DHPos program closed with error, please help

[daleadmin]

Well I ran the mobile keyshop today and rang up 83 sales and the program died zero times.

This problem is real hard to fix because I cannot get it to happen. But I will keep trying.

Dale

[Powerbob]

I think it only happens when you have a lot of sales parked, which is normal for a bar. I think each time we got the error we had over 15 sales parked!


Bob

PS: we have now reverted to 6.39K again as cashiers are starting to get freaked out!

[brucef2112]

Hey Dale,
I did some serious testing on 640x. After a lot of working the register it did go south and dumped to the DOS prompt without any warning or error message.

This only happened once, so I can't say exactly what was going on when it dumped. However after restarting the program and pulling up random parked sales to view them and then going back to retrieve another I came across something that was consistent and a bit weird. Using the [F6] key to open a parked caused the program to return to the main menu instead of going to the parked sales screen.

Here's what happened;
Through some automation I created 200 parked sales each with one line item. I then opened each parked sale and added another item to the sale. I then re-parked the sale and then went back to open another sale and repeated this. About the 98th parked sale was selected something went bad. The program just dumped out to the DOS prompt without warning or error message.
So after this I have no answer why it did this however I came across this other buggy thing that I could reproduce and was consistent. This may guild you to find this crazy crashing problem or just another bug to kill..

With all the parked sales still there.
I go to the purchase screen. > [F6] Parked sales > select [4] "VOID this sale, retrieve parked sale." > [Enter] > Type a parked sale number > [Enter]

With the parked sale now on the Purchase screen do the following.

Hit the [Esc] key one time. (nothing seems to happen you're still seeing the same screen. Now hit [F6] > select [2] "Park this sale, start new sale" > [Enter] at the parked sale screen the program defaults to the same park number. Hit [Enter]

You are returned to Purchase screen. You now want to view another parked sale so hit [F6]. Notice that instead of going to the the parked sales screen the program returns back to the main menu.

This only seems to happen if the [Esc] key is press as outlined above. Otherwise the program works as its suppose to by hitting the [F6] key to go to the parked sales screen.

Check it out this might just be a problem on its own or may lead to the solution of the program crashing without warning??

In the mean time I'll go back and see if I can reproduce the first issue of the program crashing without warning and let you know if i find anything different.


Later,
bruce

[brucef2112]

Hey Dale,

With some help of some automation I started to retrieve each of the 200 parked sales (numbered 1 to 200) and Void them.

I was able to see the program crash six different times while Voiding the 200 records. Each time seems random even though the exact same steps are taken to delete each record. As I worked through the list, the program crashed on parked records 21, 47, 78, 110, 141, and 172. Its very strange. When it crashed on the 172 record I did see a flash of an error message but it went by too fast to read it. So I'm thinking the error messages are there but the computer's speed keeps it from ever showing on screen before it dumps back to DOS.

I'll do some more testing later to see if I can catch the error message.
Later,
Bruce

[MPS-POS]

Greetings all,
I'm one of the very few ex-electrical-engineering mums at my son's primary school, and as such I was asked to source a POS solution for our Uniform shop when the ancient cash register gave up the ghost... The principal supplied a very old, but functionally sound laptop running Windows 98, and we bought a new printer... Given our non-existant budget I was very pleased to find Dale's site... I initially downloaded v6.39 (or earlier).. installed and stuffed it on the laptop and had two very successful Uniform Shop Open days... all went well after a few hiccups with the printer were resolved with the PRINT2 program... Next time we came to use the system however, from the first sale onwards, I had a very similar problem to that posted here.. except that my system crashed every time the + key was hit to complete a sale. The current sale was displayed but the error message only gave the option to return to system... We managed anyway, just restarting for every sale, but we only got 1 receipt printed (2 receipts printing enabled), so we had no record of the days sales.. each receipt printing was followed by a 'closing' receipt which was, in most cases, all zero's, and the days closing reports were, not surprisingly, a mess... It turned out to be too difficult to verify the Inventory so we had to re-audit. I was not popular :-{...

