HELP! ALOHA POS ERROR! 3

[dennyf]

Oh man, I don't know what I did, but I was changing all the menus around last night - go to restart the terminals this morning, and I am getting "Error - Item 178 not found" and it goes into a reboot cycle.
I didn't change any system settings - just menu stuff! I have Aloha 5.3. HELP PLEASE - we are totally down!!

 

[posknowitall]

The end of day most likely did not run. You will need to make that happen. The system is reading the trans.log from yesterday. If you already have a dated sub directory for yesterday with a trans.log you can delete the trans.log from data. Aloha does not like when you delete items in the middle of the day

 

[alohaakamai3]

The quickest way to get this back up and running is to go grab the item.dbf from a day or so ago (e.g. folder 20070905), paste it into the NEWDATA folder (it will want to overwrite what is there, say YES), and then refresh the system.

If you want to keep your menu changes that you already made, you could theoretically back up the ITM.DBF that's in the NEWDATA before overwriting it with the one from a day or two ago. However, I would just put the old one back for now and do the changes over again. Obviously, something is wrong with this one (it's corrupt or it's missing an item), and it can be a pain to track down.

This is more of an "old school" Aloha problem that we used to see a lot. If an item is attached to a submenu, and you delete that item, this would be the result (along with a pannicked phone call from a customer). However, I thought the newer versions like yours preventing you from doing this. Did you make these changes with through Excel or something?

A little tip: After you make changes, run the Verify utility under the Utilities. It's helpful for catching errors like this, and even smaller ones like forgetting to assing a Tax ID or putting someting into sales category. Even us old timers who have been working with Aloha forever still forget these once in a while too.

Friendly advice: It sounds like your trying to take the place of dealer for this restaurant. Nothing wrong with that, but I would keep their number handy if you're going to be learning as you go. Nothing will send a restaurant (and you) into a panic like when the system is totally down and you get it up and running quickly.

Tek-tips is a great place to ask questions, but not the best place for getting fast replies in a situation like this.

 

[dennyf]

Fantastic! I didn't realize there was a verify function - all kinds of stuff out of whack that I have to correct, and the Tax ID problem showed up on a few -- I'll give it a spin and correct things.

Yes - I am trying to "subsitute" the dealer, but not by my choice. I was hired to setup the networking, etc., and "oh yeah - think you can figure out this here system??". Never seen or heard of Aloha before, but they owner refuses to pay the local dealer to support it!! So I got tasked with it. So far, I have been able to figure out quite a bit just by messing around, but here and there I am getting tripped up. I wish there was a general usage manual (not the Users Guide or Server Guide) on how to what in day to day functions, or a best practices kind of thing. Haven't come across that yet though - but you guys are great, and until I convince him to let me at least hire the dealer hourly or I learn everything, I'll use this gerat resource!
Thanks for all you help!!!

 

[dennyf]

Ok -
So I corrected some errors, got the verify to run clean, yet am still seeing that 178 error. It appears to happen when the Term is reading the transaction log - here's the thing though...there are no dated files for the last 3 or 4 days. I looked at the event scheduler, and EOD was scheduled for 28:00 - not sure why?? I manually set it to run just now (we're not really open so it's no big deal), but there is no new folder. Could this be my problem? No data is being put on the \Aloha drive, and the Newdata folder has a trans.log from over a year ago.....

 

[posknowitall]

If you are not open, not live then just delete the trans.log out of Data. There should be no trans.log in Newdata at all. Refresh the data and all should be right. Aloha runs on a 36 hour clock. 28:00 runs the end of day at 4:00am. If it did not run one end of day for whatever reason it won't run it again on its own.

 

[Dem0s]

make an item with the same number. refresh. run end of day. remove the offending item. refresh. done.

 

[alohaakamai3]

POS is right on both accounts. The 36-hour clock is a confusing concept, but running the EOD at 4am for most places is a pretty standard practice.

Just as it's possible for Aloha to choke when it sees something on a submenu with no item to reference, it's possible that your transaction log reference that item at some point (probably on a check that is stil open), and crashing when it tries to read the transation log when it gets to that point. That's why you don't want it's generally a good idea to delete items during the busienss day. As mentioned, if you're not open, then just delete it.

For future referece-if I recall-the error message in this case is quite literal. Aloha is looking for item #178, and it's gone. You're not getting the error message with Verify, because that's just checking the database for inconsistencies-it's not checking the transaction log entries as well.

 

[bigblok403]

I've got a guide on my site that partially describes this. I actual just wrote a whole powerpoint on this topic as well. It's quite common.


The POS Forum

 

[dennyf]

Hey Blok - I was looking for that guide, but couldn't find it on your site - can you point me in the right direction?

thanks!

 

[uraua]

thank you alohaakamai3 for the info. i own a small cafe and just bought a 1 year old system version 5.3.33e. my local service people wanted to charge me $8000 to get set up! im fairly computer literate and the size of my small cafe wont justify such an expense. Whats the minimal support you would suggest to get me up and running. i need to use the swipe to process credit cards and im willing to program the menu myself. thanks

 

[Circle9]

I have also had this issue after deleting menu items. You just need to move the trans.log out of the DATA folder and then start Aloha (at least this worked for me)

 

[niko3k]

We have an issue with a customer and we need to remove a check from the system that is 2 weeks old. How do we remove a single check from history?

 

[Circle9]

As far as I know, you can't remove a check from the history. The only thing you can do is a refund.

 

[mictran]

Hey Dennyf, how you resolved this issue?
Thanks mictran.