Occasionally a system will get into a state where its license is corrupted. To the user, this is not differentiated from an invalid or missing license and appears as "License not Activated". For example, one way corruption can occur if there is a change in hardware that is used as a license key, such as the hard drive. The way to see if the system is in a corrupted state is to attempt to apply a license, even the Trial License available on the License Update page. If this fails to work, then the license is corrupted and must be completed removed before a good license can be applied. This article describes the procedure to completely remove a license.

This procedure might also be used for converting an IP100 series controller from one use to another, such as from being a Lifeline controller to a Primary controller. And, of course, it can be used to remove temporary licenses applied in the factory, or licenses from controllers used in training exercises that include applying licenses.

Note: The reason one cannot just apply a new license to fix a corruption problem is because our GCK licensing is Additive. That is, users can enter additional codes to turn on more endpoints, extend the license period or activate features like SAFE. Adding a good license on top of garbage yields garbage.

The steps in the License Removal Procedure are as follows:

1. Go to the License Update screen
   (click on "Update License" label in lower-right corner of SMC)
2. Click in the edit box for one of the Activation Codes
3. Press the key combination Ctrl-Alt-d. This brings up a Verification pop-up that prompts for a Password w/ OK and Cancel buttons
4. The password to enter is the numeric password-of-the-day
   (Somebody in IED Technical Support can provide today's password to you.)
5. Press the [OK] button

Done. Now, you can go ahead and activate a new license via any of the usual means.

Note: If you wish to test out this procedure on a system with a valid license, you can first use the [Get Identification File] button to get a copy of the current license. After the License Remove Procedure, this file can be used with the [Send Activation File] button to restore the previous license.