>>Hi,
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>>I have a POS system that is currently running in 22 Wine and Spirits shops in Ct. All but one runs without a hitch. That one is driving me crazy.
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>>The symptom: Scan a bar code and the system hangs for almost a minute. This is intermittent. It happens 2 or 3 times a day, no discernible pattern. There are two registers, one of which hosts the data in this peer to peer network, and it happens on both of them. The only difference in this store from the others is his workstations have 2G of memory and all other stores have 1gig or less. I did restrict the memory use by VFP.
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>>I added a SET COVERAGE for the part of the app where it adds products to the sales list. The coverage file does NOT have any long pauses listed. Maybe it is possible that the entire machine is going to sleep ?? Even the system clock ??
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>>I brought the main computer to my office and reloaded the entire app and then loaded his data. Even with two other work stations attached, it worked flawlessly all weekend. Took it back to store and same problem.
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>OK, it sounds like something at the store environment.
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>Do they have stable electrical power?
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>Check the network switch, router (if present) and cabling. Sometimes, especially in small, cramped stores, switchgear gets put in a closed cupboard or drawer somewhere with no ventilation, and can overheat, especially in warmer weather. Check that all cables are Cat5e or better - should say right on the cable jacket - and that they have not been damaged by being bent at sharp angles or strained (especially at the back of the PC in a confined space), rolled over by office chairs or stepped on/tripped over. This assumes, of course, it's a wired network. If wireless, get rid of that and replace with wired.
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>If there is a bad network card in the non-"main" computer at the store, that could be effectively taking down the whole network as well. This can be difficult to diagnose precisely but a replacement PCI network card is only about $10 and is usually pretty quick to install and test.
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>Sometimes PCs are also shoehorned into small, unventilated spaces in retail stores. They might overheat there as well. It might be a good idea to pop their cases and vacuum out excess dust. Check that all fans are working - power supply, CPU, Northbridge, display adapter if applicable etc.
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>Check for unique software at that location - are they running a different AV program than your other stores? Is that AV programmed to autoscan local hard drives once or more per day? Have you excluded VFP file types and temp files types from AV scanning?
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>Is there any other software running in that environment that is unique? Or, any unique hardware like webcams? People plugging in iPods to charge them (which can hang low-power USB hubs) and/or make Windows pause while it tries to automount the iPod's file system? People plugging in and syncing cell phones/PDAs?
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>As you suggested, check the power settings on the PC in Control Panel - safest is "Always On" and ensure that hard drives and network adapters (if controllable) are never powered down. Disable hibernation and standby.
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>Check that if a screen saver is enabled it is not a CPU-intensive one (fire up Task Manager before it comes on, take a look at the graph after it's been screen saving for a while).
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>When you were testing with scanner(s), were you testing with the store's scanners or your own? Did you test with their cables as well - keyboard wedge/USB/serial, along with their power adapter(s), if any?
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>The above are the reasonably easy things to check and try. If they don't help you may need to do some deep machine checking:
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>- upgrade motherboard BIOS if newer one available
>- install motherboard drivers such as IDE/"chipset" drivers rather than relying on default XP drivers
>- in general, check all drivers and make sure they are the most recent available and exactly correct for the hardware

I hope I never need it, but I just printed that out. Thanks!