Questions posed by Dale from other posts with a similar problem:
_________________________________________________________
Dale Harris: Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 10:14 am Post subject: Test
BTW, how large (in lines) is your stock table?

In my case: Max number of different items is set to 1,000 (the smallest value available?)
then; No, Yes, Yes, Yes, 0, No, no password entered.
Actual stock lines entered: 104 different items (we're a very little school!)
__________________________________________________________
Dale Harris: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 4:07 pm Post subject: New sale

So the problem happens only when you start a new sale no matter how many lines the previous sale had?

In my case: 1 line or several lines on sale - same result, on every sale.
______________________________________________________


I've now installed and stuffed Version 6.40 on my home PC to try to resolve the problems before the next Uniform Shop day on 15th June... The problem above has so far not occurred with the v6.4 (although "I had downloaded the 640x version and tried. What happens now, no error message appears and no blank grey screen, no warning, program just closed (when try to do the next sale) and back to windows screen. dhpos has to be start again from desktop. it happens 3-4 times a day." Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:58 pm... is a bit of a worry!)

However, I now have a different set of problems...

I do realise that this is a) an obscenely long post... b) not your problem... but I would be so humbly and desperately thankful for any help you can offer... I'm not looking forward to telling a group of computer illiterate mums that I couldn't fix it, and we'll have to go back to the little receipt book...

With v6.4 installed on my AMD XP 3000+ running Windows XP Pro v2002... with lots n lots of memory...

Problems now are:
________________________________________________
On POS SW start-up I get a green window stating:

This program has been frozen.....

the window is then covered by the POS Main Menu window; too fast to see more.. got this with 6.39 too.. This doesn't seem to do anything destructive... it's just worrying..

___________________________________________________
Problem 1: From main POS Menu:

7. CLOSE REGISTER

Displayes a closing report with a few unwanted 'sales' on:
Cash - OK
Check - OK
Gift Card Sales (disabled in config) ($)5389762.88 8224(units)
Gift Card Return ($)5389762.88 8224(units)
Net sales: 16169320.74
Total Tax -16000858.56
Gross Sales: 168462.18

I went to delete the Gift Card file in Folder 'name' to see if that would get rid of them.. but I can't find the folder - I do have GIFTCARD.EXE tho'
_________________________________________________________
Problem 2: From main POS menu:

8. REPORTS:

A. Total Sales
current display =
start date: 5/21/2007 (same result with date of last acknowledged reciept 5/18/2007 entered)
end date: 5/21/2007

on [+], [TAB] [F1], same result:
"Overflow in line 6 of module FILEINFO at address ODBE : 6849
Hit any key to return to system"
Happens every time a report is requested (note at bottom of window states "there is no record of past closing receipts"

B. Employee Sales (tracking sales by employee is enabled and there are 4 employees 'registered'..
"Enter employee number"... I enter [1] (me) = Disk error in red window with 10 disk error options.. try 1. = "Overflow in line 6 of module FILEINFO at address ODBE : 6849
Hit any key to return to system" exactly the same error message as above.

C. Hourly report
(I've done one 'sale' in the last hour...) 1. = worked perfectly; 1 sale at 23:00; correct.
_____________________________________________________________________

Although I can now complete sales without the system crashing I'm a bit nervous of these error messages - how to get a closing report? And I haven't yet tried receipt printing...

Sincere apologies for the dissertation, I'm trying to give you as much info as I can - any help anyone can offer will be more than appreciated.
Regards,
Lyn
Sydney,
Australia.

[Powerbob]

Hi Dale, since switching back to 6.39 (I had a complete backup )
the problems have dissapeared!


Bob

[daleadmin]

MPS-POS,

So what you are saying is that the POS program worked fine the first day you used it but on all subsiquent days the program crashes after the [+] is pressed on every sale? Are you still using the same version of the program? What is the exact version number you are using now?

The "frozen" message is in case the program freezes there. It will tell you the probable causes so that you can fix it. Since the program does not freeze there for you, you do not have any of the possible problems / conflicts that could cause the program to freeze. Ignore the message.

