I read the sticky on graphics drivers and I am almost 100% sure it's not that.

Apprentice won't start- gives me the splash screen and then the outline of the program opening (File, Edit, etc.) but just hangs there.

Tried re-installing as Admin, tried starting as Admin, tried starting the License server as Admin and then starting Apprentice, tried pleading to the Rendering Gods. Nothing.

Win 7 64 Bit ATI 4670 driver 8.791 Catalyst 10.11

Even Vue 9 runs on this machine so…… :?:

While that advice is generally true, there's a recent issue with Cat 10.10 and above. Try Catalyst 10.9, that driver works with H11.

Thanks twod

I should have mentioned the reason for being so sure – I have Cat 10.7 to 10.11 and none of them seemed to work. Any other advice would be deeply appreciated !

Well, if you have a firewall or antivirus running, try temporarily disabling that and see if it works. If it does, you'll need to make an exception for houdini (basically all the exe's in the houdini/bin dir).

Thanks twod

Already tried that. What's really discouraging is I've gone back to build 446 which had worked but now is coming up with bad server key – also shows two licenses for H and two for R.

Maybe this is a fabulous program but honestly it can't be worth this hassle. I keep thinking that are remnants from previous install attempts that are keeping it from working; maybe the ornate licensing scheme is being tripped up…I don't know.

I have even tried making giving every single file in the bin and Houdini folder full security permissions…nothing. I'm not a noob but it really has me stumped.

My plan was to get a legitimate copy, trying Apprentice just to see how bad the watermark was, get to know the program, and then buy the HD version. I am so glad I didn't pay the $99. Sigh.

Thanks for helping.

Hi Astrin !!

first said, its woth the effort getting it to run…

Have you looked with the task manager /Process explorer if there is a child process still running, when you assume its frozen ? Canidates for that are some setups that could hang sometimes like hsvg.exe (was the case on my system a gew times) building the icon cache and the font manager reading in your systems fonts…

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&p=89327#89327 [sidefx.com]

Give it a try! Do not desperate, it's worth it.

Hi WhoDjini,

Thanks for the greeting and the words of encouragement. What surprises me is that after uninstalling with Revo/Advanced Uninstaller, cleaning out the registry – both with those programs and by hand, searching the computer for any mention of Houdini or Sidefx, it still finds two licenses from previous attempts! Kinda NSA spooky-like.

When I have time, I'll try those suggestions in your link.

I just got Modo 501 Academic so I'll be busy with that for a while. Houdini looked kind of cool in a weird Shade-like way. No offense.