Activation problem of Acrobat in TCS 2.5

Question

Hi there experts,
we have a fairly odd problem:
On a new computer (Win 7, 64 bit) somebody first installed Acrobat 6 (yes - no mistake!) and later FM9. The installed separate FM9 version is a downgrade from FM10. I think it's using the FM10 installation engine and I think that's the reason why Acrobat 6 vanished from her computer, since we never had problems with FM9 and Acrobat 6 or 7 on the same machine before.
She UNistalled the separate FM9 version and installed Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, Photoshop CS5 and FM9 from the TCS 2.5 package. - To make sure the activation of the package would work.
=>
FM9 works fine, Photoshop CS5 works fine, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended doesn't.
Each time she tried to open Acriobat, she was told to open another software from the package to activate Acrobat. Then Acrobat closed down.
Then, because of a chat with Adobe Support, we deleted the cache.db in Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache.
Then she opened Photoshop again and had to enter the special PS serial again (is NOT the same serial as the one for the TCS). Photoshop openend, but, like before, she had no menu item letting her activate the package.
Then she opened Acrobat and she had to enter a serial too, but none of the 3 serials of the package worked: The red "X" to the right of the serial remains and she cannot go on.
No she's working on the 30 days trial version but we need a lasting solution. Adobe phone support refused to help, because the TCS is too old.
Have you got any suggestions?
If not, I will have to uninstall everything "Adobe" and crawl the registry trying to eliminate each and every occurrence of "Adobe" and their products. But actually there are more important tasks (like customer orders) to do for me then spending 1 or 2 days trying to repair Adobe's failure. And changing the registry is always fairly dangerous ...
Thanx in advance for your effort!

Answer 1

The install of the standalone FM9 probably clobbered your old Acrobat 6 due to the “headless” Acrobat tool that comes with standalone FM. Now you’re correct in having to wipe it all & reinstall. I’d use Revouninstaller to handle the clean-up – it’s quite good at dealing with residual Registry issues.