Site constantly crashing

[Owen Drumm]

I have been with Actinic since version 1 and can now honestly say that with version 9 I have reached the point where I am seriously thinking of jacking it in.

Everytime I go to try and changed the colours in Design>Themes>Advanced Themes Configuration the site crashes with a dmp file. This query has been with Actinic since January and everytime I phone up there is no joy. What might I ask am I paying the support subscription for? Over the years I have probably used it three times!

Add to that the fact that I lost at poker last night and it makes me want to top myself!

[leehack]

Add to that the fact that I lost at poker last night and it makes me want to top myself!

If you do top yourself, please don't leave the software to charity, they deserve much better.

PS-You won't move a fish off a flush draw, so don't even try!

[TraceyHand]

how did I KNOW that the mention of poker would drag Lee out of his hidey hole?


As for topping yourself, don't make a mess. It's inconsiderate

[Goz]

I have to say, Owen, that there appear to be an awful lot of "circumstances" that can cause V9 to crash both with and without a DMP file.

I think UDVs can be a culprit (if that's the right word to use) - I think Lee's mentioned it in other threads before. And I think Duncan Rounding has also experienced this.

My latest experience of this has (hopefully) been resolved. A client using Actinic Business had his My Documents folder mapped to a network drive. This worked fine until they installed Windows XP SP3. Then it kept falling over when ever you changed a price and during a few other less common activities. We've changed the My Documents to be a local directory and, so far, fingers crossed.....

[leehack]

I have found a way round avoiding a lot of the DMP files and I think actinic have a good few improvements for the next release in this area. They suck and make using the software a chore at the moment, one should never be looking through half-closed eyes when they go to do something on a £1000 piece of software. I thought 9.0.3 was key, I was wrong, 9.0.4 is the benchmark now.

[grantglendinnin]

I have found a way round avoiding a lot of the DMP file....

Please, please, please - spill the beans!

[Benjamin Dyer]

Everytime I go to try and changed the colours in Design>Themes>Advanced Themes Configuration the site crashes with a dmp file. This query has been with Actinic since January and everytime I phone up there is no joy. What might I ask am I paying the support subscription for? Over the years I have probably used it three times!

Add to that the fact that I lost at poker last night and it makes me want to top myself!

Morning Owen,

Sorry for the frustration, I understand its hugely annoying. I have just had a quick hunt around to see if I can get to the bottom of this, however, it doesn't look like a common issue. With so many potential variables it is a little difficult to diagnose which could explain the delay.

Let me see what I can find out.

Ben

[leehack]

Please, please, please - spill the beans!

Sorry Grant, wasn't meaning it to sounds like a secret society announcement. I have seen huge improvements all over by doing one task at a time, for instance in site options or theme config, I make a change to one setting, apply it, ok it, come out and then reopen to do the next. This has stopped DMP errors for me in this area full stop. If I try to do multiple changes I can create one at will. The upload and snapshot issues are usually down to the online price layout selector having been emptied, that seems to stop an upload and produce a DMP file right at the start of the upload process, if indeed that is a problem you have.

I have reduced changed in the design library to an absolute minimum too, that area is borked and has been for 3 years, I think this is being seen as V9 problems, when in fact it's legacy V8 problems that were never fixed.

[Ben]

Hi Owen,

I've tried to find a record of your support query to find out the latest and get it moving, but unfortunately our latest record seems to be in 2006! I'm also struggling to find any record of your support subscription. I've tried ringing you, but the number we have doesn't receive incoming calls.

It may be that for some reason, we're wildly out of date on our systems, but that would be unusual. Would you mind sending me a direct message so we can get to the bottom of this.

Thanks,

[RuralWeb]

Dmp files are interesting. I have them infrequently now with my managed sites but recently started working on a site which has been upgraded several times and had several other designers playing. It is a right mess and was producing dmp files constantly for the owner. I have now cleaned it up and they have almost stopped so I'm reaching the conclusion that they are site specific tbh

[grantglendinnin]

Sorry Grant, wasn't meaning it to sounds like a secret society announcement. I have seen huge improvements all over by doing one task at a time, for instance in site options or theme config, I make a change to one setting, apply it, ok it, come out and then reopen to do the next. This has stopped DMP errors for me in this area full stop. If I try to do multiple changes I can create one at will. The upload and snapshot issues are usually down to the online price layout selector having been emptied, that seems to stop an upload and produce a DMP file right at the start of the upload process, if indeed that is a problem you have.

I have reduced changed in the design library to an absolute minimum too, that area is borked and has been for 3 years, I think this is being seen as V9 problems, when in fact it's legacy V8 problems that were never fixed.

Thanks Lee - at least I now know the way to design in the future. Import the products, not the design. I find if I don't click the 'Apply' or 'OK' button when making changes I will no doubt get a crash imminently. However, clicking the 'Apply' button sees Actinic display that mighty fine egg-timer that I even dream about at night.

Apparently evident bugs (one, two, three, four, five, six) in the software are not bugs - not that I'm trying to highlight this issue with Actinic!

From the past four months our company has learn a lot. Why pay for support you don't get? Simple answer: Don't pay.

*One severely disgruntled customer exits for lunch*