Clients data locked-up

[Teresa]

Sunday afternoon my employee called and said she got a "blue screen error" (fatal exception) she restarted the computer and it seemed to be ok and then about 15 minutes later when she went to wait on a client it wouldn't let her.....said the clients.mdb was being used exclusively by another user or did not have permission. Any ideas why this happened Andy????
Helios had no explanation as to why it happenend.
To resolve it I was able to copy the transation database from Sunday on to my desktop, use my backup from Saturday to restore clients.mdb and then copy the transaction file back into helios and didn't loose anything. Thankfully it was not April and we had no new clients that day!!!!
Any ideas on why????

[Andy]

Strange Helios gremblins ... actually in fairness more likely Microsoft Access gremblins related to leaving the Client.mdb in an unstable state following the Windows Operating System failure.

Teresa, following the steps you outlined ... be aware ... if you use any Helios Accumulators for Packages of Sessions, Minutes or Points, the additions (new packages purchased) and subtractions (any tan used against packages) will now not be reflected on the Client Profile records that occured on Sunday up to the "blue screen error". Also any change on Prepaids, Bonus Bucks, Account Balances during that timeframe would be impacted.

Also be aware that if and when you start using V10, there will be other considerations. In V9 the only table within Client.mdb is the Client_Profile. In V10 the Client.mdb also includes the following tables and you would need to consider further possible impact.

cnum (last client # assigned), comments, CSumDept, CSumDiv (summary by client of purchases by Dept and Div), EFT records and Service detail records.

Teresa, your approach to resolving this problem under pressure was exactly what I would have recommended, just want to highlight the other issues that you could review to ensure that you maintain the integrity of your Client Profile records.

Hope this helps ...

[Andy]

Also wondering, did you continue to use the live Helios.mdb or the Saturday night backup Helios.mdb

If live ... no issues

If Saturday night backup ... issues

Your inventory quantities would be impacted by Sunday sales up to the blue screen error.

The DeptSum and DivSum tables displayed on your Summary screen would be impacted by Sundays sales up to the blue screen error.

Any comment record on Sunday would be missing.

There may be other, but you get the idea.

Hope this helps ...

[Teresa]

HHHhmmmm, interesting food for thought, thanks for making the wheels turn so early in the morning ......thankfully she only had about 30 clients and only sold a couple of lotions and 1 package on Sunday.

I think you were right about it not really being helios but rather Microsoft Access issues. I know those little gremlins just strike when they want to but, I hate it when things go unexplained!!!!!

[Andy]

Oh be assured Teresa, there is an explanation ... but between Hardware, Windows, Access and Helios ... it is not always easy to point the finger with certain conviction of the cause and somethings it is involves multiple issues.

THANKS BE for Backups ... and can you imagine, some Helios Users DO NOT DO THEM regularily.

The transaction record file shows the results in each accumulator AFTER that transaction was processed, if you compare the LAST transaction for each client processed that day to the Client Profile data (consider if the client has had additional transactions since Sunday) you will be able to identify the records that need adjusting via Master Edit.

All the best ...

_________________

Andy Thompson
ACT Business Solutions
Toll-Free 877-777-6717
andy@atso.ca
ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2002-11-19 07:38 ]