HAI PC Access Update... Caution

[purplehayes]

Hello,

Just thought I would put this up there in case anyone else has seen this. Tonight HAI has released an upgrade to its PC Access. For me this upgrade scrambled my software leaving it all in a jumble of numbers and codes in place of names. Corrupt.

Regards

R

 

[PaulD]

I also updated from .53 to .55 but had no problems on my XP machine. Made some changes to my code and uploaded to my OPII. No hint of an issue yet.

 

[HAI_fjh]

If you encounter any problems with a PC Access upgrade you should contact HAI tech support immediately and report the problem.

As far as PC Access Version 3.2.0.547 we have not had any reports of account file corruption (other that this one here). We have had 16 reports of people having trouble downloading the update, all were due to the fact that the web server was swamped for a few hours. It happens when 3000+ people try to download the update in the first 2 hours...

We try very hard to thoroughly test new version of PC Access before they are released. Occasionally things are missed and I apologize. To protect yourself I would strongly recommend implementing standard data protection practices like regular backups.

If there is a problem we want to correct it, so feedback and reporting problems is very important. When reporting problems, the more information you provide the quicker we can isolate the cause of the problem. Start with the basics. What is your OS (XP/Vista/Win 7, Home/Pro/Ultimate, 32/64 bit, service pack level, etc.)? How much RAM? Controller model and firmware version? Is it a new install? Did it ever work? Did anything change since the last time you ran PC Access? Exact steps to reproduce the problem...

Some problems can be very difficult to track down. One problem that was fixed in version 3.2.0.547 was related to User Settings and only occurred if the last user setting was of type Duration. The last User Setting could be any other type and there was no problem. All of the User Settings could be Durations except the last one and there was no problem. But if the last User Setting happened to be a Duration, it was ignored when building a programming command.

Without the detail that it was the last User Setting this would have been extremely difficult to find.

Please help us to help you.

 

[edselrt]

Mine updated without a problem.
edselrt

 

[PaulD]

I also updated from .53 to .55 but had no problems on my XP machine. Made some changes to my code and uploaded to my OPII. No hint of an issue yet.

Oops...my reference was to to an Automation Studio update. However, I also updated PCAccess to the .547 release with no problems (yet).

 

[HAI_fjh]

OK purplehayes is not crazy. There is a problem...

Yesterday we began receiving some calls about messed up screens... Well it appears that on some PCs the user version of PC Access 3 fails to load the text resources. I was unable to duplicate on any of my test systems, but one of our tech support guys was able to duplicate it on his system. All three versions (Dealer/User/Lumina) of PC Access use the same code to load these resources, and it works on some/most PCs. I am suspecting some slight difference in the .NET framework from system to system. Anyhow I added some additional error checking to detect and correct the problem.

The bottom line: no data is corrupted, it is merely a problem with the text displayed on the screen. It appears to only affect some PCs and only in the end user version of PC Access 3 version 3.2.0.547.

A new build of all PC Access versions has been posted. If you are experiencing this problem, please update your PC Access now.

NOTE: Some users also reported a null reference exception when starting the "bad" version. If you are seeing this error, just click Continue, then go to the main menu Help > Check for updates. Just click Next (right button), the Download (center button), then Next (right button) until the program closes and the update install begins.

I can not over emphasize the importance of accurate error reporting. A fix for this problem was posted in less that 1 hour from the time the problem was verified.

Once again I apologize for any inconvenience.