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General Questions ALL PRODUCTS: Things to try first when you experience a problem with any application ERROR TYPES: The difference between the different types of error messages OS ERRORS: Error messages with negative numbers like: -34 SYSTEM ERRORS: There are too many items to display error, Internal Error Message, System Errors, also application bomb, crash, or freeze. ALL PRODUCTS: Things to try first when you experience a problem with any application 1. RESTART YOUR COMPUTER Call any support line and one of the first things they have you do is restart your machine. 99% of the time this solves it. The computer environment is a dynamic thing that changes constantly. Once-in-a-while things get out of whack. If you are getting a new strange error, don't panic, restart. 2. RESTART WITH EXTENSIONS OFF If the issue persists also try restarting with the memory resident extensions off. You do this by starting the machine with the SHIFT key held down. Continue to hold the key down until you see the "Welcome to Macintosh?Extensions Off" window. You may then let go of the key. Try the software again and see if it still persists. If not, review the extensions from your systems Extension Manager and using trial and error turn them off and on to determine which is the culprit. Many times it is not the extension, but the order in which the extension loads. The commercially available Conflict Catcher is a utility that may help. 3. REBUILD YOUR DESKTOP Restart you computer and hold down the OPTION and COMMAND keys until you see the "Rebuild the Desktop?" dialog. 4. RUN A DISK UTILITY Lastly check your drive with a good maintenance application like Disk Warrior or Norton's Utilities. Over time your drive will develop bad spots that can be avoided if you maintain it regularly. Even so if data is saved to a bad area of your drive you can get corrupted files. This can be the source of errors in any application. If you find that a DesignSoft file has been damaged, stop and fix your drive first. Once your maintenance application fixes the problem and reports everything is OK, then try and restore the particular file to the folder where it lives. TOP ERROR TYPES: The difference between the different types of error messages There are 2 different type of error messages that you may occur. OS errors and application errors. Application errors are internal error messages from the application itself. OS errors are errors that come from the Macintosh Operating System and are passed to DesignSoft. TOP OS ERRORS: Error messages with negative numbers like: -34 OS Error 01, 02 Most of the time this means not enough memory has been allocated to the application. This may pop-up suddenly in an application that has it's data increase over time. It can also be due to bad RAM or corrupted Virtual Memory and as with almost any error this can also be due to an extension conflict. Try getting info on the application from the Finder and allocate more memory adding 1024k each time. If that doesn't help then turn extensions off and see if it persists. If so try running the application from another computer (if possible) and see if it still happens. OS Error 31002 This error may come up if you have recently added a new printer and have not set it up in the OS9/OS-X Classic Chooser. Start Creative Billing and the Open the Chooser under the rainbow color Apple Menu to the left of the DesignSoft Menu. Choose your printer on the left and make any changes to the settings on the right side of the window. Be sure to open any invoice formats and estimate formats and resave them using the new chooser information. OS Error -34 A DesignSoft application is trying to save data to the drive but the MacOS is reporting a disk full or disk locked error. If you're saving to a local drive be sure your drive is not full. If you are working over a network check to be sure your computer has full read and write sharing allowed on the host machine. OS Error -35 1. Probably means that you tried to open an alias on a machine that is not on the network (No such volume). If you are trying to open a StopWatch File alias, make sure that the machine on which the file resides is turned on and connected to the network. 2. If you get the error in Creative Billing running under OS-X Classic. Check to see if you are running Norton Anti Virus. Some versions of NAV have a conflict that disables Creative Billing from saving changes. Disable NAV and see if it persists. OS Error -39 Probably means that a file is empty or corrupted (Attempt to read past end of file). This could also mean that the file was compressed but that the compression software is not present to decompress it. If this is a compression problem, try to decompress the file. If it is not a compression problem there is not easy answer - call us. OS Error -43 DesignSoft could not find a file that it expected to find (File not found). Try to rebuild your active and archive job lists(under the Active Menu). Refer to Rebuilding Job Lists in the Active Jobs chapter of the manual. OS Error -47 (From OS-X Classic) If you get the error in Creative Billing running under OS-X Classic. Check to see if you are running Norton Anti Virus. Some versions of NAV have a conflict that disables Creative Billing from saving changes. Disable NAV and see if it persists. OS Error -48 DesignSoft tried to create a file but its name is already in use (Duplicate file name). You should rebuild your active and archive job lists: Choose "Active Jobs" from the "DesignSoft" Menu. Next Choose "Rebuild Active List" under the "Active" Menu. You may also rebuild the Archive jobs list from this menu. OS Error -54 DesignSoft was denied access to a remote file (Permission violation). This probably means that you were trying to import from a StopWatch time sheet that is currently in use. Try quitting StopWatch on that machine, or try importing when that machine is not in use. OS Error -108 There was not enough memory to complete the operation in progress (Heap full error). There is not enough memory allocated to the application you are running. Quit DesignSoft and increase the amount of memory available to the program. • To increase the memory allocation, single click on the DesignSoft (or other module) application icon and select "Get Info under the File Menu. Change the applications Minimum and Preferred memory settings by adding 1024 bytes at a time until the error goes away. OS Error -192 DesignSoft could not find a resource that it expected to find (Resource not found). This could mean a number of different things. If you are low on memory, try increasing the memory available to DesignSoft. If you were trying to display a job, the job has probably lost its remarks, and you will have to send it to us. Or if you are trying to print, you probably need to select Page Setup, accept the settings, and try printing again. TOP SYSTEM ERRORS: (bomb, crash, or freeze)/ There are too many items to display error/Internal Error Message SYSTEM ERRORS If you run into a System Error (a bomb) or if DesignSoft unexpectedly quits, check to see what other software may have been running at the time. DesignSoft should never bomb on its own. There are no extensions known to conflict with DesignSoft, however, if you continue to experience problems, try restarting your machine with extensions turned off. THERE ARE TOO MANY ITEMS TO DISPLAY ERROR The Mac OS, not DesignSoft, limits you to 1000 items in a normal folder. However neither the system or DesignSoft will stop you from saving more that the limit to the folder. Actually you may save more than 1000 files into a folder, but the system will just not display more than that to you at the system level or to DesignSoft at the application level. If you are currently getting this message it is time to act as you may have a tough time sorting it out later. Here are the following places you may see this error: INVOICE DOCUMENTS: If you are trying to save or open invoice documents from DesignSoft, the system is telling you that it cannot list all of the files in the selected folder. Try creating another invoice folder, and move as many files as possible into the newly created folder The software does not need or require you to save a copy of the invoice document, but you may very well want to for your own use. Make a new folder inside your DesignSoft folder and copy up to 999 items from the Invoices folder (located inside the Current Data folder.) name it something like " Invoices 2002" Check the volume every few months to make sure you not nearing the 999 mark. DesignSoft will always save new copies of the invoices to the default Invoices folder located inside the Current Data folder. Just remember to move the files to a different folder once a year and name it something like "1999 Invoices" for example. ACTIVE JOBS: If you are getting this message when you try to initiate a job then you need to archive your old jobs. The fastest way to archive many jobs is with the optional DesignSoft Batch Archive Module. If you have ordered the Batch Archive Module in the past then it will be located inside your DesignSoft Folder. It uses simple drag & Drop to move all your jobs from the Current Data Jobs Folder to the Archive Data Folder. If you do not have Batch Archive you can still archive your jobs one-at-a-time inside Creative Billing. To archive a Job, display it and select Archive & Delete under the Display Menu. Repeat this for as many jobs as it takes to make the error message stop. ARCHIVE JOBS. If you are getting this message when you try to archive a job then you need to either move some out with the optional Batch Archive & Delete Module (see above) If you don't have Batch Archive then rename Archive Data Folder from the finder. To rename the Archive Data folder quit Creative Billing and all other DesignSoft Modules. Next open the DesignSoft Folder. Find the Archive Data folder and change name from Archive Data to something like "Archive Data 2002". Start Creative Billing again and it will automatically create a new Archive Data Folder for you to continue to use. REBUILD JOB LISTS If you find you must archive your jobs or rename your Archive Data Folder because of this error then you may also have to rebuild either the Active Jobs or Archive Jobs Lists or both. To rebuild either list: Select "Active Jobs" under the DesignSoft Menu. Next select "Rebuild Active List" or "Rebuild Archive List" under the Active Menu. Based on which file you asked to rebuild, DesignSoft will read each and every job in either the Archive or Current Data Folder and rebuild the file. Check the list again and see that the problem has corrected itself. INTERNAL ERRORS An internal error is a situation which should not logically ever occur; if such a situation does occur the program can do little more than notify you. Internal errors are almost never related to data files, extensions, or Control Panel settings. If you do see this message, try quitting DesignSoft and trying the operation again. If the problem persists, please contact us. TOP