Abingdon NIDB CD install disaster

[DavidR]

I'm wondering if anyone here has been able to install the Abingdon New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible CD successfully. I managed to install it and register it once, but the supposed license key file that it gave me was corrupted. On the advice of their tech support, I've uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times (with antivirus turned off as they demand). But now it won't even take me to the registration page; I just get an error message in my browser saying it can't find a particular file on my hard drive. Tech support just basically says, "Well, keep uninstalling and reinstalling, it might work eventually."

This seems like a very unprofessionally produced piece of software, very poorly supported, and I'm just about in despair of every getting it to work. Has anyone here succeeded with it? Any undocumented tips to offer?

[Soxfan23]

I have this on my computer. I agree that it's poorly supported and unprofessionally produced. I actually contacted several people at Abingdon prior to the release of the CD-ROM begging them to have it integrated with Bibleworks or Logos. They seemed interested and wanted to sit down with me and some classmates, but never followed through with it. Oh well.

For me it will only work if I don't have any other internet browser open. If I have Firefox open and try to use it, it won't work. When I close firefox and then open it, it works fine. If I try to use the internet while I'm using it, it will stop working again. I don't really understand it. The updater thing doesn't seem to work either. This is a very good resource and I like how it's moderately evangelical, but for how expensive it is they should have better software. I bought the hardback sets with it but really want to sell them since the CD-ROM (in theory) is so much more useful. I hope they will remedy this situation in the future by integrating it with Bibleworks or Logos, and allow the users of the purchased CD-ROM access.

[DavidR]

Soxfan (Red or White, by the way?),

Wow, that's pretty dismaying. I use Opera as my browser, so perhaps I should try and see if I can get it to load in IE. It sounds like you almost need to have a dedicated netbook or something just for this software.

I bought the books + CD for a special price at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting last November. I'm at the stage in my life when I'm cutting down on the number of big reference books I own, so I donated the books to my church, figuring I could just use the CD.

Problem #1 was having to choose whether to install it on my laptop or desktop, since you can only have it on one computer. I went with the laptop, since I figure I can always fire it up even if I'm working on the desktop. Problem #2 you know about. I'm beginning to fear I'm just simply out the money, getting nothing but a tax deduction for the donation of the books.

There doesn't seem to be a smilie for annoyed-but-attempting-Christian-forgiveness, so I'll just go with

[Lee]

Soxfan (Red or White, by the way?),
There doesn't seem to be a smilie for annoyed-but-attempting-Christian-forgiveness, so I'll just go with

Classic!

[DavidR]

I'm reopening this thread just to say that, after a year and a half of being so discouraged I had given up on it, I finally tried again to install the Abingdon New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible CD on my Windows 7 computer. It failed, of course, but this time I got a competent tech support person by e-mail, who told me the one key thing that I hadn't been told before:

THE INSTALLER ONLY WORKS IF INTERNET EXPLORER IS THE DEFAULT BROWSER ON THE COMPUTER!

Actually, she only told me that it's designed to work in IE; I figured out for myself that IE actually had to be the default, so that the registration window would open in it and not another browser. Apparently they hired programmers who haven't gone online much since 1995.

Annywayy.... I figured out how to set IE, instead of Opera, as the default browser, and the installation succeeded. After more fooling around, I even got it to work (don't ask me how or why) when Opera is the default browser. The NIDB still only works in IE (in Opera it can't find its installed license), but it least clicking its shortcut icon now does open it in IE even though Opera is the default browser.

Tech support told me that they are aware of the problems and future versions will be redesigned. Let's hope so. And I hope that if anyone here is having trouble installing the NIDB, this will be of help to them.