Home Forums Discussions Problems 4.x Beta Tester Feedback.

Is anyone successfully using the Beta version in practice? Would you please provide some feedback? I tried it on trial computer and got rather confused with the installation, updating database etc . I have the database alone on a server (after my main computer crashed) and all other computers working off it. So, in theory, I do not have a main computer. How did you install it? Is the converted database stable? Is it working ok? Is the synch working? etc.
Thank you in advance.

I am the Network Admin/IT Guy for our medical practice with a couple of docs. We currently run the database on the server and have version 4.0.45. We use XP Pro on all the desktops and although I wasn't here when it was all set up things are running very smoothly thus far. I have not tried the synch because I had read in a post in January that it wasn't working correctly. I will be testing it this week though because we are going to need to do something like that for a provider that will be going out of town to see clients in an educational setting.

Am running 4.x on 6 computers (all xp pro)and it has been very stable. As I undertand it, 4.x must be installed over 3.7.15 and be installed with SQL in the main computer. The converted database is no longer *.mdb but *.xml.

The program is faster and more reliable. However some actions use too much of the CPU resources (up to 100% usage) and will slow it down (or slow down another app). For example, saving an office encounter ('Sign It') uses a measly 14% but saving a message ('Save to Chart') uses a whopping 100%.

I thought I had replied, but it never showed up.
I am running 4.052 in one office on about 7 computers. Echoing what every one else has said, it is faster and seems stable. I have not had resource issues.

The backup does not seem to provide regular backups automatically, there are some weights that incorrectly show up in red, minor problems overall. Early on, there were some problems about logging in from a non administrative windows account, but that is no longer an issue.

A new release notice came today, looks like they are tackling the synch problems, it was clearly stated before that synch was not working. I had not tried it.

I would probably install the program on the server and it will convert the database. It may require as stated above that you have actually installed 3.7.15 first.

DoctorWAW,
I thought - mistakenly it seems - that my CPU resource issues were AC related. Since your post, I started running AC4.x alongside Task Manager to determine when the usage spikes up to 100%. It happens on these occasions invariably on all 6 computers: Pressing "Save to Chart" when saving an inbox message, pressing the square button "Messages" in the top-left corner, and when logging in.

A transient spike should not be a problem but when I'm running MSWord concomitantly there's a momentary 'freeze', even in my better computer with 5200GHZ, 4GB ram.

I thought it was from - what someone in another forum labeled as - inefficient database caching with SQL. But if you're not having it, it must be my msconfig startup & services.

I use 4.045 and am getting ready to go to 4.057 - only glitch has been Vista Home machines - works best with full install on each (vista) computer (tell it to install so you can take and synch) and they are slower with some things,but I think this has to do with Adobe, etc.

The full install got rid of an error where I had to go elsewhere and do some patch to make it work.

Leila
I did notice that the machines were sometimes running slow, but it did not seem related to AC. When I increased memory to 1G (xp machine) it made all the difference in the world, but I do not think it was related to AC, I had a problem with them going into hibernation.

Specific tasks within AC did not seem to have a problem. I would sometimes have AC, IE and Open Office all open without a problem even before I doubled the memory.

I am planning to make the jump to hyperspace on Friday 2-20-09. We will be closed for attendance at a conference and I will stay home and get this done. I will keep my fingers crossed.

DocotrWAW,
But during those times it was "running slow," were these specifically associated with a CPU usage spike? Have you tried running Task Manager alongside AC? I messed around with my msconfig but I still get the CPU spikes to 100%.

The freeze - esp when using another app - is momentary and tolerable but still annoying.
Thanks.

Leila, as a professional SQL Server Developer, I raised my eyebrows when I read this. The real question is how is AC connecting to the database.

ODBC/MDAC? SQL Native Client?

That may be where the "issues" are!

gkfahnbulleh,
I honestly don't know what those letters mean. Maybe you can enlighten us. As I mentioned, the phrase 'database caching' was posted in another forum by someone apparently having the same problem as I am.

But the question that gnaws at me is: Why does an entire office encounter consisting of two pages of text take 14% of CPU usage to save, but a single line of an inbox message takes 100% ? The delay adds up to several precious (annoying!) minutes a day.

IF it is not AC – related, then it must be my setup. I am looking for someone – maybe that's you - to point me in the right direction so I can fix this issue in my system. (But just for the record, nobody has actually come out – in this thread at least - and tested the CPU usage in their systems to prove that it is not AC-related).

Apologies to Zak, I had no intention of hijacking your original post.

I went to AC inbox - opened some messages, filled scrips and saw instantaneous blips on the cpu usage from 4-30%, opened a note an saved and saw instantaneous blips of up to 50% (all on my server), but these are instantaneous and other people are using my server also. I am not sure this is a "real" delay - it is still relatively instantaneous when I do this - no real pause.

