Error when posting next year's budget in v11

[emellesee]

Hi,

I'm using PowerChurch 11 and I'm in Fund Accounting updating the budget amounts for 2011. Every few line items, I get an error which closes down PowerChurch on me. It happens when I go to click 'save' on the newly updated amounts. The error says:

PROGRAM: FRM_FAACCTE.REPLDATA
LINE: 98
ERROR: 111
MESSAGE: Cannot update the cursor FABUDGET, since it is read-only.

Can someone let me know why this is happening randomly?

Thanks,
ML Cameron

[Tracy]

If you are unable to save any budget changes, the problem is a permission issue with a file in the data folder.

If you are able to save a budget change, then not the next, this happens when another program puts a temporary lock on the data file. Anti-Virus, Automatic backup, Desktop search engines, Malware prevention tools are all examples of programs that could create these locks.

[emellesee]

I am able to and authorized to make budget changes. Most of the time, my entries are accepted without a problem. Every once in a while, however, I get the error message posted above. I've also now had a similar error message appear when entering invoices into the Accounts Payable module in v11. I'd say the problem shows up once every 12-20 entry saves. Not enough of a problem to go back to v10, but still rather annoying. I've never encountered this problem with previous versions of PowerChurch, so I doubt it's an anti-virus type problem, unless there is a significant difference in v11 that might trigger anti-virus interference.

A more detailed investigation of the problem from PowerChurch tech support would be appreciated on this problem.

[NeilZ]

I think some additional information would help the Powerchurch techs:

1. What version of Windows are you using on your machine?
2. Is Powerchurch networked, and if so, are you running on a client or the 'server' machine when you do your changes.
3. If the answer to 2 is yes, and you're using a 'client' machine, then what version of Windows is the server running.

My thoughts:

its not that the Powerchurch guys don't want to assist, but there are so many different local installations that unless there are others seeing the same problem, they don't have much additional data to go on.

I read these forums daily, and I don't remember seeing this type of issue reported from others, so this may be localized to your location.

That said, the additional data will certainly help them with their research.

Blessings.

[emellesee]

I'm using Windows XP. We do have PowerChurch networked, but I am on the server machine and other machine isn't even on when I'm working in PowerChurch (and it's also using XP). I had no problems like this in any of the previous versions of PowerChurch that we have used (v7 all the way to v10 and now v11).

ML

[emellesee]

Also in response to Tracy's suggestion that this could be an anti-virus problem, that will need to be corrected by PowerChurch. We are using broadband internet that is always on, so I would be incredibly uncomfortable using PowerChurch on this computer with the anti-virus turned off. And, I don't have another computer to use that is not hooked up to the internet.

[Zorak]

We have made updates to the program wherever we can to handle super-slow antivirus programs. Unfortunately, it's not something that we have complete control over.

Our suggestion, rather than disabling antivirus, is to set file type exceptions for the PowerChurch Plus data files: CDX, DBF, FPT, and PCA.

Another common problem is installing home-user level antivirus (rather than an enterprise solution) on a local network, where the antivirus software on each workstation is set to scan all "network resources", meaning everyone else's computers, for threats. This is the default setting on certain AV software and leaves the antivirus programs on two or more computers "fighting" for access to put an exclusive lock on the file and scan it for a threat... Meanwhile, PowerChurch Plus is trying to open 10 or 20 files at a time and hitting this type of massive delay.

The suggestion there is to have each computer running its own antivirus and being concerned with only its own files, not those sitting on some other computer on the network.

[emellesee]

So, this is definitely an anti-virus problem, then? It seems odd to me that the anti-virus program wouldn't flash any message when this problem occurs and that most of the time, I can use PowerChurch 11 without a problem. Has the way PowerChurch saves to the database changed drastically since v10? ...because I never had this problem before. I want to be certain that the anti-virus program is the source of the problem before I start making any changes. And we do have the anti-virus installed like on a home system, every computer has their own installation, it's not run from a server.

[Zorak]

I can't say that it definitely is an antivirus problem. If it is, then this will fix it. If it doesn't, you will probably still notice PowerChurch Plus running more quickly.

[emellesee]

I entered exceptions into the anti-virus as suggested above and it HASN'T fixed the problem.

