Problem

When attempting to activate your Serial Number, you may get the following message:  

This article walks through the steps needed to resolve the activation error 
"Empty response received from the Activation Server.(0/0)"

As shown in the example above, this error will prevent a SOLIDWORKS license from fully activating. The error itself is caused by an unsuccessful communication attempt between the local machine and the SOLIDWORKS activation servers and has been associated with corrupt or incomplete local activation information. 

If the automatic and manual methods of activation have already been attempted, as outlined in our Product Activation Guide, then it is recommended that the steps in the next section be attempted.

Solution: Renaming the FLEXnet Folder 

1. Navigate to C:\ProgramData. The "ProgramData" directory is hidden by default, so if it is not shown in the root C: drive, you can access it by typing C:\ProgramData directly into the Windows File Explorer address bar.

2. Once the C:\ProgramData directory has been opened, find the folder named "FLEXnet", as shown below
    

3. Right-click on the "FLEXnet" folder and select "Rename".

4. Append -OLD to the name of the folder so that the entire name appears as "FLEXnet-OLD". An example of this is shown in the following illustration.

   
    

5. After fully renaming the "FLEXnet" folder, launch SOLIDWORKS and attempt the product activation process again.

For further technical support, please contact Hawk Ridge Systems at 877.266.4469 for the U.S. or 866.587.6803 for Canada and support@hawkridgesys.com.