AutoCAD 2017 splash screen halts on "Checking License"

[SBurfield]

All new deployments install fine, and each fresh install seem to successfully complete the license activation contact with Autodesk’s server (we get the activation email each time), but they hang on startup after that at “Checking License” almost every time, usually for 3+ minutes. Our deployment has worked for almost a hundred installations when we rolled out 2017 throughout December. This issue has been happening with any new installation since the end of January.

We use Windows 7 x64. This issue occurs with an AutoCAD 2017 standalone deployment and install direct from disc, and an AutoCAD installed with BDSP 2017 deployment. Both licenses used to be on maintenance prior to the beginning of December. This issue also happens on new activations and transfers using the LTU.

We’ve tried, with no success:

• Remade the deployment fresh from the install disc.
• Different PCs (existing PCs that didn’t have this issue previously as well as completely new builds).
• Installing on fresh Windows 7 builds with and without Windows updates.
• With our firewall and AV disabled.
• These suggestions: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Softwa...
• And the procedures below from Autodesk email support:

A) A workaround for this issue is to create an outbound rule on the local firewall that blocks connections to 169.254.169.254. The following are instructions for adding this rule to Windows Firewall. For 3rd party firewalls consult your firewall documentation to add an outbound rule that blocks connections to 169.254.169.254.
1. Open Windows Control Panel and go to System and Security and then Windows Firewall.
2. Click Advanced settings on the left panel to open “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security”.
3. Single click the “Outbound Rules” tree item on the left panel, then choose “New Rule…” on right panel to create a new firewall.
4. Select Custom and click next.
5. Next select the All Programs and click Next button.
6. Skip this page by clicking the Next button again.
7. Select These IP addresses button, which you will find under Remote IP addresses. Click on Add and enter the IP address 169.254.169.254 in the designated space.
8. Click OK and then click Next.
9. Select Block the connection tab and click on Next to proceed.
10. Click Next again to include Domain, Private and Public.
11. The Windows will ask you to write a description for the firewall rule. After entering at least a name, click on Next button.
12. Click on Finish to create and implement this rule that will block the desired IP address
Note:
The rule to block may not stick with AVG firewall. To resolve you will need to disable AVG firewall and have Windows manage the rule.
Kaspersky caused this problem. Turn off the antivirus solved the issue.
ESET Antivirus would also cause this issue. Adding the rule would not solve it. You will have to uninstall ESET, reboot, and the product would launch again.

B) You can unplug the network cable when launching the Autodesk software once launched you can plug the cable back in.

C) Close AutoCAD 2017, then rename C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\AcWebBrowser\AcWebBrowser.exe to OLDAcWebBrowser.exe.OLD Then relaunch AutoCAD 2017.

---------------------------------

In one computer, please Uninstall, re-install of the VCREDIST (Microsoft Visual C++) packages. Usually, it works best to uninstall them in this order (newest to oldest)

2015 x86

2015 x64

2012 x86

2012 x64

2010 x86

2010 x64

2008x64

2008x86

2005x64

2005x86

Then reinstall in the opposite order: (oldest to newest)

2005 x86

2005 x64 etc.

You can locate the packages in the 3rdParty\x86 and 3rdParty/x64 VCREDIST folders in the install media or deployment or if installing from a download under c:\autodesk folder.

Reboot computer, Turn Antivirus Off, Clear the contents of the %temp% folder and then attempt to re-install the software from the control panel. Please choose Re-install not Repair.

Reboot computer and the re-launch AutoCAD 2017.

---------------------------------

On that test machine let's try to activate the computer offline as follows:

1) Reset the licensing of the AutoCAD software as follows:

A) Please close the Autodesk software then please Rename or Delete the following file:

Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10
C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet\adskflex_*_tsf.data and the two other Adsk files listed total of 3 files to be deleted.

(Please note the above file is a hidden file and you will need to enable show hidden files under folder options).

B) Locate and Rename the following folder:

Windows: C:\User\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ADUT\
Change it to:
C:\User\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ADUT2\

C) if present, please Delete the contents of the folder C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\CLM\LGS\

2) Unplug computer from Ethernet Cable and disable Wireless adapter. (as to remove internet connectivity).

3) launch AutoCAD

4) When asked to Activate click the Activate icon. You may be prompted that you are offline and do you want to continue with offline activation. If so, click Yes.

5) When prompted to select the option that state you have an AutoDesk Activation Key/Code

6) The user will be presented with a form that will include the Product Name, Serial Number, Product Key and Request Code.

7) Copy the Request Key/Code and send to AutoDesk requesting and Activation Key/Code. DO NOT CLOSE THE PAGE UNTIL YOU RECEIVE AND INPUT THE ACTIVATION KEY/CODE – if you do you will have to generate a new Request Key/Code. Also besides the activation code please include a screenshot of that window.

😎 When you receive the Activation Key/Code from AutoDesk click “Close” on the request page and you will be presented with a form to input the Activation Key/Code. You can paste the entire code into the first segment of the key rather than typing in each segment. Click Next.

