Fix for crash during startup of an Autodesk 2014 product

This hotfix “Windows crash during license authorization Hotfix” by Autodesk can help if you have problem to start any of the 2014 versions of Autodesk products like AutoCAD 2014 or Revit 2014.

This error occurs when a computer does not have the hardware serial number in the BIOS. Two indications of the issue are described below:

1. When launching an Autodesk 2014 product, the user sees an error dialog such as the following during initialization, and an Autodesk Error Report dialog, and the product does not launch. You might see Error Aborting, FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Exception at eaf28ea0h or the like followed by the Error Report windows that says A software problem has cause AutoCAD to close unexpectedly.

2. Running the following command does not return a serial number:

wmic bios get serialnumber

The figure below shows the command result with a blank serial number.

If you get this result, this technical solution is applicable to you; otherwise, it is probably not applicable.