

So my question is, short of formatting the drive, does anyone know how to remove all registry etc keys for this program so when you run the installer it doesn't know there's been a previous installation?

Tough one this!

Marta

DrNoXx · #2 (**permalink**) January 5, 2009, 12:04

hm if it really is in the registry open start -> run -> regedit and search for any key that includes information of Illustrate! and all folders with the company name if there is no other products you have installed from them - if yes you will have to select the right folders and keys that correspond to the proggy. THIS if it really is hidden in the registry... but there sometimes is other stores those programs - I never used Illustrate! so I can't tell u where it hangs

mayana · #3 (**permalink**) January 5, 2009, 17:40

i doubt it is in the registry, seems to be in the MBR masterbootrecord of the HD, which means: format HD and reinstall..

Marta · #4 (**permalink**) January 5, 2009, 20:56

Thank you Mayana and Dr NoXX.

1. I have of course gone thru the registry both manually and with UR Uninstaller 2008. When you do Add-Remove in control panel it leaves 106 entries in the registry that UR Uninstaller picks up. Using an installation monitor makes no difference, still the same. I also trawled thru the registry manually and removed every single instance of Illustrate!, Digimation, David and Gould along with all the 3DS Max, Backburner etc etc. Still no joy even with a brand new 3DS Max installation!

2. I have MBR protection with rootkit etc on. So if it tried to write to the MBR I think either my firewall, antispyware or antivirus would have picked it up. I'm loathe to reformat although that may well be the only way!

I'm just hoping against hope someone else has come across this problem and has a solution.

Bests

Marta

DrNoXx · #5 (**permalink**) January 5, 2009, 21:30

well wait - I had once a problem with such a prgram... go to microsoft and download the sysinternals package... one of the tools is called regmon and the other is called filemon... either one of those start, then run the program - now filemon/regmon will record the call procedures the program makes when it starts... hard job to find your way throgh but I did it already... if it calls a file u need filemon to find which one it calls up

try that one first | next: if it is a thing in the mbr you can use TestDisk to recover an old or write a new MBR but watch it what you are doing...

Marta · #6 (**permalink**) January 6, 2009, 00:10

Dr NoXx

Very many thanks - there are too many entries :( to monitor!

However I didn't know about the sysinternals package so that was useful!!

I wonder if anyone has a regfix/uninstaller for it....?

Sigh...

Marta

PS How come my thanks are in the millions and yours just a few?

DrNoXx · #7 (**permalink**) January 6, 2009, 01:56

I should reset them all - it happened when I splitted the boards to this one as this one is the clone - so never mind it and just laugh *grin*

well I hoped I couldhave helped you... you can filter all the other programs so you only have the call of the one oyu started then the filemon is not sooo confusing... and really you can find the file it calls before it stops :)