9) The user should receive a Congratulations – you have successfully activated the license. Click “Finish”

10) AutoCAD should now be open and working properly.

11) Close it and re-open it.

12) Close AutoCAD

13) Reconnect to Network/Internet (plug cable back in and/or enable wireless adapter)

14) Re-launch AutoCAD

Send me the request code, and I will reply with activation code. Then let me know if these steps helps to resolve your issue.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@SBurfield

Sorry to hear.. 

I will tag @Darin.Green and @TravisNave and see if they have any other ideas...   Sorry besides @Frank_Lemus information..  I've run out of ideas   One more thing..  Do you keep trying this under the same logged in Windows User?  Meaning have you logged into this machine as someone else (and tried)?

[Frank_Lemus]

@SBurfield

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What do you get when you use the tracert command on the 169.254.169.254 as described in my post?

Frank Lemus

Technical Support Specialist

Graitec USA

[TravisNave]

---

@Frank_Lemus wrote:

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What do you get when you use the tracert command on the 169.254.169.254 as described in my post?

Frank Lemus

Technical Support Specialist

Graitec USA

---

169.254.169.254  is not a valid IP address.  It is a default address you get when DHCP fails.  FYI.

[SBurfield]

@Mark.Lancaster

While still the same user account name, this computer has been wiped and reinstalled (from an image and a fresh disc install without updates/etc.) several times while testing this, so the user account has been freshly created multiple times.

@Frank_Lemus

[Frank_Lemus]

@TravisNave

Thank you for letting me know, Travis. I hear you saying that the IP address I provided was a default IP during connection issues, but does that mean that we shouldn't be using it with the netsh command I listed out above? I was able to resolve this type of problem once before using the steps I provided above. The client machine was trying to connect to 169.254.169.254 and timing out.

@SBurfield

We can see more information about what is happening during your Checking License phase by using ProcMon from Sysinternals. This tool will show you more details about what processes are occurring when you use your computer. There is a bit of a steep learning curve, more than what I can explain on this post, but I would recommend downloading it and enabling only the Network Activity filter. After you have it running, start up your Autodesk program and see where it's trying to connect to during that phase of the startup. Can you report your findings back to us? Screenshots would be nice, too. I feel like the issue is with an attempt at trying to access something through the Internet, but if we find nothing of significance here, we could then start using the other filters to hone our focus closer to the problem.

You can download this Microsoft tool at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processmonitor

Frank Lemus

Technical Support Specialist

Graitec USA

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Frank_Lemus

Frank I was thinking the same thing at first..  But perpetual license should not continue to check for license once its activated.  The activation is stored on the machine..  Meaning it shouldn't hang when there's no connection to the outside world and that's why I'm confused..   If this was term based/single user license than I would totally agree with you...

[Frank_Lemus]

@Mark.Lancaster

I think you're right, Mark, but what I've seen in the past with one of my clients is that a perpetual standalone licensed copy was having this problem. It shouldn't be doing it, but it did--and I still don't know why, actually. It's sporadic, and not too common of an issue. Normally, there isn't a hangup on standalone software because of the software trying to access licensing information over the Internet, but for some reason it's happening on some.

Frank Lemus

Technical Support Specialist

Graitec USA

[SBurfield]

@Frank_Lemus

Here's a screenshot of the relevant network activity. Like 99% of the rest of it was local network discovery traffic.

For this test I started AutoCAD at 2:28:02, the 2nd "Checking License" message shows up in the splash screen at around 2:28:11 and it stays on it until 2:30:15.

[natasha.l]

Hello @SBurfield,

I understand that you have contacted someone from support regarding this issue. You have been through most of the troubleshooting steps to help resolve the issue. In addition to, conducting a manual activation & disconnecting the internet connection, to force the software to pull licensing information on the computer.

I hope you can resolve this issue by conducting the additional steps suggested. If you do, please report back with your findings. Thank you. 

[SBurfield · Accepted solution]

So we had ruled out anything about our network by hooking up the test PC to a wifi hotspot with no firewall protection, and after a wipe and fresh install it still froze at checking license.

We then tried moving the hard drive in to another older computer that had completely different hardware (the computers we tried it on up until then were mostly similar in parts), it worked perfectly with no freezing. Switching the hard drive back to the test pc saw the problem return.

We then narrowed it down to the motherboard as the cause. We took one of our new motherboards and laid it beside the test pc, we switched over all parts on to the new motherboard and started it up, AutoCAD loaded perfectly.

We then installed one of the new motherboards into the one CAD tech's pc that was having the issue, it is now fixed also.

The old motherboard model we were using was the Gigabyte 970A-UD3P v2.0, the new models we recently got (because the old ones weren’t made any more) are Gigabyte 970A-D3P v2.1.

(Also, we had no other issues with these computers, no other abnormality that would indicate hardware/motherboard issues, the freeze at "Checking License" was the only issue we had with them.)