Sentinel Hardlock Key Driver

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Kristin Banyas

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Aug 5, 2024, 3:57:49 AM8/5/24

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Makemodel, BIOS/Firmware version, OS version, available Primarily HD disk space, is this a WIN7 to WIN10 upgrade, is this a new fresh image. Did this issue just start on a prior working good computer, if imaged, how did you image, are the latest updates on?, Did you try safe mode, is it better and faster just to reimage rather then spend your time troubleshooting a one-off issue

The genuine hardlock.sys file is a software component of Aladdin HASP by Aladdin Knowledge Systems.

Aladdin HASP (Hardware Against Software Piracy) a digital rights management (DRM) suite of protection and licensing software. Hardlock.sys is a filter driver that is necessary for the proper functioning of HASP. The component adds support for specialized external devices. Removing this file may cause problems with Aladdin hardware.

Hardlock.sys is a Windows driver. A driver is a small software program that allows your computer to communicate with hardware or connected devices. This means that a driver has direct access to the internals of the operating system, hardware etc. The free file information forum can help you determine if hardlock.sys is a Windows system file or if it belongs to an application that you can trust.

The Sentinel Super Pro Driver window is activated by selecting the menu item 'Settings' > 'Hardlock (dongle)'. This window is used to set up the driver for the Sentinel hardlock. This hardlock can be a standalone dongle attached to a local desktop PC on which the PCC software is installed or it can be a netwerk dongle attached to a remote network server.

The loss of the license can occur when the license is expired or when you have network trouble. The PCC program regularly checks if the license is still available. If not, the PCC program will reduce the functionability and disable the calculations.

arivis Vision4D, like many other software packages, uses a licensing system built on a solution provided by a third party and based on software and hardware keys. When starting the software and periodically through the use of it, the licensing system will check for the availability of licenses permitting its use. The license key, as it is called, can be rooted to the specifics of the computer using a so-called "soft" key, or located on a removable USB dongle (hard key). The ability of the software to run is limited by its ability to communicate with those keys. To enable this, certain conditions must be put in place, namely, the licensing system driver must be installed, and the communication ports it uses must be open. This holds whether we are talking about a local license or a network license.

The HASP drivers are installed automatically when the software is installed and in most cases, no further action will be required. However, on some occasions, the installation of other licensing systems or OS updates can cause the drivers to stop working. In such situations, reinstalling the software will also reinstall the drivers which should resolve most issues. You can also reinstall the drivers only through the License Tool.

If the reinstallation of the whole software is not practical, or you don't have access to the License Tool because you're running an older version, it is also possible to download and install the License Tool independently. The current licensing system and the latest drivers can be downloaded here.

The driver enables the software communication to the license. This communication is done via broadcast through a specific port (port 1947), which must be open all the way from the client to the server. In the case of local licenses, this is rarely an issue as this port will usually be opened during the driver installation, but in the case of network license and very restrictive IT environments, it may be necessary to set up exceptions to enable communications through that port for the licensing system on any firewall that might stand between the software and the license. Typically this is both a windows firewall as well as other software or hardware institutional firewalls. This is especially important if the clients reside on a different subnet from the server. The topic of port exceptions has been widely covered elsewhere and is usually managed by IT management teams. If you need to create or check these exceptions yourself, a good starting point can be found here. If you need to test whether or not port 1947 is open, you can do that using the method found here. Please also keep in mind that activations or updates of your license will require internet access. If none can be provided, then you will need to perform an offline activation.

This is most likely in a scenario with a network license and multiple users. If your license permits up to 5 users, the sixth person who tries to log on will get this message. In this scenario you should wait for one of the other users to relinquish the license by closing the application. In extreme scenarios where a user fails to relinquish the license for whatever reason, their license can be revoked and the session terminated from the Sentinel Admin Control Center on the license server machine. Double check with all users of the software before taking this step as there may be a valid reason for a user to use a license for several days (e.g. running complicated analysis on a very large dataset).

If your license is Out Of Date it is most likely because you installed a newer version than you are licensed for. This can happen because you installed the current version as part of a trial or maybe because you reinstalled the software using the current installer for whatever reason. If so, please log a support ticket using the link above and a member of the support team will contact you to provide download links for the version your license is valid for. A member of our Sales team may also contact you to discuss upgrade options.

Soft licenses are linked to the specific hardware of the computer on which they are activated. In most cases, the hardware configuration is fairly unlikely to change significantly and so it is a good way to make sure that the license is running on the computer it was activated on to limit unlicensed copying of the license. This article on activating licenses also covers how to transfer the license to another machine. So if you need to transfer your license to a new computer please follow the instructions there. However, it is also possible to activate a software license on a Virtual Machine. But VMs can be copied and transferred to another computer very easily, which is part of their appeal, but so could licenses attached to that machine, which is not allowed by the terms of the license agreement. Therefore, the licensing system has been designed to detect changes to virtual machines that could indicate the VM has been duplicated. If such changes are detected the license will be disabled and it is not possible to restore the license from that point. Please check this article for choosing license configurations if you intend to use Vision4D on virtual machines. If your license has been disabled that way, please log a support ticket using the link at the top of this page and a member of the support team will contact you to discuss options.

You could start by opening Vision4D on the computer that runs the network license server to see if the license is running correctly. However, most network licenses are configured on systems where only the license server is installed, not the Vision4D application. On this kind of machine you should start by opening a web browser and going to HTTP://localhost:1947 to access the Sentinel Admin Control Center.

Keys with vendor ID 66215 are licenses for arivis products. If you do not see a license with that vendor ID then no arivis license is running on this machine. The checks mentioned above regarding hard and soft keys are also relevant here.

If you see a license for that vendor ID, you can check what type of key this is. Network licenses running on USB dongles will show up with a red USB key icon to match the physical key on which the license is configured. If you see a USB dongle icon, but it is not red then it may be that you do not have the right type of key for network licenses and you should open a support ticket using the link at the top of this page. Soft licenses will be indicated by a Certificate icon in the Configuration column.

Assuming everything on the Sentinel Keys page is OK, the most likely problem is going to be a network port configuration. Make sure your port is configured to enable communication on port 1947 for TCP/IP as mentioned above.

First, as with the server, make sure that port 1947 is open for TCP/IP on the machine as mentioned above. If you need to find where it is blocked, run a trace route from the client to the server and inform your IT of the address it stops at.

Next, open the Sentinel Admin Control Center by opening your web browser and going to :1947. In the Access to Remote License Managers, you can enter the IP address of the license server to force the system to check that specific address. this is especially useful if using a VPN. Please note, when clicking submit on the IP address field, you may only see a very brief flash indicating it has accepted the entry. To verify, click on a different menu and click back on the Access to Remote License Managers tab to see that the IP Address is still present.

If you are unable. to open the Sentinel Admin Control Center from your browser this usually indicates either that the sentinel drivers are not installed correctly or that the port is blocked. Check with your IT to re-install the driver with administrator privileges if necessary.

The genuine hardlock.sys file is a software component of Aladdin HASP by Aladdin Knowledge Systems.

Aladdin HASP (Hardware Against Software Piracy) was the first product developed by the company's that evolved into a full DRM (digital rights management) suite. HASP currently owns 40% global market share, and is utilised by over 30,000 software publishers. The product currently supports Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX platforms.

Aladdin Knowledge Systems was an Israeli company that developed DRM and Internet security software. The company was founded by Jacob Margalit in 1985 and became highly successful within its first few years of operations, generating over four million dollars by 1993. The company was acquired by Safenet Inc. in 2009. It is currently headquartered in Belcamp, MD, USA.