When you upgraded to version 6.40 the program stores new information it new places on your hard drive. If those parts of your drive had information stored there from previous program it would be read as really strange values in your closing screen. when you close out the register for the day it will reset all the weird values to zeros. That problem is fixed.

However when you reset the weird values to all zeros those values where then stored in your ??????.PS1 file which is used to generate sales report "A" in the "Reports" feature. You will get an "Overflow" error. So to solve this program find the data file in your POS folder that ends with the extension .PS1 and either rename it or delete it. "Overflow" may also occur in the employee sales reports. Close out the register again to fix it.

But you still have me stumped as to why the program will crash every single time when you press [+]. In the last two weekends I have rung up over 200 total sales using version 6.40 and it has not crashed even once.

Try downloading version 6.40 (not 6.40x) again and reinstalling it.

Dale

[MPS-POS]

Hi Dale,

My goodness, I wasn't expecting a reply the next day, let alone a personal reply! I'm sincerely grateful... In Response:

MPS-POS,

So what you are saying is that the POS program worked fine the first day you used it but on all subsiquent days the program crashes after the [+] is pressed on every sale? Are you still using the same version of the program? [all instances of the crash occured with the same version number; 6.39] version number you are using now? [Version 6.40, loaded onto my home PC rather than the old laptop on which I had loaded v6.39 - I planned to transfer the directory to the laptop for use in the shop once I'd got everything stuffed, up and rolling..]

The "frozen" message is in case the program freezes there. It will tell you the probable causes so that you can fix it. Since the program does not freeze there for you, you do not have any of the possible problems / conflicts that could cause the program to freeze. Ignore the message. [Thank you, Ignored it will be.]

When you upgraded to version 6.40 the program stores new information in new places on your hard drive. If those parts of your drive had information stored there from previous program it would be read as really strange values in your closing screen. when you close out the register for the day it will reset all the weird values to zeros. That problem is fixed. [I thought I'd 'upgraded' onto a 'virgin' system ... but on checking, you're right, I did transfer the 'old' file set onto my home PC while trying to recover the lost day's receipts... Noted, I will remove/rename all old files ]

However when you reset the weird values to all zeros those values where then stored in your ??????.PS1 file which is used to generate sales report "A" in the "Reports" feature. You will get an "Overflow" error. So to solve this program find the data file in your POS folder that ends with the extension .PS1 and either rename it or delete it. "Overflow" may also occur in the employee sales reports. Close out the register again to fix it. [Will do... I'll let you know how that goes..]

But you still have me stumped as to why the program will crash every single time when you press [+]. In the last two weekends I have rung up over 200 total sales using version 6.40 and it has not crashed even once.

Try downloading version 6.40 (not 6.40x) again and reinstalling it. [Will do, and I'll re-setup the original hardware/software configuration to (hopefully) get a screen shot of the [+] crash problem.]

Dale

Thank you again for your help Dale,
Best regards,
Lyn

[MPS-POS]

Hi Dale,
Eureka!... I do believe you've fixed it... ... I was amazed to find how many POS files I had secreted all over my PC... must have got very late at night while I was trying to fix it by myself !... Anyway, I have followed all your instructions to the letter.. and have been running v6.40 POS (on my PC) for a couple of hours (never wanna sell another 'test' item for $0.01!).. so far - not a hitch... the reports are all good, the gift card 'sales' have gone and I've been in and out of 'Purchases' like a fiddlers elbow with no errors....

I checked on the old installation and it was v6.39.. I haven't been able to rebuild the 'faulty' installation yet, but I will as soon as I can and send you a report if I can duplicate the error....

One last question if I may; I now have a working installation on D:\Apps\POS\POS.EXE of my home PC (my hubby insists all apps go on D: - I don't ask..) can I now just copy the whole D:\Apps\POS directory onto a disk and copy it up into the laptop? The laptop, however, doesn't have a D: drive... will this matter? Will the system modify any file names/locations that need it? Should I first copy the directory from D: to C: on my PC and THEN write to disk and transfer...?

Sorry if these questions seem dumb... I feel as if I ought to know the answers but eight years as a mum seem to erased a good deal of my technical know-how... or maybe its just the sleep deprivation !

