Error when posting next year's budget in v11

[Tracy]

Write Cache is found on the Policy of the Hardware settings.

On the computer that holds the PowerChurch data, you'll need to open Windows Explorer and right click the drive (.i.e C:), select Properties, then click on the Hardware tab. Select the appropriate drive and click the button Properties. If this machine is Widnows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you may see a button labeled Change Settings on the General page. You'll need to click that and Continue with the permission elevation request. Then click the Policies tab and see "Enable write caching on the disk" check box which should be unchecked.

The note under that setting is: This setting improves disk performce, but a power outage or equipment failure might result in data loss or corruption.

It excludes when multiple processes access the same file it could also cause corruption. This information I suppose is reserved for people that are trained as network administrators to allow them to get paid more money. Who knows.

If you have multiple drives in the system, you'll need to determine which drive the PowerChurch data is stored on. The Computer Management console would assist with this. Right click Computer (My Computer in older systems) and select Manage. You'll find Storage and Disk Management in the tree. You can get to the same Policy setting here clicking on the drive # on the left.

Another tool I use when determining which program is causing problems is Process Monitor available from Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/bb896645
This program you can add a filter for a specific path to prevent being overwhelmed by data. Specifically put a filter for the Path contains fabudget. This will show you all processes which access any of the fabudget files.

It is not possible to restore an 11 back up to 10.

[emellesee]

Okay, I've unchecked "enable write caching on disk" on both of my drives (just to save the extra step of figuring out which one is my C drive). Since this slows down my drive and I need this computer to do graphics as well, I'll have to remember to undo this whenever I need to work on graphics.

I'm also downloading the Process Monitor you recommended, but I'll need to know the paths for all the PowerChurch databases, since it's not just the FABUDGET one that's having the problem. I've had it crash when trying to reconcile the bank account, enter an invoice in Accounts Payable, etc., etc.

ML

[Tracy]

Let's work on just FaBudget, when we have knowledge of what other programs access it, we'll have a better understanding of what is causing the problem.

[emellesee]

Okay, what's the path to fabudget? Also, I did manage to finally get all of the 2011 budget entered, so am I supposed to enter fake data to see if I can get it to crash?

You'll also have to tell me how to use the Process Monitor, I'm not quite sure what it's doing right now, or what I need to do with it. It is on right now, but I can't tell if the growing list is part of the installation process or if that's all the stuff it's monitoring.

[Tracy]

On the Filter menu, select Filter.
"Path" "contains" "fabudget" then "include"

Add
Apply
OK

What remains in the "Process Name" column?

[emellesee]

Just after I got off the phone, I backed up the database and PC11 didn't crash, but I did get something new show up on the Process Monitor. There were several instances of MsMpEng.exe (Microsoft Anti-Malware) with PID 1096. When I looked up the properties of one of them, the command line was "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MsMpEng.exe". The Anti-malware program is a part of Microsoft Security Essentials and I've already set exceptions up for the four database extensions I was given so that should apply to all of the MS Security Essentials applications, including the anti-malware. Is this a possible cause of the problems? If not, should I create an exclusion for this and then keep checking to see what shows up the next time there's a crash?
In any case, I have to go now, I'll try working in PowerChurch again tomorrow.

Thanks for your help, Tracy,
ML

[Tracy]

It might be related, though when the error occurs, the processes will be sure to tell what else was accessing the files.

PID's are bound to change after a system restart, or the program is restarted.

One thing to specifically look for in the CreateFile Event of the applications is the ShareMode:.

This is how PowerChurch usually opens a file:

Code: Select all

Desired Access:	Generic Read/Write
Disposition:	Open
Options:	Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File
Attributes:	N
ShareMode:	Read, Write
AllocationSize:	n/a
OpenResult:	Opened

This is how you might find it when a program causes problems:

Code: Select all

Desired Access:	Generic Read/Write
Disposition:	Open
Options:	Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File
Attributes:	N
ShareMode:	
AllocationSize:	n/a
OpenResult:	Opened