Does Siemens have new license key on Step 7 version 5.3? Older version would let you run the software, but give you the annoying "looking for license" message. With 5.3 I'm getting a "license not found error" and it's aborting the application.
I had an older version that would run with the "so called" nag screen. Now I have 5.2 + SP2. It ran for 2 weeks and now it bombs out right the splash screen.
I think, while you can not download a trial version of the step 7 program, you can download updates... so try the upgrade and see if that works for you...
I am using Step7 V5.3 and whilst I live in Australia most of my
work is in Asia. This year I have commissioned four S7-400 PLC
systems in India. I found that when I set my PC's Time Zone
to India Step7 V5.3 cannot find its license. This is because
India time is not GMT + or - a whole number of hours. Experiment
showed all time zones tested that are not "whole hours" caused
Step7 V5.3 to fail. I avoided the problem by setting the Time
Zone to Dhaka (Bangladesh).
Siemens know about the problem but seem to have no interest in
solving it.
bill4261 I suggest you check your time zone.
Of course the license key must be visible on Drive C: using
Automation License Manager
I think I'm right in saying that you have to remove your old 5.2 key (using Authors.exe) before the 5.3 key will activate correctly.
My recent upgrade worked fine for 14 days then the "free trial" key ran out! apparantly S7 was using whatever licence it found first!
I phoned tech support and they told me to remove the old keys then re-run activation. everythings fine now. Hope this helps