Home Forums Discussions Problems Locks up on AC Splash Screen -- just says "starting up ..."

Lately one of my workstations, running Window 7 Ultimate, locks during initial startup. It just freezes at the initial Logo Screen at the "starting up ..." phase. It was working fine until about 2 weeks ago, progressively more frequent lock-ups since then, now always freezes at startup. I've tried reinstalling AC 6.3.3 but the same thing happens after reinstallation. All the other software at that workstation seems to be working fine. All the other workstations seem to be working fine. Any suggestions?

Have you tried a clean uninstall using Revo or Your Uninstaller ?

What about re-booting the server... maybe something is stuck in there. I've seen workstations appear to take a long time from the splash screen to the login screen. Sometimes re-booting the server helps. Other times, just time seems to fix the slowness.

I've been using the standard windows uninstaller to uninstall AC before each reinstallation attempt (I've done it twice). I've never tried revo but I've noticed that there is a free standard version and a professional version. Which one are you recommending? Does it matter?

Pro version is available as a trial for 30 days. You can either use that or the free version.

When we first tried installing and uninstalling AC, we also used the Windows uninstaller... but problems persisted. Others suggested Revo, which I tried, and that was totally successful. I've been using the free version, and haven't had problems with it (on many other computers too). Revo has 4 levels of "cleaning"... I've always selected the "deepest" cleaning. I haven't tried the pro version.

Did you try running Amazing Utilities? I agree, if that does not work, reinstall is simple to do. You can always set a restore point before that.

Great sugguestions Les, I will try a server reboot and the free revo suggested by you and Sandeep. I'll let you know how it works out, Thanks.

I run the Amazing Utilities every once in a while, just for the heck of it. I did not try if for this particular problem since all of the other workstations were working well. Thanks for the suggestion.

Did it work?

Actually the server reboot seems to have resolved this particular problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ron... I think I read it here on the user boards... maybe depending on your network configuration, you should probably reboot the server every so often (maybe 1 to 2 weeks). Also maybe more so for P2P rather than server/client.

One of the nice things about a server is that you don't need to reboot it very often. If you reboot it that often, you lose the advantage of a GB of pages in SQL.

Bert- we reboot our server on schedule twice a week as this has resolved our system slowing down to a snail's pace. Can you explain in simple terms your statement " you lose the advantage of a GB of pages in SQL"
Thanks

Here is how I explain available memory's impact on DB operations. Bert's may well be more erudite.

Databases consume part of memory to cache (hold) the information that is requested. This can be described as pages, trees, leaves depending on several factors.

That memory is like the available workspace in a shop; whether you work on bikes, quilts, machine parts, furniture - how much you can work on is limited by the workspace. You can have acres of storage space(think hard drive space), but that doesn't bear on your usable space (setting aside virtual memory).

So, in that workable space, the DB brings information out into the workspace as it is requested. Over time, data is aged, and as the space fills up, some information that is less used is put away, but performance actually improves if it is drawn from information already in the workspace.

Every time the server is restarted, the process of bringing data into the workspace starts over.

Sure,

I will try, but I may get some things wrong as I am not a SQL expert.

Depending on your minimum and maximum settings in SQL (amount of RAM), which can be set using the SSMS (a program to allow you to access SQL's inner workings), when you reboot your server, all of the memory in SQL is flushed. This memory is made up of pages (the smallest unit of data in SQL) So, you have data from your database in SQL contained in the RAM. As you know, data that is accessed from RAM will be accessed much more quickly than from a hard drive due to I/O, etc.

Each time you query the database for data, it will look at the pages first. If it can't find the data there, it will go to the actual database and get it. This will go to AC, but it will also be stored in memory in SQL. All the pages will stay there unless it is full and then the oldest page(s) will be let go. This is referred to as a memory leak which many people confuse with SQL showing it is using more and more memory in your task manager. You freak out because as the available memory for the server goes down, and you can most likely see that it is going to SQL.

I am going to guess that you are using 4GB or less on your machine. SQL will "grab" as much memory as it can as it is more efficient with more memory. Some SQL Servers (not the Express versions) are unlimited in the capability of how much RAM they can use. So, if it is unlimited, and your server has 64GBs of RAM, eventually your server will be very slow or crash. So, when your SQL Server Express grabs its 1GB of RAM, your server becomes very slow, because it doesn't have much RAM left. Remember, with 32-bit machines and only 4GBs of memory, it isn't 4 minus 1 = 3, it is 3.2 minus 1 = 2.2 - everything else on the computer that is requiring memory.

The more memory and the more pages in SQL the more efficient it will run. But, the server will run more slowly. Also, if you have 12 users, SQL can easily handle the 12 users querying data at the same time, but your SQL Server is acquiring memory/pages four times faster than a 3 user office.

There are four things you can do to remedy this. The first is to make sure your virtual memory (properties in My Computer) is 1.5 times your memory and hopefully on a different drive. Secondly, using SSMS (you will need the sa and password) you can set the minimums and maximums for SQL. So, your max could be 600. Kind of splind the difference between SQL performance and Server performance. Thirdly, you can go to a 64-bit OS and add RAM. Even a machine with 8GB isn't going to hiccup at a mere 1GB of memory. Obviously a SQL Server which can use 16GBs with a server that has 32GBs will be very efficient, but for a small office it is probably not necessary. The fourth thing is what you and a lot of people do, which is the Band-Aid approach it is rewarded since the server gets new speed and life when it gets all of SQLs memory and other memory and now has 2.5GBs or so of memory to use. But, this comes at the cost of losing all those saved (used more often) pages.

Hope this helps.