User Support Forum

I have done some hardware upgrading, and now can't get PowerChurch to work.

We used to have 1 Windows 2000 computer with PC installed on it, with 1 Win98 and 1 Win2k computers connected to it.

After upgrades, we have a WinXP Pro computer with 1 WinXP Pro and 1 Win2k copmuter connected to it.

PC workes fine on the computer that has PC installed and the Win2k machine. On the WinXP machine that I use to access PC, however, I get an error most of the time I try to run reports. When I Preview / Print/ Save to disk, the machine hangs. I get the following error:

szAppName : PCPLUS85.exe szAppVer : 8.5.57.0 szModName : hungapp
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000

What makes me confused is that the Win2k machine connects and runs PC reports fine, but the WinXP machine doesn't. The problem is also not consistent - the machine only hangs sporadically.

Any suggestions?
Cam.

Yikes. That doesn't look like a PowerChurch error message. It could be a Windows, message, though I'd say it's most likely a problem with your printer driver. PowerChurch uses the printer driver to format the report on the screen the same as it would be printed. Is the printer you are using as your default connected locally to this computer, or through the network? What is the make and model (we've seen some weird things with a couple of HP models)? Is this the latest version of the appropriate printer driver? Lastly, if this is a networked printer, are there any spaces in the share name? All of these things can cause the types of problems you're seeing. Also, make sure that you have a drive letter mapped for the remote PowerChurch folder. If the path to your exe file is in the format \\server\pcplus85, that's wrong.

I'd say try to install (or reinstall) the latest printer driver. Also, try running the netsetup file through your mapped drive again.

If neither of those things work, you might want to give us a call.

Thanks for the reply. I am using a networked printer (Ricoh Aficion 250) and using the driver that comes with XP for it, and it is set up as the default printer. The drive is mapped.

The confusing part of this is that it is sporadic - if it NEVER worked to run reports, it would be a bit easier to troubleshoot.

Any other ideas?
Cam.

Help!
PC is still not working. As it stands, PC is of no use to me. Is PC designed to work on XP or not? It seems to work on the host computer, but not over the network. And it used to work before "upgrading" to XP.
Cam.

You might have a look at the internal firewall settings on the CPU that is not playing nice. I've found that depending on what service pack is loaded, you may have the Internet Connection Firewall active when you prefer it not to be active. Have a look. It is under the Advanced tab of the network connection.

Hope this helps,
Jeff

I have experienced this problem. No crashes on ME but frequent crashes after upgrading to XP. Specifically, in my case, PowerChurch 8.5 would hang when trying to run a trial balance. It would work once and crash on the next attempt. After restarting the program, it would usually work one more time.

Reinstalling the application didn't help. Latest maintenance release made no difference. Latest video drivers didn't help. Changing default printer and/or printer drivers had no affect. -- The solution...

If you have an nVidia graphics card and have the nView desktop manager enabled, DISABLE it. I did and the crash problem is gone. I have seen this particular graphics application cause trouble with a number of programs.

I'm seeing the same effect as prior posters -- works fine on our network server (NT Server/SP6a), and previously worked under XP/SP2, but printing of large reports no longer works. I'm guessing one of the recent patches/hotfixes to Windows breaks something in PowerChurch, as we only began observing this a few weeks ago.

We can print simple jobs (funds report, unposted contributions, etc.) -- but attempt anything more than a few pages, and PC coughs and dies. We're observing the problem on Intel chipset mo'boards with integrated VGA, so it's not confined to nVidia graphics chipsets.

Our workaround for printing contribution statements is to print them from the server using a special user account. Extremely bad practice from a security standpoint, but it works. (I've also threatened the treasurer with enternal damnation if he breaks anything.

Are there any specific error messages coming up ??

Neil --

Nope, if there were error messages, that'd help us run down the problem. Far too easy.

Kidding aside, when we try to print the contribution statements or other similar lengthy reports, the screen proof will come up, you can advance a few pages, then it just hangs. Similarly, if you print right away, it'll start spooling a number of pages, then stop and hang. Eventually the "not responding" message appears in the PC window's title bar. At that point the only recourse is to go into Task Manager and kill the app.

Fortunately none of this appears to harm the data; you can print Fund Reports By Date and verify that all the contribution data is present. You can also print a fund report by contributor, which for us is about a 20-page report. It's the really big reports that wig it out.

I just now installed a backup of the PC8 directory onto my servers here at home, ran NetSetup on my wife's Win2K laptop, and ran the Contribution Statements report that crashed two XP Pro/SP2 machines at church in identically the same way. Worked like a champ under Win2K Pro/SP4. One of the previous posters suggested there might be an issue with HP printer drivers, but my printer is an HP DeskJet 6540 with JetDirect interface, shared to the network via my file/print server. On Win2K, works fine.

Interestingly, executing the same procedure on an XP Pro/SP2 desktop here at home, it *also* works fine. My home servers run Server 2K3/Enterprise Edition (it is good to be a Microsoft alliance partner) and the Wintel machines here are part of an Active Directory forest. The church server runs NT Server v4 with Service Pack 6a, and the Wintel machines at church are part of an NT domain. All XP machines, here and at church, run SP2 with all the latest patches.

The church printer is an HP LaserJet 5M, shared out via the server.

scottkellyfa711 wrote:I just now installed a backup of the PC8 directory onto my servers here at home, ran NetSetup on my wife's Win2K laptop, and ran the Contribution Statements report that crashed two XP Pro/SP2 machines at church in identically the same way. Worked like a champ under Win2K Pro/SP4. One of the previous posters suggested there might be an issue with HP printer drivers, but my printer is an HP DeskJet 6540 with JetDirect interface, shared to the network via my file/print server. On Win2K, works fine.

Interestingly, executing the same procedure on an XP Pro/SP2 desktop here at home, it *also* works fine. My home servers run Server 2K3/Enterprise Edition (it is good to be a Microsoft alliance partner) and the Wintel machines here are part of an Active Directory forest. The church server runs NT Server v4 with Service Pack 6a, and the Wintel machines at church are part of an NT domain. All XP machines, here and at church, run SP2 with all the latest patches.

The church printer is an HP LaserJet 5M, shared out via the server.

OK ... you're running Version 8.0 . I seem to remember the same thing happening under 8.0, on a machine with less than 512M of RAM.

To test that theory, I just installed PC8 onto my wife's XP Pro/SP2 desktop with 512MB here at home; as with the other XP desktop with 512MB, it works correctly.

However, at church, I have two identically configured XP Pro/SP2 machines, also equipped with 512MB, which hang on big print jobs.

The differences between the two that work and the two that don't:
- the two working machines are AMD Athlons on Asus motherboards
- the two non-working machines are Intel P4s on Intel motherboards
- the two working machines are part of an Active Directory forest
- the two nonworking machines are part of an NT domain
- the two working machines have an HP Deskjet 6540 as the default printer
- the two nonworking machines have an HP Laserjet 5M as the default printer

Their software build configurations are otherwise identical (MSOffice, Norton Internet Security, IE6, XP/SP2, patch levels, etc.).

My suspicion at this point would fall on any potential difference in the way network printing is handled in Active Directory vs. NT domains.

Not necessarily ... at my last church we had an AD network setup, and I was able to print to any shared printer on that network.

OK ... are there any other printers on the network that you can try to print to ??