Disabled Network Adapters (error 28)

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1

Hi all,

An issue that’s been occurring more frequently in the past week is the activation of a licence producing this error message.

!! Ragdoll Licence Error: Disabled network adapters                            
                                                                               
There are network adapters on the system that are disabled and                 
TurboActivate couldn't read their hardware properties (even after trying       
and failing to enable the adapters automatically). Enable the network adapters,
re-run the function, and TurboActivate will be able to 'remember' the adapters 
even if the adapters are disabled in the future.                               
                                                                               
Note: The network adapters do not need an active Internet connections.         
      They just need to not be disabled. Whether they are or are not           
      connected to the internet/intranet is not important and does not         
      affect this error code at all.                                           
                                                                               
** If you have trouble resolving this, please contact us at:                   
                                                                               
        licencing@ragdolldynamics.com                                          
                                                                               
** Please include error messages and steps involved in reproducing the error.

Where “TurboActivate” is the licencing software Ragdoll uses to associate a serial number with your computer. In Blender, this will say “error 28”.

It only affects Windows 10 and 11 users, and is not related to your serial number or location or anything of the sort.

In addition to the above suggestion, here’s a few more things you can try.

Option 1: Launch as Admin

Try launching Maya as admin and activate Ragdoll that way, then you can close it and resume normal non-admin Maya usage. As admin, Maya will be able to automatically enable these adapters temporarily so as to create the unique ID of your hardware.

Option 2: Re-install network adapter(s)

Sometimes, the driver is simply broken or out of date. Nobody really updates their network adapters anymore, it’s not 2002. But for Ragdoll to create an ID, it’ll need up-to-date drivers, even for hardware devices you do not use.

Option 3: Dive into official documentation**

Scroll down to TA_E_ENABLE_NETWORK_ADAPTERS if it didn’t take you there already, and try to follow the step

Option 4: Floating Licence

If all else fails, another option is activating on a different machine and letting your machine become a client of it. This option is really only suitable for studios as the pricing model is different. https://ragdolldynamics.com/pricing-commercial#billing=subscription&licence=float

If it still won’t let you activate, please do let us know here or via licencing@ragdolldynamics.com

EDIT: Some more background on this, the authors of the licencing software has recently updated it and apparently broke it for everyone. :sob:

2

One more possible solution to this, if you are on Windows and have your “boot mode” set to Selective Startup as opposed a Normal Startup then you may also receive the above error. Try the Normal Startup to see if that makes any difference.

3

Hi, I’m having this issue when trying to activate. I’ve tried the following:

  • Running Maya as an administrator.
  • Reinstalling the network drivers.
  • Running the ncpa command and enabling/disabling the network connections.
  • Rebooting Windows and checking which reboot option I have. I’m using the normal option, as suggested.
    I’ve been searching for solutions online, but I don’t know what else to try
4

Thanks for posting this here @krons, can you share the exact message you get from the Script Editor?

5 
 Error: ragdoll._prompt_error() - Disabled network adapters. Please see Script Editor.
// Warning: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2023/scripts/others/supportRenderers.mel line 67: The renderer "arnold" used by this scene, is not currently available. The "mayaSoftware" renderer will be used instead. To prevent this message from being displayed in the future, set the environment variable: MAYA_NO_WARNING_FOR_MISSING_DEFAULT_RENDERER=1
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ===============================================================================
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - !! Ragdoll Licence Error: Disabled network adapters                            
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - There are network adapters on the system that are disabled and                 
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - TurboActivate couldn't read their hardware properties (even after trying       
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - and failing to enable the adapters automatically). Enable the network adapters,
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - re-run the function, and TurboActivate will be able to 'remember' the adapters 
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - even if the adapters are disabled in the future.                               
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - Note: The network adapters do not need an active Internet connections.         
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -       They just need to not be disabled. Whether they are or are not           
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -       connected to the internet/intranet is not important and does not         
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -       affect this error code at all.                                           
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ** If you have trouble resolving this, please contact us at:                   
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -         licencing@ragdolldynamics.com                                          
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ** Please include error messages and steps involved in reproducing the error.  
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                                
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ===============================================================================
// Error: ragdoll._prompt_error() - Disabled network adapters. Please see Script Editor.
6

Thanks, here are two more things you can try, in order of difficulty.

