i can't figure out how to authorize my pro tools plugins on my mac
without a floppy . can anyone help me out please. thanx

First, I am assuming you have a floppy drive of some kind. An external USB one, probably. If you don't, you're kind of screwed. Find a friend who has one. Buy one, use it to authorize your plugins, then return it.

So the problem you are having is that the plugin won't even recognize the fact that you have a floppy drive attached to this computer. I ran into this problem recently. I'm really pissed that manufacturers haven't fixed this floppy thing (Macs have been without floppies for how long now? 4 years?), but I got around it.

There should be a program on the floppy that lets you authorize/deauthorize your hard drive for the plugin. If you run that, without even trying to run the plugin, it will authorize your hard drive.

I hope that helps.

Try contacting the manufacturer. Some such as TCWorks offer a challenge /reponse alternative so you don't need a USB floppy drive.

If you do borrow/buy a USB floppy drive make sure you download a driver to enable authorizations to work properly

Download a driver from:
http://www.paceap.com/dldrvr.html

and read:
http://www.paceap.com/usbdrive.html
for a list of compatible drives.

God Almighty? What's a floppy? Do HD systems need floppy drives too OK They don't cost much in comparison, but compared to an Mbox...

Do others than Dodgy make you buy a floppy drive with their few lines of authorisation code?

(Can Zip drives be made to appear as floppy drives? Don't answer - most probably a stupid idea)

Crude it maybe but unfortunately some plug ins do need floppy authorization even ones from DIGI for PTHD. They suggest a VST Floppy drive and go as far as t osay only that one will work, but I have been using and Imation Superdrive for years now even on the NEw 1.25 Macs and it works fine. When you install PTools Digi installes the appropriate PACE antin piracy extension but you have to make sure you have the appropriate drives for you Floppy.

Maybe someone should go into business renting out Floppy drives for DIGI users. A bit dated Ain't it but as far as I know unless you have cracked software there is not way around it and you alos have to be aware that if you are moving from one system to another that you deauthorize the old system or you could find yourself having to repurchase the software all over again. Most Floppies nowadays have only one install per disk as opposed to 3 before and they only send out one backup disk and once that is used you are out of luck

Stuart

Well, it's nice to know that dodgydesign 'care' for their customers welfare, no? One floppy authorisation...



It's also interesting to note that they're so slow at developing their software, that they're still using the floppy authorisation thing.



It's a bit like having to step onboard an old steamtrain just to be told that the tickets are 20 times more than booking yourself on to a Lear Jet for the same journey! Not that they tell their customers about that "Lear Jet"...



Livin' in the past.