Cannot Activate Cubase Artist 9 from Cubase Elements 8

I am trying to activate Cubase Artist 9. I am upgrading from Elements 8 to Artist 9 and am having trouble. I also have Halion Sonic 2. I am using a Sony laptop i7, 8 GB RAM, Windows 7, 64 bit operating system.

So far I have taken these steps:

  • purchased upgrade version of Artist 9
  • obtained Activation Code via email
  • downloaded Artist 9 - five hours
  • extracted Artist 9 files
  • updated Artist 9 program with latest updates from the Steinberg.net site
  • run, apparently successfully, the Artist 9 setup and install program - one hour
  • opened elicenser and performed elicenser maintenance
  • noted that Halion Sonic and Cubase Elements 8 were active in the elicenser window
  • went into mysteinberg to make sure my Cubase Elements 8 was up to date - it was
  • entered my activation code as requested in the activation code window
  • at this point all programs in the activation code window are grayed out.

So, I cannot upgrade and install by Cubase Artist 9.

What do I do now???

Do you have a USB elicenser (dongle)?
Elements is the only Cubase version that will work with a soft elicenser.