Reporting to the MAX including Point of Sale and Non-profit Versions Tech Tip
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Reporting to the MAX including Point of Sale and Non-profit Versions Module: GL - General
Ledger
Question: 
Possible Causes:
What's Probably
Occurred:
What Needs to Happen:
Probable Solutions:
How to Avoid in the Future:
Suggestions to Cougar on improving the
software:
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Reducing System Lockups
for the Reporting to the MAX
There are several causes of system lockups, where
the system freezes up after a while. This occurs mostly
in Windows 95/98, because that Operating System was
not designed to run and remain stable when the system
is left on for many hours or days.
Tips to reduce system lockups:
1- Reboot the system once or twice a day... Win95/98
WILL crash if you use it for days without a system
restart. DLLs and other shared files are not always
released properly by the O/S when the process using
them is closed out; this is why the system resource
levels will keep dropping during a session until a
restart, even when every application running is shut
down. Do NOT reboot dedicated servers running Windows
NT or 2000 unless it is absolutely necessary. The
NT/2000 O/S is designed to run 24/7 without restarting
for reliability; it is better at returning memory
and resources after an application closes or crashes.
2- Reduce extra processes running in the background
to a minimum. These use precious resources and sometimes
cause conflicts with CMS while running (especially
Norton AntiVirus.) Common background processes include
instant messaging clients, web agents, and utility
products. Check the system tray to see if there are
extra processes running on the system.
3- Disable Screensavers. Unless you are using a Monochrome
Monitor, screensavers are for fun and not really required.
Neat looking screensavers use a lot of memory and
resources when in operation, so if one must use a
screensaver, use the "Blank Screen" screensaver
that does not do anything but black out the monitor.
NEVER use a screensaver on a dedicated server machine,
they can cause crashes. Some may use up to 100% of
the CPU time that would be better spent running the
server; turn off the monitor of the dedicated server
when not in use.
4- Run only a few Apps at a time. Sometimes, customers
experience frequent crashes because they insist on
running a Net browser, stock ticker, Net radio feed
and Napster download all at the same time they are
entering transactions in CMS. In a similar manner,
while in CMS, do not open up all of the installed
modules at once. Realistically, one only needs to
open between one and three modules to operate effectively.
There are plenty of places in CMS that we allow adding/changing
of data "on the fly", removing the need
to open another module at the same time. Open windows
use resources, and resources are not infinite.
5- Run Scandisk on a regular basis. Sometimes, system
crashes are related to attempts by the O/S to read
or write to damaged areas on the Hard Drive. The worst-case
scenario with this would be a Windows Swap file (where
Windows temporarily stores data too large to fit in
physical RAM memory) that has file damage: this would
cause a crash anytime multiple programs were running
or whenever anything needed more memory than was installed
in the system. Running Scandisk Monthly can repair
damage and return lost disk clusters to the available
free space on disk.
6- Use stable device drivers. Some versions of device
drivers for peripherals on the customers system can
cause crashes due to the fact that certain things
were not taken into consideration when they were coded.
This is especially true of Video and Printer drivers.
When crashes occur when printing reports in CMS, the
problem is often an old driver that has errors in
it. Get quality drivers from the manufacturer when
possible. Later versions of Windows have better default
drivers for these devices; Windows 2000 drivers are
typically very stable. Customers cannot simply install
the latest "bleeding edge" video driver
for a new 3D graphics card to speed up game play in
Quake III (or any other 3D game) and then expect CMS
to run with stability. Use Microsoft Certified drivers
for greater compatibility and stability (Check the
Microsoft website for details on certified drivers.)
It is not always possible to completely eliminate
system lockups and crashes. Using these tips, one
can reduce the likelihood of a system lockup or crash.
Nothing is more frustrating to than spending a lot
of time entering transactions into a Reporting to the MAX
module and then losing some or all of the work because
of a crash or system lockup. If these tips do not
resolve most of the system lockup issues that are
occurring, one may need to consider using Windows
2000 as a client operating system for CMS because
of its greater stability and resource management features.
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