When I run my filezilla downloading program I get a longer jump up to 30-40% and when I open AC for the first time I get 1-40% as it does each of its steps to run - my server runs 1-10% just at idle (other computers accessing it).

I am not sure that using the CPU usage meter really means a lot - I think it is like our brain - some tasks turn it on and use it for a bit, while others we do without thinking (often that is talking without thinking.....).

Just my thoughts.

Just so you know - when I hit submit on the last message - it jumped to 46% for longer than it did when I did messages in AC.....

Leila, these are architectural questions Jon Bertman can answer.

1) How much of the version 4 database is in SQL Server?

2) How much of it is still in Access?

Leila,

I don't know if this will help or explain anything, but I found this article at SearchEnterpriseDesktop.com. It's free to join. I would have posted the URL, but due to having to joing, I just copied and pasted it.

If you type "PERFMON" without the quotes in the run command of a computer on your network or on the server, you can monitor quite a few things. Basically, the article talks more about average usage rather than spikes. I'll let you read it, and see what you think. I would be interested in how it relates to your issue.

One of the most common symptoms of a memory leak is that as time goes on, the computer runs slower and slower. Its speed is restored with a reboot, but it soon begin degrading again.

However, a memory leak is not the only condition that can cause these symptoms. They can also be caused by malware or by a poorly written application that consumes an excessive amount of CPU time. How can you tell how much CPU time an application is consuming, and whether that CPU consumption is a problem?

Determining application CPU usage
Determining how much CPU time an individual application is using is simple. Just press CTRL+ALT+Delete, then click the Task Manager button. When Task Manager opens, the Applications tab will display a list of all the applications running on the server.

Windows won't actually display the amount of CPU time that an individual application is using. This is because Windows looks at the amount of system resources consumed by a process rather than an application. An application is made up of one or more processes. To see how much CPU time a process is using, select the Process tab.

The bottom of the screen below shows the total number of processes running on the machine at the given moment, along with the total percentage of CPU resources in use. The main part of the screen displays each individual process along with the percentage of CPU time the process is currently consuming. This screen displays both system processes and processes related to user-mode applications. The last process listed is the System Idle Process, which isn't a process at all; it refers to how much of the CPU's processing power is going unused at the current moment.

Any one of these processes (with the possible exception of the System Idle process) can momentarily consume all of the system's processing power (100% CPU utilization). However, this does not necessarily indicate a problem. The only way to really find out whether a process is consuming an excessive amount of CPU time is to watch the process over time, and look at the average amount of CPU time it's using.

Tracking CPU usage across systems
Windows' Performance Monitor is not designed to track the CPU usage of individual processes, but it can track CPU usage across the entire system. The Processor\%ProcessorTime counter displays the current CPU usage similar to the way Task Manager does. The difference? This counter allows you to view average CPU consumption in addition to current CPU consumption.


If average CPU consumption is consistently above 80%, that's usually a problem.


If average CPU consumption is consistently above 80%, that's usually a problem. But looking at average CPU utilization isn't enough. To determine if a process is having a detrimental effect on the CPU, you must know how the CPU is being used.

In some cases high processor utilization means that your system is struggling to keep up. In other situations, the CPU might have a high utilization value, but is actually working very efficiently. In these situations, a high utilization value is often caused by an access number of interrupts. Interrupts occur when drivers or operating system subcomponents need to access other hardware components, such as the hard disk.

Performance Monitor counters
There are several CPU-related Performance Monitor counters that you can watch to get a better idea of what's going on with your server's CPU. The System/Processor Queue Length counter displays the number of items that are waiting for the CPU to become available. If this queue regularly exceeds two items, the CPU is not performing adequately.

As I mentioned earlier, interrupts caused by hardware devices that need to access the CPU. The Processor/Interrupts/Second counter allows you to watch how many processor interrupts occur each second. The number of interrupts per second that are considered normal varies from server to server.

But if a hardware device is getting ready to fail, it will often generate an excessive number of interrupts. If the number of processor interrupts per second seems high compared to your other servers, and there does not appear to be enough activity to justify the spike it interrupts (such as disk access), it could be a sign that a hardware component is failing.

The Processor/% Interrupt Time counter shows you what percentage of time the CPU spends servicing hardware interrupts. Again, watch for spikes in an interrupt activity without a corresponding increase in system activity.

Of course our goal is to determine whether the amount of CPU time spent on a particular process is healthy. The Processor/% User Time counter shows the percentage of time the processor spends on user mode applications. Note: This counter only looks at non-idle CPU time. If this value is consistently high, it doesn't necesarily mean your CPU is being overworked; it simply indicates that a disproportionate amount of the CPU's resources are being spent on user mode processes as opposed to kernel mode processes or interrupts.

The Processor/% Privileged Time counter shows the percentage of non-idle CPU time being spent on kernel mode processes. If this value is disproportionately high, it either means that the user mode applications running on your server are not consuming much CPU resources, or that excessive interrupts are occurring and that a hardware component might be getting ready to fail.

