Report Printing - losing database

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Bob Scalf

Report Printing - losing database

Post by Bob Scalf »

Running v8.5 10/4/2002 -- have not installed the update yet. Was running W98 with a file server peer-to-peer with no problems. Upgraded office computer to P4 with WinXP and we kept losing the data file trying to run accounting reports. It would sometimes run one report, then no link to file server. Converted file server to WinXP -- no help. Moved the data base to Office computer, stand-alone, no file sharing, still loses the database. In clarification, if the report starts, it will finish. Much of the time it will not even start -- you type run and Power Church becomes unreponsive, although WinXP can still close the job. The appearance is that this version of v8.5 will not run properly with WinXP, but does fine with W98. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

Are you getting any errors or anything like that?

PowerChurch runs fine on Windows XP, it was actually developed on XP so that is not going to be the problem.

I am not aware of any problems with it losing the data. PowerChurch looks for data insided it program folder only. If you have local copies trying to go over the network then you are also working with more then one set of data. Also, if you have multiples of the same files with the PowerChurch directory that will also cause a problem.

Any more details that you can provide will be helpful, you may also need to call our technical support office at (800)486-1800.
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Post by Guest »

No duplicates, etc. The original file server under W98 worked fine. The WinXP installation was a whole new computer, with dual 80MB hard drives under RAID mirroring for online backup. With that new computer, I ran NETSETUP from the file server and installation went smoothly. No error messages appear except sometimes a "not reponding" with the hourglass forever. With the file server, a RESTART was necessary to require the server. Once the server was upgraded to XP, no difference (it was upgraded also to a dual HD/RAID configuration). With so much difficulty with reports, I uninstalled Power Church from the Office computer and reinstalled it as a new installation with files on the Office computer. The file area has not been marked for sharing and other stations do not have their computers linked to the new data files. (The rest of the network still operates from the file server with a now not up-to-date data base (although we can of course backup from Office and restore to Server). On the office computer, the "not responding" message and hour glass still appear and you have to close Power Church and start it again (not RESTART the computer or have a link to the server) to be able to print at least one report. I have printed as many as 3 reports if you just report, report, report. But more often some other function may be used and then reports will not RUN. {Something is awry!} Thanks for your reply.

Bob Scalf
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Still locking up on reports

Post by Bob Scalf »

This is an update to this problem. Customer Service says something is interfering with Crystal Reports and it is our computer. We and local tech reps have done some pretty hard head scratching and nothing we can identify uses Crystal Reports. The Crystal Report people say they don't have bugs, that all such problems occur with the users of their code (yeh, right!). We finally did get an error message and if your tech people have any access at all to the VB code, Crystal, or whatever, there may be a clue.

Program: Crystal.Run_Report
Line: 18
Error: 1429
Message: OLE IDispatch exception code 1000 from Crystal Design Component: 4: Access Violation at address 77C43090.
Read of address 019E2000.

This does not disprove the idea that it is a memory indexing problem in Crystal Report and it is interfering with itself on some machines. The question tho is how does it interfere with itself in the first run unless something is loading at start-up or before the first report is run. It even locked up when no network was involved.

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Post by Zaphod »

Wow, that is a head scratcher. Do you have the latest build of the program? If you go to the Help menu, then select About PowerChurch Plus, then click on the System Information tab. If your Program Date is earlier than 12/18/2003, then you should download and install the latest Maintenance Release, available here: http://www.powerchurch.com/mr/

Oh, I see from your first post your Program Date is 10/4. Definitely get the Maintenance Release. There was an issue with some reports giving this OLE error that was resolved with this release.
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Bob Scalf
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Post by Bob Scalf »

The software has been confirmed as containing the 12/18/2003 Maintenance Release. The search goes on!

jeffkoke
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Post by jeffkoke »

Here goes a guess (actually a couple of them), prefaced with questions:

1. What OS is the file server running? If it is Win98, it isn't really a "server" in the classic sense.
2. Is the WinXP box running Home or Pro version?
3. Is the printer local or networked and if networked, how?

Judging from your problem description, I think you are losing connectivity between the client and the server CPUs. Neither Win98 nor XP Home do networking quite right (IMO).

Any of this make sense?

Jeff
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Jeff Koke, KK4SN
Great Bridge Church of God
Chesapeake VA
"Every Father should remember that one day his
children will follow his example instead of his advice."

Bob Scalf
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Post by Bob Scalf »

Jeff, thank you for your thoughtful response and some fresh insight into
our problem search. Here are specific answers before I comment:

1. The "file server" is running Windows XP Professional, but I have not installed SP1 yet. (The problem still exists when I remove the server from the picture completely)

2. The "work station" with the problem is the Office Manager's and it is running Windows XP Professional SP1 -- a clean installation, running a Promise RAID card, from memory the TX2000 I think, ghosting 2 new HD's

3. The printer (and I am off site) is the HPLJ 1000 running as a network printer and operated directly from each of the other work stations. There are 2-3 other printers, a color inkjet and a fancy 3 color duplicator. The problem occurs during the RUN to the screen, BEFORE it is told to go to a printer -- thus I do not believe the printer is involved directly.

I reread some of my postings (including the "guest" above) and did not always state things as clearly as I would like. We operated Power Church for about 2-3 years without a problem using a computer we set up to leave on all the time with UPS and which others called our "file server". It contained the Power Church main installation and database and archived files from the 4-5 workstations (e.g. Pastor, Office, Youth, Music, Finance). All machines ran W98 and we had no problems.

We knew some hard driver were getting old and that we might have to beef up the security somewhat. We use a dial up router to provide Internet connectivity for all stations. We first replaced the Pentium 3 350Mhz with a Pentium IV 2.4GHz, dual hard drives with Promise RAID, And Windows XP Pro. It has a lot of other software - Corel, Photoshop, Office XP, etc. At this time we left the server running W98 as before.

Power Church would not work in this configuration -- well, the Accounting Report Printing locked up on "hourglass" when RUN was selected. Like you, I thought we were losing connectivity to the server. I upgraded the server with Windows XP Pro and a dual RAID configuration. No change. I was above while it was locked up to open Windows Explorer and access files on the server, so knew connectivity still existed.

I then moved ALL of Power Church to the Office workstation -- no networking, no change! Tech Support said it was that computer and something was interfering with Crystal Reports. We can not identify any program running database or crystal reports. Seagate (Crystal Reports blew me off with something like "we don't have bugs, those are introduced by the users of our modules".)

I have renamed files and reinstalled Power Church. One tech thought it could be memory indexing, so we rebooted and did a fresh install. I now plan to start removing programs, hoping uninstall is compete enough to remove an offending module if there is one. I think there is a possibility a flush is not being performed and the program may be interfering with itself at some VB level or there is a temp file being created somewhere a permission does not exist or some such. Just guesses to check out.

With all this and the fact that Outlook XP does not share calendars well, we may just roll back to where things worked and just keep the RAID. <Smile>

Thanks again, Bob K4EID

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