There is already a thread about dongles I know, but its very long and jumped topic somewhat so I thought I would post my question here.= :-
Has anyone had issues with their USB eLicensor dongle (I have the purple coloured one purchased from Steinberg Shop) @ £18.79p ?
I have now had two crack and fall apart on me! The plastic seems very thin and also the glueing of the casing is not strong. So I am going to have to purchase my third one!
These should really be made more durable because it is very expensive to keep replacing them. In my experience, one dongle last for about 12 x months (which is really not good at all).
i keep the dongle in an usb hub glued on the laptop next to the ilok and it stays there.
on gigs nobody comes in the neighbourhood of the laptop
i am yet in overtime for that one year treatment and hoping it will continue
but like any stick if you use it too much to bump in and out…
I have never used it on a gig but even just in my house it has been knocked a few times. Even so, its life span is far less than any el-cheapo USB stick I have ever known. They should make a metal casing for it or something because its a device you are going to be GREATLY relying upon for at least ten years. Maybe they make it cheap so that it does break, and they KNOW you are going to have to buy a replacement otherwise you can’t use your software !!
I’ve had mine for a number of years with no issues, I’ll grant though that they could definitely be made more robust.
Just a thought however; is it possible that you have any solvents in the vicinity (in the same room)? Do you have one of those ionizers operating nearby? These things could possibly attack and make the plastic quite brittle over time.
what would be excellent imho is that computer manufacturers would make a little usb hub on the inside of the laptop or the computer so that the dongle is not only hidden, but also safely stored. But if your gear gets stolen then you loose everything…
This (above) was posted last year. I am wondering then if I have Dongle v.2 and that v.3 may be more sturdy? My current Dongle was purchased around Feb 2013. Its also plastic and purple in colour.
Well I was actually wondering about that possibility. So you mean buy TWO dongles but keep one safe tucked away? I did not know if you could register all your licensors TWICE (ie on two dongles). Obviously you could only use one dongle at a time but that’s not a problem at all.
Yes, quite. I would rather pay once for a robust model than twice for el-cheapo.
You can buy an extra dongle to keep in reserve, and if/when the one in use breaks, corrupts or gets lost, you can transfer all your licenses over. - But you probably know this.
I’m possibly missing a cynical joke here, but otherwise you’d have to admit that it would be difficult to transfer a license from a lost or broken eLicenser device…
There’s another option, though, for those users who still have the “25 hours All Application” demo license that came with certain products:
Keep a spare USB-eLicenser and transfer that demo license to the spare one. In case the eLicenser in use gets lost, the spare USB-eLicenser will provide a 25 hours usage time period while you sort things out…