Sincere thanks, again, for your patience, your time, and your generosity.. the world needs more heros!

Lotsaluv,
Lyn

[daleadmin]

MPS-POS,

Since the POS program does not register or install into to Windows, it does not care where it is. You can copy the whole folder to a removable drive and then copy it to any drive you want on another computer and it will work just fine.

Dale

[MPS-POS]

Thank you Dale,
You are a brilliant programmer, a generous human being and a gentleman. It's been a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

I'll copy and load onto the laptop as per your instructions and give you a full report of a seamless days operations at the next Uniform Shop open day.

Sincere best regards,
Lyn

[brucef2112]

Hey Dale,
I was doing some more testing of ringing sales, parking, and deleting as I previously did (see my previous posts). I was able to see the error message this time before it dumped to DOS.
ERROR MSG:
Out of string space in line 3 of module POS2 AT ADDRESS 288D:4CC3

Here is what I did;
Created 15 different sales with 1 item in each of them and parked them.
I then retrieved each parked sale and deleted them one after another.
After about the 10th retrieved parked sale was deleted the program crashed and had the error message.
I hope this helps find the problem that some of us are having with the program crashing.

I'll try some other testing.

later,
bruce

[brucef2112]

I was doing some more testing and came across the same error message as before; Out of string space in line 3 of module POS2

However unlike the other times when it happened while parking, adding to, or deleting parked sales, the POS died when I was at the main menu and selected "Purchase". It stayed showing the main menu and the error message was overlay on top of it. And of course hitting the Anykey dumped back to dos after that.

At the time this happened I had about 200 parked sales.
I deleted 2 of the parked sales.
I then went back to the main menu and this is when I tried to get back to the purchase screen and the program dumped with the string space error in line 3 of module POS2.

later,
bruce


7:49pm UPDATE ON SAME TESTING
I continued to delete the remainder of the 200 parked sales this evening with the following process and results. The string space error message continued to occur after every 10th parked sale I deleted.

Parked sales were numbered 1 to 200.
I started again where i left off at number 38.

From the purchase screen I did the following
F6 > 4 > [Enter] > (type the next parked sale number) > [Enter]

With the retrieved sale on screen I would do the following;
F5 > 2 > [Enter]

Which of course deletes the transaction. I would then repeat with the next parked sale.
All would be OK until parked sale 47 was retrieved. At the point of hitting [Enter] after selecting 2, the program would die.

This has happened each time I deleted the 10th parked sale. ie 57, 67, 77.

Each time it died I would start POS again in the same DOS window session . I also tried closing the window after the crash and opened a new DOS window. I continued to have the same results, ie 87. 97, 107.

Are we any closer to understanding why this happens? no...... but I'll keep at it and see if anything different happens.
later,
bruce

[daleadmin]

The usual cause of this problem is that as a program is used a string keeps having text added to it, without it ever being erased, until the string becomes so large that it uses all available remaing string space and you get an "Out of string space" error.

However if the program occasionally does a RUN command and then reloads the data to restart, it will reset ALL strings in the program. This <u>has</u> to solve the problem. However when I came up with a version that did this you folks reported that the problem got worse. ???????????

My only remaining thought is that this program has just gotten too damn big. There is no longer any room for the program to do housekeeping, like freeing up string space when the string is cleared.

So I am going to have to try to shrink the program somehow while still leaving all the features in place.

Wish me luck, this is going to take a while.

Dale

[brucef2112]

Hey Dale,
Continued from my previous post.
As this "string thing" has been consistent after every 10th parked sale being deleted I ZIPed the POS directory as a backup.

I then went ahead and deleted parked sales 111 to 121 as outlined in previous post. And of course the program died as it deleted #121.
I then restored the backup, opened a new Dos window and tried again with the same results.
I then took the backup to different PC (with AMD chip) and unzipped the program. As soon as I deleted #121 the same results occurred on this PC too.

So it seems I have a data snapshot that is consistent with the error msg.
If you think it may be useful in solving this "string thing" problem I am willing to send you the zipped file of my POS directory.
The ZIP file is about 4MB.

Let me know.

Later,
Bruce