We haven't changed our anti-virus. We're using the Windows security package. Everything worked fine in all previous versions from v7 to v10. Suddenly we have this problem with v11. Can anyone in tech support tell me if the database extensions are different from v10 or if the way the program saves entries to the database is different? I didn't think that you made extensive changes to the program like that.

If those kinds of changes weren't made, then there's no reason why the anti-virus program would suddenly start interfering with PowerChurch now when it didn't before.

Most of the time, the crashes have been a minor inconvenience since all I had done was enter an amount, click save and then it lost the one amount I had just entered. This time, I was reconciling the bank account. There's no option for saving as you go along, so now I have to start over from the beginning. Now it's starting to get frustrating.

Can someone in tech support tell me that they are working on this and that they are no longer blaming our anti-virus?

Thank you,
Mary Lynne Cameron

P.S. If I need to go back to version 10, I need to know this as soon as possible since it will probably mean having to give up a large part of my Christmas vacation in order to re-enter everything we've done in version 11.

[Zorak]

If you want to speak with someone directly in tech support and get this taken care of, the number is (800) 486-1800. We are available from 9AM to 6PM Eastern, Monday through Friday.

[Tracy]

As one of the developers, I can tell you that process has not changed between 10 and 11. This is why I originally pointed to a configuration of something in the environment.

1) Is the PowerChurch 11 data files on a different drive than the PowerChurch 10 data?
2) Besides Anti-Virus, do you have programs that will scan computer files?
3) Do you have an auto-backup feature on a computer that may be accessing the PowerChurch files?
4) Is there any Desktop Search tools on a computer that may be accessing the PowerChurch files?

I have been involved in determining similar troubles with over 100 different clients when they have upgraded to new machines, version upgrades (including 8.5 to 9, 9 to 10, earlier to 11, etc...). Each time it has been related to the environment. The programs access to the data files has not changed between V10 and V11. There was changes between 8.5 to 9 and 9 to 10, those changes and how aggressive anti-virus programs got caused problems with posting. A process has been put in to the program to work with the anit-virus during those processes. The error you posted at the beginning of this thread does not have that same workflow which posting does and there isn't a code change that will make this magically work.

In your environment, if the PowerChruch 11 data is sitting on a drive with the Write Cache Policy enabled this could affect PowerChurch in this way. If any program that determines there was a change in a file, which happens frequently when entering budgets, contributions, etc..., could put a write block on the file and prevent PowerChurch from being allowed to write to it. There is not a work around for that behavior at this time.

[emellesee]

What is a "Write Cache Policy" and how do I check for that? I have entered exceptions into our anti-virus program for the PowerChurch database extensions and I've turned off our auto-backup program, but I'm getting more and more crashes now. The ONLY thing that has changed is the installation of version 11 and no other programs on my computer are having any issues of any sort, let alone similar ones.

When I phoned tech support, they had no suggestions on what else I could try, other than to open up Windows Task Manager and see what processes are open when the crashes happen. The problem with that idea is that at any given time, there are dozens of processes running, most of which are part of the Windows operating system, and I have no way of knowing which ones (that happen to be running at the same time as a crash) could possibly have anything to do with the crash. I was expecting a more tech-savvy person to answer the phone at Tech Support who could walk me through steps to determine what is causing the interference. I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like the attitude is that since they can't see how it could be the fault of PowerChurch, it's up to me - an admin assistant - to figure out why PowerChurch is the only program not working on my computer, and only since the latest version was installed.

If you have worked with other clients and determined the source of the interference, why can't you do that with us? I need someone to help us sort this out as soon as possible. Otherwise, it looks like we'll have to go back to version 10 which means I'm going to have to cancel my Christmas vacation (and arrange for child care for my kids while they're out of school) just so I can come in and re-enter all the data in version 10 that we entered in version 11.

[emellesee]

Is it possible restore a v11 back up to v10? I'm guessing it won't work - that's why I figure I'll have to re-enter everything I've done in v11.

[emellesee]

If Tracy or anyone else in Tech Support has any ideas and wants to call us, you can reach us at 905-335-5808 or you can e-mail me at info@nbbc.ca.