USB Security Key Not Recognized (Error 949 and Similar)

What's happening

Your Benson software is licensed to a small USB hardware key rather than to the PC itself. The software checks for that key every time it starts, and if it can't read the key it refuses to open. Depending on your version, that can show up as an outright refusal to launch, a message that the software can't find or verify its license, or a numbered error such as "949." All of these point to the same thing: the PC isn't seeing the key correctly at the moment the software tries to start.

This is different from a corrupted install or a Windows problem elsewhere on the machine — if the key checks out on another PC, the software itself is fine.

Try these in order

1. Insert the USB key before you launch the software, not after. Most of these errors trace back to opening the program first and plugging the key in second. Close the software, insert the key, wait a few seconds, then launch.
2. Try a different USB port. A worn port, a USB hub, or a port that's shared with another device can cause an intermittent read failure. Plug the key directly into a port on the PC itself rather than through a hub or dock.
3. Confirm Windows sees the key at all. Open Device Manager and look under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" for an entry along the lines of "SafeNet USB SuperPro/UltraPro" (it may also show as "Sentinel" hardware). If it's not listed anywhere, the key itself may not be making contact — try another port or another PC before assuming the key has failed.
4. Check whether it shows up with a warning icon. If Device Manager lists the device but flags it with a warning, the driver that lets Windows talk to the key isn't installed or registered correctly. That's a driver reinstall, covered below.
5. Confirm you're logged into the Windows account the software was installed under. On a shared or multi-user PC, a license key that reads fine under one Windows account can appear unavailable under another. If the software was set up under a specific user profile, log into that profile and try again.
6. Check whether another program on the PC is holding the key. Some license-key drivers only allow one running program to read the key at a time. If you have more than one licensed Benson product installed, or another program that uses a similar hardware key, close everything else and try launching again on its own.

Reinstalling the key driver

If Device Manager shows the key with a warning, or doesn't show it at all after trying another port, the driver that lets Windows recognize the key needs to be reinstalled:

1. In Windows Settings, go to Apps & Features and remove any existing "Sentinel Protection Installer" entry.
2. Reinstall the matching driver package for your software version. Contact us if you don't have this on hand — we can send the correct installer for your version.
3. Run the installer as an administrator. If your antivirus software is aggressive about blocking installers, temporarily disable it for the reinstall — most driver-install failures in this situation turn out to be a permissions or antivirus block, not a bad key.
4. Restart the PC, insert the key, and launch the software.

If the software still won't launch after a clean driver reinstall with the key inserted first, uninstall and reinstall the Benson program itself on that PC.

When it's the key or the license, not the PC

A few situations point past what you can fix locally:

• The key reads fine in Device Manager, drivers are current, and the software still won't accept it — this can mean the license attached to that key needs to be re-issued or re-authorized on your end, which we handle with you directly.
• You've confirmed the same key fails on more than one known-good PC. That points to a failed key, not a PC-side setting.
• You're moving the software to a new or replacement PC and the key needs to be authorized against that new machine before it will work — see our guide on moving software to a new PC for that process.

When to call us

• You've inserted the key first, tried another port, confirmed Windows sees it in Device Manager, and reinstalled the driver, and the software still won't launch.
• Device Manager doesn't show the key on any port, on any PC you've tried.
• You're setting up a new or replacement PC and need the key re-authorized.

Call us at (513) 891-0868 or email service@fosterinstruments.com and let us know what Device Manager shows and which steps above you've already tried — that saves a round of back-and-forth.