How legitimate is having to reboot regularly to prevent program errors?

[donaldewartlewis]

I have a business-specific program - ROWriter - I use at my car
repair shop. It uses a Microsoft Access database and Crystal
Reports. I called support due to a lot of episodes of the program not
responding at one particular workstation and crashes with error
messages about file locking. The tech logged in and expressed horror
that the PC had been running for 6 days! I think this is a lame
excuse on their part It seems to me that with solid software and
barring the CPU fan sucking too much dust, and updates, the PC should
run happily for 6 months.

I haven't yet made a correlation between frequent reboots and less
crashes.

Overall, the network is pretty stable (although see my other post re'
occasional startup problems on a different workstation) and other
programs don't crash. The network is all ethernet -- no wireless..
The recently troublesome workstation does NOT host the MDB. data file.

Comments?

 

[PC Guy]

I have a business-specific program - ROWriter - I use at my car
repair shop. It uses a Microsoft Access database and Crystal
Reports.

We have something very similar.

It's called "Janna Contact". It's a contact management program that
stores contacts (in our case - customers and prospective customers) in a
MS access database format.

This program is about 10 years old, and we keep using it because there
is nothing else like it on the market. It runs on our win-98 and win-XP
office computers. It's a very solid and reliable program. The database
file is hosted on an old server we have (running win-NT4) and as far as
I know, it's just a simple shared file service. Other computers connect
to the same file and read/write to it concurrently.

Our database file is somewhere around 500 mb in size at this point, and
holds records for about 4,500 contacts at this point.

The NT4 server is generally up for 2 to 6 months between re-boots or
re-starts.

We generally turn off our office workstation computers every night, so I
don't have any experience running the program on any given PC for more
than maybe 8 or 12 hours continuously.

I called support due to a lot of episodes of the program not
responding at one particular workstation and crashes with error
messages about file locking. The tech logged in and expressed
horror that the PC had been running for 6 days!

Comments?

Is your database file located on a server that's running 24/7?

Or is it located on one of your desktop workstations?

Regarding your 6-day up-time, why do you leave your workstation
computers running overnight?

Why aren't they turned off at the end of every business day?

 

[philo]

I have a business-specific program - ROWriter - I use at my car
repair shop. It uses a Microsoft Access database and Crystal
Reports. I called support due to a lot of episodes of the program not
responding at one particular workstation and crashes with error
messages about file locking. The tech logged in and expressed horror
that the PC had been running for 6 days! I think this is a lame
excuse on their part It seems to me that with solid software and
barring the CPU fan sucking too much dust, and updates, the PC should
run happily for 6 months.

I haven't yet made a correlation between frequent reboots and less
crashes.

Overall, the network is pretty stable (although see my other post re'
occasional startup problems on a different workstation) and other
programs don't crash. The network is all ethernet -- no wireless..
The recently troublesome workstation does NOT host the MDB. data file.

Comments?

Why not check the CPU fan for dust,
run a RAM test and hard drive diagnostic just to be on the safe side.

Since it seems to be only one workstation that has the problem,
the software is apparently "bug" free.

Since this is obviously important you may want to just replace that
machine if you cannot get it fixed

 

[Char Jackson]

Reminds me of a funny (yet sad) incident I had with Comcast. When TV
programming was interrupted with an error message (I checked all of our
TVs, same message) that said to call Comcast tech support at phone
#_____ , we did as instructed. They said, and I quote: "Reboot your TV"!
... I kid you not! ....

I believe it. I've had to cold reboot my TV before. Yes, it fixed the
problem. It doesn't sound like it would have helped in your case,
though.

 

[Char Jackson]

I have a business-specific program - ROWriter - I use at my car
repair shop. It uses a Microsoft Access database and Crystal
Reports. I called support due to a lot of episodes of the program not
responding at one particular workstation and crashes with error
messages about file locking.

It would be helpful if you'd provide the text of those error messages
since there are several kinds of 'locking' and the solution might
depend on the specific problem being experienced.

