Actinic V10 - Cannot open

[Brightstar]

Hi,

Up until two days ago V10 (0.01) was working fine. I linked to an external spreadsheet to manipulate stock data, after checking with Actinic Support that I had done it correctly.

That was not a success as now I am unable to open V10. I contacted Support who are unable to get me working again. They have had no success after two days, virtually constantly on the 'phone.

After re-installation of V10 I can open the default site, BUT, as soon as I try to import a snapshot, it just hangs for ages and does not import the snapshot. Using task monitor is the only way to break out, and when V10 is re-opened, the 'splash screen appears... 'Actinic is loading' ... 'Initialising Site Objects' then again it just hangs.

They suggested and I have tried :

Un-installing V10 and all associated folders/files and registry entries.
Re-installing V10 and importing snapshot
Stopping/disabling Act Sync Server
Deleting the Excel spreadsheet/link
Un-checking the External Files link
Compacting/repairing the database
Disabling Mole-End One-Stop Orders (was working excellently up until the above)

All of which has not worked.

Has anyone any idea how to solve this problem as I am effectively unable to do anything. I getting e-mails as orders come in, which I cannot download, and cannot process any existing orders.

[Rich Brady]

Steve have you tried importing an earlier snapshot?

I t may not be up to date, but at least you would be able to download your orders.

Was there anything other than stock that you were updating?

[Darren B]

could you tell me what AV program your are running? I have had this issue with V10 freezing at start up, ialso had it in the V10 beta

[Duncan Rounding]

You cannot link stock to an external file if you are using online stock control - perhaps this has caused a problem?

Do as suggested and import an old snapshot for now and then get your snapshot to support for checking.

[Darren B]

You cannot link stock to an external file if you are using online stock control - perhaps this has caused a problem?

Do as suggested and import an old snapshot for now and then get your snapshot to support for checking.

If this has caused the problem, then is it possible to open the DB and change a setting there?

[Brightstar]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.

WebD -I have tried at least five different snapshots of differing dates - it will not import any of them. It was only stock.

Duncan - I do not use live stock control so I don't think that caused the problem?

Darren - I am running V10.01 - KEUB - if that's what you mean? I sent a copy to Support today - it opened and ran fine at their end - but they cannot tell me why it will not run on my machine - by the way I use a stand alone PC.

[AndyBorrett]

I would be tempted to nip down to your local Tesco, buy a new PC and get your orders downloaded. You can then sort out the other problem at your leisure.

[Darren B]

Darren - I am running V10.01 - KEUB - if that's what you mean? I sent a copy to Support today - it opened and ran fine at their end - but they cannot tell me why it will not run on my machine - by the way I use a stand alone PC.

No what anitvirus and firewall software are you running?

[EdHarrison]

Get it on another machine so you are operating and dealing with orders, if support have your V10 running their end it points to a machine specific issue - hard drives when failing can cause exactly this kind of impossible problem...

[Brightstar]

Ed, the machine is less than six months old. I am running Sage, Dreamweaver and other 'meaty' software with no problems - it only seems to affect V10.

Darren, sorry running ESET AV, but it has always been on the machine, and ran alongside V10 with no problems.

Just to re-iterate, after a delete and fresh install of V10, I can open and run it, it is only during or after an attempt to import a snapshot do I have the problem.

Support told me that the snapshot that they were sent by me 'runs and is technically correct'.

[Mike Hughes]

If it imports and runs for Actinic but nor for you it implies that it's something to do with your PC. The fact that a fresh install still has the problem suggests that it's either:

a) Something else installed is buggering it up. The AV software is a prime example of software that can interfere, so I'd try doing it with eset turned off or even removed. Just to see if there's any change there.

or

b) A registry problem. Settings in the registry often persist after an un-install so one way around this would be to un-install V10 and then to delete any V10 registry settings before doing a restart and then re-installing V10.

Mike

Edit: Ah, I see from the list above that you've already tried deleting the registry settings. This is an odd one and there are so many things at work here that it's impossible to pin down what's causing the problem.

[Brightstar]

Hi Mike,

Think I have tried deleting registry entries after a fresh install under guidance from Support.

Can anyone suggest which registry entries I need to be looking at so I can try again?

[Darren B]

Ed, the machine is less than six months old. I am running Sage, Dreamweaver and other 'meaty' software with no problems - it only seems to affect V10.

Darren, sorry running ESET AV, but it has always been on the machine, and ran alongside V10 with no problems.

Just to re-iterate, after a delete and fresh install of V10, I can open and run it, it is only during or after an attempt to import a snapshot do I have the problem.

Support told me that the snapshot that they were sent by me 'runs and is technically correct'.

Thats the one, ok please just right click on your taskbar icon then click disable real time file protection. then restart actinic. You might need to restart the pc then disable real time file protection

As for HDD failures this is possible, as corrupt sector will cause loading issues, the check run scan disk on your hdd, it will require a restart to activate this btu i would try this after disabling realtime file protection

Darren

[Darren B]

Another problem i have come across is backups, if you have something like memeo the this can cause issues aswell. It backs up files when it sees a change, starting actinic cause the db to be changed so the backup software starts to do its things and actinic hangs. You need to configure how these run aswell

[Mike Hughes]

Whe you say Actinic 'just hangs', how long are you leaving it for before killing it? and how many products do you have?

I've had 'freezing' for up to 39 minutes when opening Actinic V8 with external links and it may be that you need to give it longer. Once loaded it often runs fine.

see: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=23638

We never tied down exactly what the problem was and V9 was much better, but things to watch out for include:

1. Keep the linked spreadsheet as simple as possible.
2. Make sure you have any externally linked images such as seals, logos, tracking, addthis, share, etc blocked from preview.
3. Same thing for javascript calls. This could also be AV dependent.
4. Changing the cacheing value also made things much faster.

In fact, try everything in this thread http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=41800

I'd suggest you try leaving actinic to load for ages (hours if necessary) to see if it eventually comes to life and then try checking all the above suggestions.

Mike

Edit: try Darren's suggestion as well. Particularly if any of the above apply (such as external images and scripts not being blocked in preview).