Improving the CPU's performance
It's okay for an application to have disproportionately high CPU utilization so long as the system's CPU utilization as a whole is not consistently above 80%. If that's the case, you need to find out why. If you determine that the excessive CPU usage is related to the applications running on the server, it may be necessary to either upgrade the processor or to move some applications to a different server. Another option is to use processor affinity to assign each application to a specific processor.

Note: Applications with memory leaks can cause the CPU to work excessively. As a system's available RAM decreases, the system relies increasingly on the pagefile. The more heavily the pagefile is used, the more time is spent swapping pages between physical and virtual memory.

This page-swapping process consumes both CPU time and disk time (which also consumes CPU time in the form of interrupts). If your system seems to the paging excessively, look for applications with memory leaks and correct them. If no memory leaks exist, try increasing the amount of RAM installed in the server. Doing so will often improve the CPU's performance.

Bert, while the article is correct, the question still remains:

In a client-server architecture, how much work is being done on the server and how much is being done on the client?

Let me give you an example:

Lets say we want to find all patients with the first name james and then order the results by last name in ascending order (A-Z).

The SQL Query will have two parts:
1) SELECT * from patients WHERE first name='James'
2) ORDER by LastName ASC

The speed of this query depends on WHERE the ordering is done and there are 2 scenarios:
1) Send the entire query to SQL Server and have the server do the 'SELECTING' and the 'ORDERING'
2) Send only the select to SQL Server and have the CLIENT do the ordering.

The most efficient way to do this is to let the server do the processing and return the result set exactly as it is desired. This way the CLIENT is only DISPLAYING, ALTERING and SUBMITTING DATA. The server is doing the PROCESSING.

The most efficient client server systems we use today are WEB PAGES that transact business. The browser is only used to display the data, and does no processing on the client. The processing power of the client is irrelevant. All the data is sent to the server to process. So when we are looking at our bank transactions the data is not sent to the browser for organization and processing, instead we see a grid that displays all the rows of data we need.

I have run task manager and I never had excessively high CPU use. It was running slow coming out of hybernation and insufficent memory. When I increased ram, no more problems. It was not a CPU use issue though.

Hello

Could someone who ugraded from version 4.0.52 to 4.0.57 share some of the issues and lessons learned? Anything we need to be aware of? Planning to do the upgrade this week because of the updated CPT codes.

Thanks in advance.

Sekhar

You have to run the database tuner (download from the same beta site as the 4.0.57 installer) before using 4.0.57. Otherwise, no issues.

No issues here, except now there is 4.0.59, which I have not upped to yet.

Thank you John and Wendell for your feedback.

Sekhar
Athens, GA

I have been using the 4.058 , I have xp server and 10 other computers - mixed vista buisness , basic ,home premium , xp pro ,xp media, xp tablet.They are connected via gigabit to a router , switches.All Ac utilities indicate a Db acess time of < 1.9 seconds on all computers .Runs very well except:

1)The letter writer when saving letters puts the heading as patients name instead of who you are sending it to

2) If you add a new contact to send a letter to , you have to close out the whole program and restart it to have the new recipient show up in the actual letter , otherwise ,even if you select the new contact , the adresee is blank

3) quest labs load and show up superfast compared to the V3- this is not a complaint

4)The new review window still takes a long time to open /change , no matter which computer I use or its speed

5) Saved signiture not showing up when I print the letters

6) the e- prescribing is great , I just wish it would aso sync-up the drugs from the Ac list up to the server instead of only syncing only the drug back to Ac when you close it

OK, so I didn't have the date of the conference correct. We were closed today, and made the switch. Thanks to tech support for the help making the shift. A few minor things and a lot of grunt work, loading on each machine etc. The Pictures of the patient did not make it onto 4.0 but when you go to up load a new picture in the demographics page it says, "do you want to replace the picture" So apparently the pictures are not lost but the pathway is lost. A very minor problem as we have been remiss getting the pictures in. We will tackle this next week.

So Far, So Good. Couple of insignificant glitches, (the id photos are temporarily missing). We will have a list of glitches for Wednesday for the IT guy to deal with. I believe these will all turn out to be issues of the pathway on our Server with it's RAID 5, blah, blah blah. Lots of drives and labels, most everything is fine, so we will have a little fine tuning on Wednesday when we are sure that we know all the glitches. Just the speed of operation, especially opening the labs is WELL worth it. Awesome. Rx's are a little more pro, minor things really, just the speed is awesome. I did not do the download we have an IT guy that comes in and I left it for him. Stupid me, I didn't do the backup the night before, so he had to run it first, and I didn't secure the permission for Beta test nor did I download the program, both of which I could have done ahead of time. Download on our internet is very slow, so that added to the time involved. All in all a pleasant way to spend the day. Now lets knock CCHIT out of the way and get the practice management done! (LOL)