Technical and Installation Discussions

[RoadRacer]

Our Work Order travelers quit printing yesterday. The program would get as far as bringing up a blank preview screen and then just hang. Task Manager shows pvxwin32.exe active and receiving processor time, but the user cannot access any other functions in MAS.

Having had this happen before, I reinitialized the Crystal work files for Work Order, which solved the problem.

Looking at the number of Sage knowledge base resolutions addressing reinitializing Crystal temporary work files for various modules when printing hangs, and the number of forum posts on the subject, I'm wondering why this issue hasn't been fixed. Why hasn't this part of the MAS been made more robust, preventing these files from becoming corrupted?

[rmikolainis]

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RoadRacer wrote:

Our Work Order travelers quit printing yesterday. The program would get as far as bringing up a blank preview screen and then just hang. Task Manager shows pvxwin32.exe active and receiving processor time, but the user cannot access any other functions in MAS.

Having had this happen before, I reinitialized the Crystal work files for Work Order, which solved the problem.

Looking at the number of Sage knowledge base resolutions addressing reinitializing Crystal temporary work files for various modules when printing hangs, and the number of forum posts on the subject, I'm wondering why this issue hasn't been fixed. Why hasn't this part of the MAS been made more robust, preventing these files from becoming corrupted?

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Why do we get errors in Windows and other ERP software programs? Shouldn't  Microsoft have made Windows better so it never errors?

Errors happen. Reinitializing the work tables takes about 60 seconds. Easy fix imho. Typically the works tables auto-clear out after you are done, sometimes, this doesn't happen though.

[RoadRacer]

Well, actually, I would have to say that I experience far fewer errors in Windows and other programs today than I do in MAS. As measured by a percentage of user time, I believe I spend far more time on Sage's support site researching resolutions to problems with MAS than I do dealing with problems on other programs.

Don't get me wrong. MAS fits our needs better than any other ERP product we've found, and it's relatively easy to administer. But it is still not as reliable as I would like.

[rmikolainis]

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RoadRacer wrote:

Well, actually, I would have to say that I experience far fewer errors in Windows and other programs today than I do in MAS. As measured by a percentage of user time, I believe I spend far more time on Sage's support site researching resolutions to problems with MAS than I do dealing with problems on other programs.

Don't get me wrong. MAS fits our needs better than any other ERP product we've found, and it's relatively easy to administer. But it is still not as reliable as I would like.

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We use Great Plains in house. MAS90/200 is a dream to work with........................haha.

I would almost rather go back to using an abacus, and paper and pencil journal books than GP. The report writer in GP is by far the worst program ever designed.

[BShockley]

What version of MAS are you running?

Are your workstations and server supported by Sage?

Did you configure your anti-virus software per Sage's recommendations?

[jerrynorman]

We have dozens of customers using MAS 90, on v4.3 or higher. They have workstations with XP or W7, or even better - run MAS 90 via Terminal Server.  We hardly ever get support calls from them about program errors like you describe. 

I say this to encourage you to invest a bit of time and money with a competent MAS 90 consultant to bring your implementation up to spec. It sounds like you might also have some training issues.

I'm not exagerrating: modern MAS 90, properly installed, is as much a "background program" as Word or Excel is.

[BShockley]

I agree with Jerry.

I've seen users select all purchase order, for example, for printing not knowing what they were doing.

Then, the support call comes in that printing purchase orders was taking a long time so I ended the task; therefore, corrupting the work files.

[RoadRacer]

v. 4.40.0.4

Yes, we are on a supported platform matrix.

Yes, our AV is configured per Sage recommendations.

[RoadRacer]

I'm curious as to what changes would bring our implementation up to spec since, to the best of my knowledge, Sage InfoSource does not contain such advice. Sage does provide some steps for addressing slow performance, but I found none addressing how to prevent the printing/previewing of Work Order Travelers from hanging with no error message and having to be terminated. Thanks.

[RoadRacer]

I could see that happening. However, this occurred when our one user who prints travelers (and who has used Work Order via Terminal Services on a daily basis for three years) attempted to print two travelers. He is conversant with the Select and Clear buttons and how long it takes for the process to complete.

Your mention of users inadvertently selecting all POs is familiar to us, too. Over the years, users have occasionally not understood (or noticed) the Select and Clear buttons. In my opinion, the configuration of this screen needs to be changed. Having the Select and Clear buttons positioned far away from and above the range selection fields invites unintended outcomes. Users are accustomed to a left-to-right, top-to-bottom flow within boxed sections of windows -- and these selection buttons aren't even inside the Selection box!

Which prompts me to wonder if I can change the location of these buttons with Custom Office.

Thanks.