Prism (or InStat or StatMate) won't accept my serial number, or name, or institution name.

There are a few reasons Prism, InStat, or StatMate may not like the way you are entering your serial number. Here are a few of the most common reasons:

• Make sure you are logged on with admin rights to install software on your computer. If you are using Prism for Mac, and you know that you do have admin rights, try repairing your disk permissions as described here.

• Make sure that you are entering the correct serial number for the software, version, and platform. Entering an improper serial number is a common problem when upgrading software or moving it to a different computer.

• Make sure that you haven't entered the letter "O" instead of the digit zero or a lower-case "L" instead of the digit "1"

• Don't enter any spaces. (If you copy and paste the serial number, be sure you aren't pasting a space as well -- especially important with InStat Mac 3.0.)

• Include the hyphens. If you pasted the serial number into the program, try deleting and then reentering the hyphens. Some email programs substitute long hyphens for ordinary ones, and these long hyphens may not be recognized.

• For InStat Mac, you must enter the first three letters of the serial number in UPPER CASE. (The other programs accept either upper or lower case.)

• Enter user and institution names that are more than five characters long. You can't leave these fields blank or use very short names.

• Prism 3 and 4 for Windows write the serial number into the \Windows (if Win 95, 98 or ME) or \Winnt (NT or 2000) folder the first time they run. Therefore you must have permission to write into this folder in order for Prism to run the first time. With Win 2000, you may have to log in as an administrator to have this right.

• If none of the above help, the installation may be defective. Try reinstalling from your disks or CD. If you are using an installer you downloaded online, download the file again. Our system allows a few repeat downloads to cover this sort of problem.