I just went to my trusty Win7 computer, that I use regularly with my AC2020 camera, and tried to start Maxim DL 6.4 (I think -- might be 6.3), and it said "license expired". I know, this is a very old version, but I bought a license for DL 7, which forced me to Win10 etc., but that is incompatible with other software I run, so I'm still using 6.4. Anyway, I don't want updates, I want the software that came with my camera to keep letting me acquire images as it always has. My understanding was this software would continue to run, but I would receive no updates. That's okay. But why does it no longer run? I wondered if somehow I had disturbed the installation, so I went to a nearly identical computer, also running Win7, that I hadn't used for a couple of years. It had a similar aged installation of MaxIm DL on it (same license key on it), and it gives the same result: the license key that formerly had worked, no longer allows the software to start up. How can get this software to work? All I need is to be able to acquire images with my AC2020 camera, and autoguide, on my Win7 computer.
Problem solved! Very strange: somehow that first computer had its time changed to 2015 (which predates any of my licenses). No idea how. But once that is fixed, MaxIm started as it always has, connected to the AC2020, and took an image. Rebooted and repeated... Now to investigate why the second computer gave the same problem...
If the computer is a few years old, it may have a dead CR2032 coin cell battery that maintains the BIOS CMOS settings and time when powered off.
Thanks Colin, good suggestion. I was averse to that idea at first, as the second identical computer (came from Logic Supply in the same box) had the same problem, but then remembered I'd had it apart very recently (investigating another problem), and had unplugged its coin cell for a bit. Otherwise it seemed like remarkable manufacturing consistency for the two coin cells to give out at nearly the same time, after many (10+) years!
