Dell might know something they prefer you not.
So maybe the FIRST gasp. Could save a lot of chasing hoodoos through the swamp. I’m just respectfully sayin’ Bruce From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mbyerley Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 1:22 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Not as far fetched as you might imagine. Back in the days of NT4, I upgraded the CPU on a mainboard, keeping the RAM chips that were compatible. The result was on the first boot, the computer blue screened, worse, the boot sector was corrupted. The vendor that I bought all my components had a pretty knowledgeable bunch and after a couple conversations with them, we got down to the existing RAM chips that were on the mainboard. It seems the manufacturer (I do not recall the manufacturer of the offending chips) of the pc board that the chips were mounted on was substandard, rendering the assembly incapable of operating properly with the faster CPU. I was advised to purchase new RAM assemblies on Samsung pc boards, which I did from Lisa McDonald (Buy Memory, now recently defunct as a result of the decline of PC sales) and the problem was cured. So I am suggesting that perhaps ( perchance ) the three offending machines are exactly the same, with maybe the same weakness. You might get the serial numbers of the machines and inquire of Dell if they are within the same batch. Of course you might take this action as a last gasp. From: Javier Valencia <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 1:07 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Mike, The problem happens on all 3 Dell workstation running Win7-Pro; the chances of all of them having the same or similar memory problem seems small. However, the first thing I did was run the full set of hardware diagnostics on all 3 workstations, including memory, and no problems were found. These workstations do not show problems with any other software, only with R:Base. I also thought it could be bad network connections, but this was ruled out when we connected Dell Win-XP workstations to the same network drops and all worked without any issues. I am still trying to evaluate if the update to the monitor driver and settings solved the issue. If this does not work, the next step is to add a video card and use it instead of the one on the motherboard. So far, the testing seem to point to the combination of the compiled version (have not tested the full version) with specific Dell workstation running Win7-Pro. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of mbyerley Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 9:08 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Javier, can you start your machine with the bios to test ALL installed RAM? It has been eons ago, but I had one of these unexplainable app crashes that eventually was tracked to a bad RAM chip. Just one more thing to rule out. From: Javier Valencia <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 5:14 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem I use a Dell Windows 7 laptop for all my development using the full version and by and large it runs ok; however, I only run the compiled version in this laptop to test that it starts correctly and do not normally run it in a production type environment. As I indicated before, the majority of the time the application crashes while just sitting idle and not, as far as I can tell, when it finds an invalid command. When it crashes at a specific location, I can trace the code and 10 out of 10 times I can find the problem. While the problem happens regularly, I cannot reproduce it reliably and hence I cannot submit it to RBTI. I have scrubbed the code to the best of my ability and I am 99.9% sure it is not code related but a compiler/Windows 7 conflict. I am using one of their computers as a test platform and I have made driver and setting updates that I am hopeful will shed some light on the problem. I have two other laptops running Win 7 Pro, one is a Dell and the other a Lenovo. I will load the compiled version to these two computers and see if I run into the same issue. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce A. Chitiea Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 1:14 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Gentlemen: I can do naught but offer this: ‘take heart’. R:Base 9.5 32/64 runs without heroic efforts on out-of-the-box Windows 7 systems, as it does on mine (HP and Custom). Granted, everything I do is post-DOS; I’ve no legacy to support, and that may be the biggest clue right there. I submit that Dell and Win7 made their peace years ago. So your observations seem to indict legacy DOS constructs, for which Win7 has no empathy generally. Legacy R:Base and DOS are not alone: Win7 savages ‘native’ WinXP constructs such as the MS-Java VM, for which there is VMWare. (That’s my Win7 breakdown story). Incidentally, have you investigated the compatibility and configuration of your PDF generator with Win7? Adobe? Version? Clone? May make a huge difference, as I discovered with another application. Best of luck, Bruce Chitiea SafeSectors, Inc. eCondoMetrics 909.238.9012 cell From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Javier Valencia Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 9:20 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Tom, Thanks for the update. The problem we have run into is that the screen starts to blink. It happens at random, many time when the application is just sitting idle on a menu doing absolutely nothing. In the last few days I ran all the upgrades, since the auto-upgrade had been turned off. Also, they use Viewsonic monitors with a 16:10 aspect ratio but they were using a Windows generic VGA driver using a 4:3 aspect ratio and at a low resolution. I installed the Viewsonic drivers using the correct aspect ratio and the monitor native resolution. We are still testing to see if the problems has been eliminated. This problem happens only on the Win 7 workstations, the Win XP workstation do not have this problem which leads me to believe it is a compatibility issue with the Dell Win 7 units. We have not used DOS command in long time and believe I went through the entire code many years ago removing all the DOS legacy commands, and the bulk of the application has been re-written in the last 4 years. Having said that, I will do a search of all the forms an look for the EXITFORM command, just in case I missed one somewhere. I will let you know what I find out. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of tfred Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 8:13 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Javier, Thought I had solved our Win7 problem by updating drivers. I was wrong. It came back when I ran reports. All our reports get saved as PDFs. Never had a problem on an XP machine. On Win7, it always failed at about the same place in the process. I printed out the EEPs to follow the process. This PDF section has worked every day for years under XP, making hundreds of PDFs. The exit portions used ‘ExitForm’ to clear the form. I changed ‘ExitForm’ to ‘CloseWindow’ because ExitForm was a DOS legacy and seemed the easiest change. Bang! Worked perfect in XP and Win7. Edited 23 other ‘ExitForms’ to ‘CloseWindow’ and recompiled. Ran through all the PDF processes without a hint of a problem. They all worked. All I can think of is Win7 simply does not tolerate DOS commands while XP does. I put ‘ExitForm’ back into the EEP, recompiled, and the errors immediately returned in the Win7 machine while the XP machine next to it just made a PDF like it always does. Maybe you have the same issue with your 3 workstations. Tom Frederick From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Javier Valencia Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:27 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Move to Win7 problem Tom, I feel your pain. I have been trying to figure out this issue with no luck for long time; I get this issue with 3 workstations running Win 7. A couple of week ago I did a complete upgrade of Windows and drivers on one of the computers where auto-upgrades had been turned off and it seems to have helped but not completely eliminated the problem. I keep thinking it is a video driver or a network issue but they do not have this problem with any other software, only the compiled version of R:base. When the application was flashing, I went to the Windows Task Manger and was able to get a “dump” for the dead application but I have not been able to find a software that allows me to look at the “dump” file and analyze the contents. BTW, the 3 workstation are Dell. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Frederick Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 1:56 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Move to Win7 problem We are upgrading our network. Moving from XP Pro to Win7 Pro with new desktops (i5- 3470 Quad core, 8 GB memory), and fast managed switches. The compiled database (64 9.5, latest updates) is on the server. XP machines run the database just fine. On the new Win 7 machines the same database lasts about about 5-8 screens in. Then it seems to flash 4-5 screens and exits all the way out. This never happens on our XP machines. It does not seem to matter which menu item is selected. I am running XP and Win7 machines side by side through the same switch trying to figure this out. Where do I look to resolve this? Tom Frederick President/CEO Elm City Center 1314 W Walnut Jacksonville, IL 62650 W- 217-245-9504 F - 217-245-2350 E - [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
