Peachtree Accounting Software Technical Help

General Protection Faults, Dr. Watson errors, Illegal operations and Lock-Ups are Windows environment errors and can be caused by many factors including memory conflicts, hard drive errors and hardware driver conflicts. Dr. Watson errors occur in both Windows NT and Windows 2000 environments and are the equivalent to GPF errors in a Windows 98 environment. You may also receive “This Program has generated errors and will be closed by Windows” on Windows 2000/XP/ME. Since these errors do not always have a clear-cut solution, this document describes how to perform basic troubleshooting techniques that will eliminate the errors.
Try any or all of the steps in this document to troubleshoot these errors:

A. General: When did the errors begin? Has new hardware been added or new software installed? How many software programs are actually opened when using Peachtree?

1. Write down the exact error message you received, as well as, what you were trying to do when you received the error. For instance, you may have been printing checks through the Payments screen, or you may have been entering Sales Invoices and Posting the transaction.
   
2. Note any other applications that were also open at the time of the error.
   
3. Close all applications and restart your computer.
   
4. If you are running Windows 98/ME, run the utility called Scandisk (This utility is not an option in Windows NT, 2000 or XP). Scandisk checks your hard drive for damaged files and looks for files that may have been written to a bad sector on the disk. Select Start from the Windows Task Bar, then select Programs, then select Accessories, and then select System Tools. Select Scandisk from the System Tools menu. When prompted for a method, select the THOROUGH method of Scandisk to be run on the C drive. If any bad or lost allocation units are found, contact the person in charge of hardware support or refer to your Windows documentation to help you with these errors. These are primarily hardware related problems and not software related issues.
   
   
5. If using Windows NT/2000/XP, From the Desktop, double click on the My Computer icon (Notice: Windows XP users may need to go to the start menu to access the My Computer icon), and highlight the drive you need to check. On the File menu, click Properties. Click the Tools tab. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box.
   
   
6. If using Windows 98/2000/XP/ME, run the utility called Disk Defragmenter. From the Desktop, double click on the My Computer icon (Notice: Windows XP users may need to go to the start menu to access the My Computer icon), and highlight the drive you need to check. On the File menu, click Properties. Click the Tools tab. Under Defragmentation, click Defragment Now. Click the Defragment button.
   
   Note:The above utilities may take a long time to run. Before starting the above utilities, make sure you have time to wait for the process to complete. Also, if you have any screen savers, they should be disabled because they will interrupt this process. Do not interrupt the utility once started. It would be best to run this utility at the end of the day or over a weekend to prevent interrupting normal business activities. You or your hardware support person must address any errors detected on your hard drive in the above steps before you continue. Steps 4 through 6 may require assistance from your hardware technician if you are not comfortable running these utilities.
   
   
7. Make sure you have the most recent batch release for Peachtree Accounting installed on your system. To perform the next step, you must have Internet access.
   
   a) If you have Release 8
   
   With Peachtree open, select Online from the menu bar and then select “Check for updates”.
   
   b) If you have Release 2002 or higher
   
   With Peachtree open, select Services from the menu bar and then select “Check for updates.”
   
   
   B. Closing Other Programs Running in Background
   Occasionally, other programs running in the background can cause errors in Peachtree. Do the following in order to close all other programs.
   
   1. Press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time. Doing this only once will cause the Close Program (Task Manager in Win NT/2000/XP) window to display.
      
   2. End Task on all other programs running except Explorer and Systray. If you end task on Explorer or Systray, your computer may shut down. If this happens, restart your computer and carefully end task on the proper programs.
      
   3. You can only End Task on one program at a time. Select a program and then click End Task. This will shut down the program. There might be a delay in closing certain programs and you could be prompted to click End Task again. If so, click End Task again to shut down the program.
   
   C. System:
   
   1. Edit your system files by adding certain parameters to these files, which will help Peachtree and other Windows programs run with fewer errors.
      
   2. If you are using Windows 98 follow these instructions:
      
      a) Select Start from the Windows Task Bar, then select Run and type SYSEDIT. Click OK.
      
      The System Configuration Editor will display your computer’s system files in an editor that allows you to make changes.
      
      b) Select the CONFIG.SYS window. We recommend that the following two lines be at or near the top of the CONFIG.SYS window and they have the following values:
      
      FILES=199 (Use the following value if on a server, FILES = 250).
      
      BUFFERS=32,0
      
      Edit these values if necessary. If the values are already greater, it is not necessary to edit the values because another application may require the greater value.
      
      c) Select File, and then select Save to save the changes you have made to these files. Exit the System editor by selecting File then Exit from the menu bar.
      
      d) You will need to Restart your computer for these changes to take effect.
      
