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Support Tip Did you know that you can save and restore your MKS KornShell environments? Find out more

Registration Required

If you are a new customer or you have never activated your PCS account, you must register with our customer support organization. Registration--mandatory before you can receive support--is simple. The easiest way to register is by filling out the registration form during product installation, or you may do so at any time over the web at our software registration page. And please be assured that this information is used for no other purpose than to provide support to you. Your personal information will not be given to anyone else.

Response Goals

MKS will make every effort to provide an initial response according to the following guidelines:

This initial response may be a priority discussion or a request for more information.

In the case of a priority one problem, we will make every attempt to provide a work-around to give you an immediate interim solution during the initial response.

Priorities of Reported Issues

When you report a problem, an MKS support engineer will work with you to prioritize your support need using the following priority guidelines:

Priority 1 - Showstopper. The customer's product is down or seriously impacted. There is no reasonable workaround currently available. Requires immediate attention. MKS will use best efforts to fix priority one problems as soon as possible, typically in a patch release.

Priority 2 - Serious problem. The product operates but its functionality is degraded. MKS will use best efforts to address priority two problems in a forthcoming release.

Priority 3 - Minor problem or enhancement. Priority three problems and enhancements will be scheduled to be fixed or implemented, as resources become available.

Please keep your support engineer informed of any changes in your environment that affect the priority of the activity. For example, if the problem occurs more often or becomes more critical, please raise the priority level. Or, if you discover a workaround for the problem, please let us know and advise us if you think the priority level might be lowered.

Escalation

We make every effort to ensure that your questions and problems are handled effectively. However, if our normal support cycle does not produce the results you need or if your problem changes in severity, you can escalate the problem. It is MKS' objective to be an excellent business partner, and it may be possible to reprioritize based on special needs, circumstances, or business opportunities.

To escalate a problem, you may request that the support engineer first escalate to the Manager of Customer Support, then to the Director of Engineering, and finally to the Division President.

Problem Diagnosis and Resolution

What You Agree To. Problem diagnosis and resolution assumes that you will:

• Send MKS a clear description of the defect (or symptom of defect).
  
  
• Provide reasonably conclusive evidence that the problem is (or is highly likely) caused by a defect or failure in an MKS product, including, if deemed necessary by MKS, a test case (if possible, in a stand alone application) which reproduces the defect.
  
  
• Make available to MKS a qualified and responsive engineer capable of executing tests or trials, and communicating additional facts or properties, as may be needed from time to time, to assist MKS in problem diagnosis and resolution.

Terms and Conditions. MKS does not guarantee to support your use of a version of the operating system, compiler, or other third-party software which our products have not yet been certified to support. Nor does MKS guarantee to support any version of the operating system, compiler, or other 3rd-party software which MKS has announced that it no longer supports.

The priority of a problem may change over time. MKS reserves the right to reprioritize a problem based on circumstances and facts provided by you, or facts discovered during defect diagnosis by MKS. MKS will not unreasonably reclassify defects.

MKS will support each major or minor version of a product for a minimum of one year from the date of release and a minimum of one year from the date of release of a successor major or minor version. Versions are denoted by version number. A major version is denoted by a change in major version number (e.g., from 6.2 to 7.0). A minor version is denoted by a change in minor version number (e.g., from 6.1 to 6.2). All other versions are patches or bug-fix versions and do not have any bearing on the duration of support for a major or minor version. Patches and bug fix versions are supported only while the major or minor version to which they apply is supported.

MKS will make every effort to provide at least one year's notice that a version will no longer be supported. These notices, as well as a list of all previously desupported versions, are made available on our web site at http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/versions.asp.

MKS reserves the right to refuse to remedy a problem in a particular product version if the problem is fixed in a more recent version.