Here's a place to start reading. Be sure to click the plus signs to
expand the various sections.

<http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/a...ss-database-on-a-network-mdb-HP005240860.aspx>

 

[donaldewartlewis]

We have something very similar.

It's called "Janna Contact".  It's a contact management program that
stores contacts (in our case - customers and prospective customers) in a
MS access database format.

This program is about 10 years old, and we keep using it because there
is nothing else like it on the market.  It runs on our win-98 and win-XP
office computers.  It's a very solid and reliable program.  The database
file is hosted on an old server we have (running win-NT4) and as far as
I know, it's just a simple shared file service.  Other computers connect
to the same file and read/write to it concurrently.

Our database file is somewhere around 500 mb in size at this point, and
holds records for about 4,500 contacts at this point.

The NT4 server is generally up for 2 to 6 months between re-boots or
re-starts.

We generally turn off our office workstation computers every night, so I
don't have any experience running the program on any given PC for more
than maybe 8 or 12 hours continuously.


Is your database file located on a server that's running 24/7?

Or is it located on one of your desktop workstations?

I moved that database from one workstation to another. I do not have
a dedicated server.

Regarding your 6-day up-time, why do you leave your workstation
computers running overnight?

Why aren't they turned off at the end of every business day?

I run NetOp remote control on the PCs and I check my voice mail at
home from time to timeand log into the PCs to schedule work, look
things up on our technical information services, and use the repair
order software. The voicemail is PC based. I am going to start
turning off the workstation that's out in the shop and which doesn't
have NetOp remote control on it.

Thanks for you interest...Don

 

[donaldewartlewis]

Why not check the CPU fan for dust,
run a RAM test and hard drive diagnostic just to be on the safe side.

Since it seems to be only one workstation that has the problem,
the software is apparently "bug" free.

Since this is obviously important you may want to just replace that
machine if you cannot get it fixed

It has happened on all three workstations. Other software is quite
stable. CPU and system temps are fine. Moving the data file made no
difference.

Thanks for your interest...Don

 

[philo]

It has happened on all three workstations. Other software is quite
stable. CPU and system temps are fine. Moving the data file made no
difference.

Thanks for your interest...Don

Your clearly said post said: "one particular workstation"

 

[donaldewartlewis]

Your clearly said post said: "one particular workstation"

Lately, but they have all done it from time to time.

 

[philo]

Lately, but they have all done it from time to time.

That of course makes it look more like a software problem
but still as a precaution I'd check the hardware on the machine that's
currently giving you a lot of problems...
From what you so far mentioned I don't have confidence the software
vendor is going to do anything

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I have a business-specific program - ROWriter - I use at my car
repair shop. It uses a Microsoft Access database and Crystal
Reports. I called support due to a lot of episodes of the program not
responding at one particular workstation and crashes with error
messages about file locking. The tech logged in and expressed horror
that the PC had been running for 6 days! I think this is a lame
excuse on their part It seems to me that with solid software and
barring the CPU fan sucking too much dust, and updates, the PC should
run happily for 6 months.

I haven't yet made a correlation between frequent reboots and less
crashes.

Overall, the network is pretty stable (although see my other post re'
occasional startup problems on a different workstation) and other
programs don't crash. The network is all ethernet -- no wireless..
The recently troublesome workstation does NOT host the MDB. data file.

Comments?

Not specifically about your particular problems, but I have found that
Windows is generally happier if it is rebooted at least once a day.
Especially the older Windows versions such as XP. The newer ones, such
as Windows 7, don't suffer the same problems as much.


Yousuf Khan

 

[BillW50]

In

Not specifically about your particular problems, but I have found that
Windows is generally happier if it is rebooted at least once a day.
Especially the older Windows versions such as XP. The newer ones, such
as Windows 7, don't suffer the same problems as much.

I don't have that problem. I rarely reboot my computers. Even my often
most used computers doesn't get rebooted for weeks or months at a time.
Most of the time, a Windows update requires a reboot.