  1. Replace a file on disk
  2. Dive deeper into disabled network adapters.

Option 1 - Replace a file on disk

The error stems from our licencing software, and there’s a more recent version (5.0.0) that addresses this issue. You can try downloading this and replacing the equivalent files on your Ragdoll installation.

Unzip this file, and place contained the .dll in your Ragdoll installation directory.

In my case, that would be:

C:\Users\alanjfs\Documents\maya\modules\Ragdoll-2024_05_07\shared\windows

It should overwrite the existing TurboActivate.dll file in there.

Option 2 - Deep Dive

To ensure you re-installed and/or disabled the network driver in question, try running this command from a PowerShell window and confirm you recognise them.

Get-NetAdapter

It should print out something like this.

Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed
----                      --------------------                    ------- ------       ----------             ---------
Ethernet                  Marvell 10G Ethernet connection              23 Not Present  D4-5D-64-53-99-D7          0 bps
Ethernet 2                Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connecti…      22 Not Present  D4-5D-64-53-99-D6          0 bps
Bluetooth Network Connec… Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Networ…      17 Disconnected 4C-1D-96-70-F1-A6         3 Mbps
WiFi                      Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz                15 Up           4C-1D-96-70-F1-A2     144.4 Mbps
vEthernet (WSL)           Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2          50 Up           00-15-5D-56-AE-B8        10 Gbps
vEthernet (WiFi)          Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter             44 Up           00-15-5D-C8-81-49        10 Gbps

You can ignore anything virtual and anything Bluetooth. In my case, there are 3 adapters, Marvell, Intel(R) I211 and Intel(R) Wi-Fi. I would ensure these are all enabled.

Let me know how you get along, and we’ll take it from there.

7

Hi, unfortunately it did not work!.. any other sugestions?

8

Yes, let’s first confirm option 1 worked.

  1. Go to the Ragdoll installation folder
  2. Check the size of the TurboActivate.dll, it should be 1,205 KB

image
image1241×280 19.1 KB

Can you post a screenshot like this too?

Next, go to a PowerShell terminal and type this command.

  1. Press Start, or click the Windows Start button
  2. Type “PowerShell”
  3. Hit Enter

This will open up a new window where you can type a command.

Get-NetAdapter

For example, on the machine I am currently on, it says:

image
image1551×159 7.81 KB

Can you post a screenshot of what you see, and confirm which devices you recognise and don’t recognise?

9

Here are the screen grabs.

Snag_5ba0b30
Snag_5ba0b30793×195 5.42 KB

Snag_5b9a9e6

10

I replaced the dll inside the locomotive folder and seems like I’m not getting that error anymore… but not I’m getting a Running in a virtual machine error.

# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - =============================================================================
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - !! Ragdoll Licence Error: Running in a virtual machine                       
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - Ragdoll believes your machine is a 'virtual machine' which                   
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - is not supported by your serial number.                                      
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - If you believe this is a mistake, please reach out to us                     
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - at licencing@ragdolldynamics.com                                             
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ** If you have trouble resolving this, please contact us at:                 
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -         licencing@ragdolldynamics.com                                        
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - ** Please include error messages and steps involved in reproducing the error.
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() -                                                                              
# Warning: ragdoll._prompt_error() - =============================================================================
// Error: ragdoll._prompt_error() - Running in a virtual machine. Please see Script Editor.

Snag_5ca5d3a

11

Great, this definitely does looks suspicious. Unless you have a single Wi-Fi card capable of connecting to 5 networks at a time, or 5 individual Wi-Fi cards in your system, then this appears to be the problem.

The licencing mechanism uses your hardware to generate a unique ID for the licence registration. If there are devices that cannot provide an ID, it refuses to work.

So, unless those are legitimate devices that you recognise, we need to rid ourselves of them.

  1. Download drivers for the Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i

It’s important to do this first, since the next step will disconnect you from the internet.

And then:

  1. Press the Start button once more
  2. Type “Device Manager”
  3. Open “Network Adapters”
  4. Right-click and “Uninstall device” on the Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i device(s)
  5. Reboot

Once booted back up, Windows should re-install the drivers for them, but it’s possible it does not, which is where your drivers come in handy.

To confirm that it worked, type Get-NetAdapter once more, and it should only list 1 Killer Wi-Fi device.

12

Oh! That’s great! In this case, ignore what I said above!

Next, send me your serial via email, and I’ll make a tweak for virtual machines.