Macola 7.5 103f crashes on Windows 2000 and Windows XP

[JDMiller]

I am having an issue with some of my Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines running Macola 7.5 103f. When some users attempt to open or open and close Macola throughout the day Macola will crash the system and reboot displaying the following

This system has recovered from a serious error. A log of this error has been created. Please tell Microsoft about this problem. We have created an error report that you can send to help us improve Microsoft Windows. We will treat this report as confidential & anonymous.

Then it says do you want to send this error?

Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[stravis]

Yes, you want to use TCP/IP for the Pervasive database communications. You could use SPX but TCP/IP is a better option.

The files under the Macola70\users directory are used to track who is using the system and for managing the number of licensed simultaneous users allowed in Macola at one time. These files need to be periodically deleted, because they get orphaned when the Macola client shuts down abnormally.

As to your original error, could you please provide the additional technical data that is available from the error reporting message box. This data may contain essential information that indicates the source of the error.

Scott Travis
infoSpring, LLC.

 

[JDMiller]

So the Novell server should be set to Novell TCP/IP and Novell SPX? This is what the Pervasive documentation lists.

Should the workstation client be set to Microsoft TCP/IP or both SPX and IP?

The error box does not provide any useable information. It is a hex dump with no obvious error message in the event viewer.

 

[vbajock]

There is an client set up option to try TCP/IP first, then SPX. You should set it that.

 

[MacolaHelp]

I migrated my 5.1 or > novell sites to tcp/ip as it is the first protocol pervasive tries to resolve by default. I set the pervasive server configuration to tcpip only & use lmhosts locally if I have problems with name resolution. I also set the workstation protocols to novell & ms tcpip only, turning off net bios & spx. Also, 4.9 netware client has problems with xp. Use 4.82 sp2 instead. You should also use the novell uninstall client utility to remove 4.9 if you have already installed. I still haven't heard if you actually get a btrieve connection or odbc connection through the use of a non-macola tool such as btrieve maintenance to open a file or connection via MS Access or MS query, etc. If we knew you could open files through these connections, then it is something with macola & pervasive at the workstation level. Can you specify if you are psql200i service pack 3 or 4? You may need sp4 & hot fixes since xp was pretty new when sp3 came out. There was limited support for xp clients when sp3 first came out. If you run PWE, you might have an issue with the nwsqlmgr not loading properly on server reboot. Since pwe makes the odbc connection, that can also be a problem. It is fairly typical that users who get "blown out" of their sessions leave stray user tmp files. You should monitor these & delete them regularly.

 

[JDMiller]

We are using the Novell 4.9 client. That may be part of the problem.

We also use Magic Software to access the Macola files along with other .btr files. Magic does not appear to have an issue functioning. Nor does Crystal Reports when retrieving .btr records.

We do not use PWE. Our Pervasive 2000i is on sp4.

 

[MacolaHelp]

Just some basics: check your free disk space on your novell server. You should have a minimum of 25% free. Also 2x the size of your macola database should be free. If you are in the danger zone, consider cleaning up the db by initiailizing audit files & purging aggressively. After purging, you need to rebuild or export, initialize & import to downsize files. Lack of free space can cause serious performance issues and lockups. Use the purge /a to remove files in the deleted.sav folder. This is always the first step I perform on a netware server that I haven't visited for a while. In the macola\users folder, make sure the novell rights are set to purge immediate. Crystal and magic are opening comparatively fewer files simultaneously than macola (57 files for multiple level item view, for example), so their proper performance means btrieve is working, but your macola problem is from some other source. It's also probably time to do file validations, fix errors found. Once you identify which apps are crashing & you have free disk space, use the technique of export, initialize, import in the files involved in the crashed processes. Why do this? Sometimes, files can become so fragmented due to low disk storage or you might have a couple of bad sectors the file currently resides upon. When you export & initialize you allow the file to be recreated on a new, optimally segmented space on the hard disk. Since you are novell 5.1, I assume this server has been running for 3 years at least. Sooner or later, you have to do some file maintenance when you have a server in production this long.