Trouble with BioRad Quantity One - (Dec/04/2006 )

Hello everyone,

in our lab, we use Quantity One (Q1) for Western Blot quantification. We have a single Workspace license, using Aladdin HASP hardware dongle for copy protection (in the parallel port). The PC running it is a Windows 2000 Pro (SP4) system.

Everything was OK until the Printer that was interfaced to the PC through the HASP had to be replaced. The new printer uses an USB interface, leaving only the HASP at the PCs parallel port.
Since then, only admin users can use Q1. If you log in with a non-admin account (which should most of our lab worker accounts be for security reasons) and try to start Q1, it just flashes the Q1 start screen and then returns to windows without starting Q1. It doesn't even tell what's wrong...

I already deinstalled the Aladdin dongle a couple of times and installed it again, using different drivers and different accounts. That shouldn't be the problem, since the HASP is recognised and working using all accounts (at least that is what the diagnosis tool tells me).
I also re-installed Q1 a couple of times. I can't deinstall it beforehand, because I can't find a deinstaller. There is none in the BioRad folders and the Windows Software Menu does not even contain Q1. The CDs install menu doesn't give me the choice of deinstalling a currently installed version.

To keep things working, I gave the common lab account admin rights, which clearly should not be the final solution.

I would be very glad if anyone of you has some suggestions about how I could solve that problem, or maybe if someone who experienced something similar could tell me how he managed to get by.

Cheers,
Henning

Ack! I thought this was going to be a question about the awkward bloody program itself!

Our dongle's a USB thing, never had any troubles with it - I guess you paid for the application, why not just give BioRad hell about this and see if you can get a freebie USB dongle from them? Might be worth a try, you never know.