      
   3. If you are using Windows ME follow these instructions:
      
      a) Select Start from the Windows Task Bar and then select run. Type system.ini and click OK. Scroll down to the third or fourth section which begins with the header [386ENH]. Place your cursor at the end of the [386ENH] heading and press the ENTER key to create a new line.
      
      Add the following line in the [386ENH] section: PerVMFiles=150
      
      And then click OK.
      
      You will need to Restart your computer for these changes to take effect.
      
      
   4. If you are using Windows 2000/XP follow these instructions:
      
      a) Select Start from the Windows Task Bar then select Search for files or folders.
      
      b) Search for config.nt on your local c:\ drive.
      
      c) Open this file by right clicking on it and select open with from the pop up menu and choose Notepad. (you may find more than one of these files, if you do, you will want to right click on the one that is in the system32 directory)
      
      d) At the bottom of the Config.nt file, be sure to adjust the files= line to reflect files =250.
      
      e) Select File then select Save to save the changes you have made to these files. Exit the System editor by selecting File then Exit from the menu bar.
      
      f) You will need to Restart your computer for these changes to take effect.
      
      Edit these values if necessary. If the values are already greater, it is not necessary to edit the values because another application may require the greater value.
   
   D. Memory:
   
   1. Peachtree Accounting 2005 (Windows version) requires a minimum of 64 Megabytes (MB) of RAM but 128 Megabytes (MB) or more is recommended. The more memory, the better.
      
      
   2. Peachtree recommends the following amount of free hard disk space in order for the program to function properly.
      
      a) If on a single computer or workstation, minimum of 3 times the company size in megabytes of free disk space.
      
      b) If on a server computer, minimum of 3 times the company size in megabytes of free disk space per workstation.
      
      
      
   3. Delete temporary files to free up hard disk space using the following steps:
      If using Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP:
      
      a) In Windows 98, from Windows Explorer, highlight the C drive by clicking on it once. On the menu bar, select Tools, then select Find then select Files or folders.
      
      In Windows ME/NT/2000/XP, with drive highlighted, just click on the SEARCH button on the top tool bar.
      
      
      b) In the Named box, type *.tmp and click the Find Now button.
      
      c) Once the search has finished, Select Edit then click on Select All, this will highlight all the temp files. Now select File then click on Delete to delete these files.
   
   
   Note: The temp files mentioned above are not program files. They are files that are created for a specific purpose and then are deleted when the program is closed. Some files are not deleted when they are no longer required and must be removed manually.
   
   E. Viewing/Printing a Report or Form
   If the error occurs when viewing or printing a report or form, the problem could be related to an incompatible or damaged printer or video driver.
   
   a) If the report or form is customized, check to see if the error occurs using the standard report or form. If the error does not occur using the standard report or form, then the customized report or form is damaged and it will need to be recreated using the standard report or form as a starting point. If the standard report or form causes the same error, then you will need to contact the manufacturer of your printer for an updated or alternate generic printer driver. You can also look on the manufacturer’s web site for updated and alternate generic printer drivers.
   
   b) If the error still occurs when displaying the report to screen and changing the printer driver did not help, then the problem could be related to an incompatible video driver. Download the latest video card driver from your manufacturer's web site.
   
   F. Damaged Program Files
   Open one of Peachtree’s Sample Companies (Bellwether Garden Supply, or Pavilion Design Group) and perform the same steps in which you received the General Protection Faults, Dr. Watson errors, or lock-ups or other errors in your company. If you receive the same errors in the sample company, you will need to uninstall and reinstall Peachtree. Be sure that you have the installation disks or CD before you start this procedure.
   
   Before continuing, make a current backup of your company data. A normal install of the Peachtree program does not affect your company data unless your company data is in one of the sample company folders such as BCS or !_PDG. Make a backup to a different location using a name including today’s date to be safe, such as MYCO-052902.
   
   a) Select Start from the Windows Task Bar, then select Settings, and then select Control Panel. In the Control Panel window select Add/Remove Programs.
   
   b) On the Install/Uninstall tab, select your version of Peachtree Accounting and click Add/Remove (or Change/Remove) button. This should start the uninstall program. Accept all of the defaults through the uninstall program.
   
   c) You may receive a message asking if you would like to remove shared files. If you get this message click “Yes to all”.
   
   d) After the uninstall is complete, Select Start then select Find then select Files and folders (in Windows XP/ME/2000 it will say search instead of find). Search for a file name w32mkde.exe, make sure you are searching your c:\ drive. If windows finds this file right click on it and choose rename. Rename this file to w32mkde.old. If windows does not find the file go on to the next step.
   
   e) Stay in the find file and folder window and search on wbt*.*. You may find more than one of these files (if you don’t find the file(s) continue to the next step). Right click on each of these files one at a time and rename all these to also have a .old extension.
   
   f) Restart your computer
   
   g) Reinstall Peachtree doing a standard installation and accept all the defaults.

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