MS Reader Activation Probs?

[Wiggin]

I'm in the middle of a TWO week dialogue :agrue: with MS Tech support about a problem I've encountered while trying to activate MS Reader on my iPaq. Appearantly, each passport ID only gets four activations. The fifth try results in a failure message, and the option to request more than four leads nowhere (server comm problems...yeah right! :x ). Since I have Reader on my PC (1 active) and I've gone through 3 ROM updates on 2 different iPaq units (2-4 active), my new ROM update for the 38xx has rendered Reader useless on that unit. While I go back and forth via email with MS Tech, I am curious if anyone has encountered this issue and has figured out a way around it???

No need to suggest the obvious (i.e. try a different passport ID), it has no effect. :?

Gotta love MS... trying their darndest to make simple apps like Reader as difficult to use as possible :silly:

[welwyngc]

Yes - this is an often discussed issue. There are many threads throughout the PPC discussion groups.

I am an avid ebook reader and have been trying to resolve this issue - find a permanent solution - for ages.

For a number of reasons I change my desktop and laptop once a year and my PPC every six months - it is a nightmare.

And, as I am sure that you have experienced, once you buy an MSReader ebook from, say Amazon, you are stuck with the activation which you initially dowloaded it with.

I have had to rely on palmreader more than i would have otherwise.

[ironguy]

MS Reader allows 4 activations on 4 machines. You can activate it as many times as you need to on any single machine.

Here's the catch. MS puts a cookie on your PC when you activate. If you try to reactivate, the cookie shows you are already activated and basiclly does nothing. If this happens, delete your cookies, or try to find out which ones they are and delete them.

Reactivate your MS Reader. Now, and I don't understand why this works, you need to soft reset your PPC.

I purchase an MS book from Fictionwise. It required me to activate Reader on my PC as well as my PPC. I had already activated it on my PPC and it wouldn't reactivate. I deleted the cookies and it worked, but I couldn't open the book. I ended up soft resetting for some other reason and my book was then able to be opened!

Fictionwise tech support couldn't tell me this was so.

It worked and that's what counts

[Jorgen]

A preventive method was shown the 14/6 on CE blogspot:

http://cebooks.blogspot.com/archives/2002_06_01_cebooks_archive.html

Jorgen

[Mona Harmon]

I had the same problem with my 5th activation. (exchanged unit for the 3970 iPAQ) I had just purchased about $70-$80 worth of books on sale $50% off at one of the sites and couldn't read any of them for a couple of days. Very frustrating. Actually, MS didn't notify me that it was OK to reactivate, I just kept getting on the site and it finally worked.

I have since purchased the Palm OS Reader for PPC. (It was free unless you wanted it with the dictionary and some extra features.) I like it, and have purchased a few books for it when they have been on sale. But, I am finishing all of my MS Reader books before I start reading the new books, just in case. The Palm Reader for PPC is tied to my name and credit card. Love it. Makes life much simpler. To open the book, you just enter your name and credit card that you purchased under. :)

I am now not worried if my PPC breaks and I have to ask for yet a 6th activation. Still have a few MS Reader books to read, but not near as many as when I was begging for my 5th activation, and I have Palm Reader PPC books to read while they are deciding if I am worthy. I sure don't plan on purchasing any more in MS Reader format. Although I love MS Reader, it is too frustrating with the possibility of not being able to read them!