WYSIWYG

[tom_the_LD]

Hi all,

 

Is there anyone else here running WYSIWYG on Windows 7?

 

I've just spent a lot of money (for a student) on the student version of WYSIWYG, which is only R22, but the dongle isn't working. When I put it in Windows tells me that it cannot find driver software (even when I point it to the driver folder on the disc) and when I start WYSIWYG it just says there's no dongle plugged in.

 

I can't log in to the members only area as it says my "serial code has been retired".

 

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit. I've had a look on the CAST website and can see nothing to suggest that it shouldn't work.

 

Anybody else running WYG on a 64 bit machine?

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

Tom

[madorangepanda]

Where on earth did you buy R22 from?

 

I'm sure the rep on here will be along shortly to help, have your dongle number to hand as with that they can check whether or not your copy is genuine. Not the pirated version of R22 floating around the torrent sites.....

[tom_the_LD]

It was direct from cast - they do a special student version. I didn't realise it was R22 at the time, otherwise I may have reconsidered, but hey ho...

 

I've just double checked their website. It says you need at least Windows XP or Windows Vista and it doesn't specifically say that it won't work on a 64 bit installation. I'll be a tad annoyed if I find out it won't run!

[gareth]

Welcome to the world of Cast Software. Unless you throw huge wads of cash at them on a regular basis, they simply aren't interested.

 

If I were you, and I discovered that I'd spent a large amount of money with a company only to be fobbed off with an obsolete version of the software that you've bought, I'd be furious ...

[Gerry]

Try running it in compatibility mode.

Right click it's icon, select properties then compatability.

Choose Vista, XP or whatever it used to run under.

Cheers

Gerry

[timtheenchanteruk]

which version of W7 do you have?

 

if Gerrys suggestion stil doesnt work, you could use virtual machine to have an XP system on your W7 machine (only if you have pro or ultimate though)

[son of lx dad]

I am also going through this ridiculous process with Cast - turns out my dongle was faulty....

 

Have you run the Dongle Utility, check program which is available to download from the Cast website. This will tell you if your dongle has a security problem.

 

I don't know about student version, but normally it doesn't matter which version of software you get sent with the Dongle, ignore it and download the latest R25 from Cast when you log in ( which I realise yo are having trouble with). The CD you got sent just is the version they were at when the packaging was put together.

 

The 2 peeps who run the help desk are nice enough, but the best way to get there help is to speak to them direct - all the way to Canada. I know this will cost a fortune (maybe try skype) but as Gareth points out, they do tend to over complicate what is a pretty crashy program. If you struggle to find the number let me know and I'll log in and get it for you.

[tom_the_LD]

Thanks for the replies all.

 

Gerry, it's not the program that doesn't run - that runs perfectly. It's the dongle itself that isn't installing.

 

Tim, I'm running Windows 7 Ultaime 64 Bit.

 

Son of lx, I haven't run the dongle check utility - thanks for that. I shall have a look on their website for that utility now. Apparently the student version only runs R22, although this isn't detailed on their website I'd hasten to add, and that's that. You pay the money for the student version and can use it indefinitely (no membership fees or anything) but the downside is that you are stuck on R22.

 

Cheers all

 

 

Tom

 

E2A - Son of lx dad, is it under the members only downloads? If so I can't access it. When I type in my dongle number it tells me that dongle number has been retired.

[smalljoshua]

If it's the dongle driver you're having problems with, it's probably because the driver is unsigned and Windows refuses to recognise it because of that.

 

To fix that, you have to reboot the computer and hit F8 as you would if you were trying to boot into safe mode. Select disable driver signing checking (or similar) and boot the PC. When the PC has booted, download the dongle driver from the cast website and save it in a convenient place on your PC. Plug in the dongle and double click the installing new hardware icon in the task-bar, select to manually install the driver and finish the installation. if you get a driver signing popup click continue anyway.

 

Josh

[TomG]

The issue you are having is not down to Windows it 's self, its down to you running 64 bit windows, CAST / WYSIWYG dongles do not currently support 64Bit versions on windows. The solution I found to get around this was to create a 32 bit Virtual machine, which had access to the host's USB ports.

 

I cant remember where I found that out but I struggled for 6months on Windows 7 64bit before trying a 32bit VM, which now works like a dream.

[tom_the_LD]

Hmm thanks for that Tom. I thought that would be the case. I'm loathed to run it in a virtual or on another partition as it's just not convenient. I wish CAST would say these things on their website, before mis-leading people...

[merlin24]

Wysiwyg does support 64 bit versions of Windows.. However! Windows 7 support was not implemented until R24/25. You may be able to go to the Sentinel website and download the 64 bit drivers for XP/Vista. By default all of the dongle drivers install with the program, however you can force an install from a separately downloaded driver.

 

The reason the dongles are cheap, is because they are older dongles that do not support the newer security systems used with R23 and upwards.

 

Regards

Andy

[HOT PHINGAZ]

Can anyone tell me the recommended specs to run Perform R27 - on a laptop, with full enhancement? Cast dont seem to be able to on their site... :huh:

[grandMA_the_2nd]

Here is a quote from Cast on specs as I am building a second system at the moment for rental. Hope this helps... and the GFX cards he refers to are always Nvidia...

 

"there are a couple of things to mention: first, regarding the CPU, even if you were able to still find some Q6600s anywhere, they would probably not be worth it; these were absolutely brilliant for their time, but that time has now passed.. :( In its stead, I recommend one of Intel's Core i7 CPUs. Please note however that despite how attractive they may be (due to price and, among other factors, the fact that they are newer), I do not recommend any of the "Sandy Bridge" processors, or at least not for the time being. Instead, I recommend choosing either a "Bloomfield" or "Gulftown" processor; the latter is preferred, and given the type of simulations you seem to typically work on, one of the "Extreme Edition" or "X" models would definitely be advantageous. If needed, please consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_microprocessors for more information about these processors.

 

If you do end up getting a Bloomfield or Gulftown CPU, you should definitely go with triple-channel memory. 6GB should be enough, unless you are planning to use this workstation for 64bit software, which can take advantage of more memory than that. (WYSIWYG, being a 32bit application, can only ever address up to 2GB of RAM, regardless of how much physical memory/RAM is in the machine.)

 

The GTX 480 card on your existing machine is a good one; if you wanted an upgrade to that, I would recommend the GTX 570 or 580. Please note that the GTX 590 may not be worth it (financially), because despite the fact that it features two GPUs and natively runs in SLI, its performance will not be double that of a "lesser" card; at best, you will get a 15-20% performance gain. The better thing to do is get a single-GPU card, and then, if absolutely needed, you can always get a second card of the same kind and set up SLI yourself. You shouldn't need to worry about being able to add a second video card, because I believe any motherboard you choose for this system will support two-way SLI (at the least)--just make sure that the motherboard has two PCIe x16 slots, both of which actually run at x16 speed.

 

Finally, the operating system of choice here is Windows 7 64bit Professional, unless you require the extra features that Ultimate offers"