All,
First, a big thank you to each and every one of you who either responded onlist, offlist, or even phone called me directly to provide advice and assistance. You are too numerous to mention personally, but you know who you are and "thank you" is simply not enough - these lists are survival tools and better than any therapist. Second, what I did make clear from the first post is that numerous issues started with Acrobat and Distiller AFTER I read and applied a download from the Adobe KB. The information in the KB is WRONG - that is from an absolute authority at Adobe - and the only way that I or anyone else would know that it was wrong - after it hosed my system like it did. Third, I managed without any help from Adobe to get my system restored completely functioning, including TCS2, with two notable exceptions - FM9 and RH8. When I started up these systems, I was getting that infamous "AMT licensing subsystem failed, yada, yada, yada . . ." I did try to run the licensing patch download that Art Campbell so generously provided the link for onlist, but to no avail. I couldn't get my system to budge and I was not going down the rabbit hole again of system restore, uninstall, reinstall. That was when all the "fun" became, well, even more fun. Adobe TS took me down such a rabbit hole that I don't even think Alice in Wonderland could have made it out alive. I argued with them until I was blue in the face and exhausted about their approach, but. .. . And, after I posted my extreme frustration to the list about this issue, here is the response that I received from Adobe support (this was posted to the lists, I think, but in case you missed it) It's unfortunate that you are facing this issue and we are really sorry for the inconvenience caused. I am attaching a utility. If it had been used when you were facing just issues with FM and RH licensing, it would have definitely helped. With the given state of your system, I am not sure to what extent it can help but I would request you to give it a try. And, imagine that - if it had been used when I was facing just issues with FM and RH licensing (which I managed to get my system back to without any assistance whatsoever from Adobe), all would have been OK. Why oh why is this not common knowledge at Adobe? Shouldn't there have been a KB about this?????? Anyway, my system was so badly hosed at this point, (as Adobe readily acknowledged above) that ultimately, my only option was to backup the cows and the kitchen sink, wipe everything clean, reformat and rebuild, which I have been doing all day. And FWIW, several people (including a close colleague today) have written to me offlist stating that over the last few months, either they or someone they knew was in the same chamber of hell when suddenly their previously fine version of Acrobat 9 stopped knowing it was registered. And they were "off to the races" which is how this all began for me and which, by following the KBs online at Adobe, only made the situation worse. Sigh. I am going back to carrier pigeon and IBM select-a-type. TGIF (and oh yea, it >>IS<< Friday the 13th!) Tammy Van Boening Owner/Principal Spectrum Writing, LLC www.spectrumwritingllc.com info at spectrumwritingllc.com
