Version 5.5 > multiple SSP problems and failures
We have a dual system. We have the latest SSP 5.5. We have an admin account and user account and SSP is run on the user account. Sunday's program is routinely done on a work station, packaged to go, and uploaded. Two people, spouses, do 99% of the work on this computer and program. Work station and projection computers are regularly and frequently defragged, cleaned up, scanned for pop-ups and viruses. Room is kept locked. Only 4 media people have the password to log on. Until about 3-4 weeks ago everything was peachy. Suddenly we have a series of problems:
- Songs put into a specific program, Save AS, songs disappear the next time the program is opened. They disappear from the program and SOMETIMES from the data base.
- Songs are spontaneously, mysteriously duplicated. E.g., 6 copies of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", 2 of "Draw Me Close", 4 of "O Worship the King", etc. ad naseum.
- Songs filed under the wrong letter of the alphabet. E.g., 6 copies of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" filed under the letter "F."
- Unable to delete mysterious duplications. Computer says "Unable to delete. Song is in Use." when nothing is in use.
- Able to delete mysterious duplications, but if I choose one, SOMETIMES, ALL are deleted.
- Background images put in, Save As. The next time the program is opened the images are there, but a song or two is missing, along with the images tied to them.
- Editing changes made to songs, Save As, and the next time the program is opened the editing change is gone.
- Editing changes made to songs and computer refuses to make the changes. These can be spacing changes, display properties changes, word changes, capitalization changes., anything at all.
- Error appears. Computer asks, "Do you want to report error?" but it won't let us. Heh, Heh, Heh! HAL lives!
Fowler Tech support suggested I update my Index and that this should be done regularly if you load in lots of new songs or make lots of editing changes. It is not mentioned in the book or help file. (Tools, database utilities, SSP, rebuild indexes). This did not help with any of our problems.
I have done a complete and thorough uninstall on the Projection Computer. I downloaded and installed the program from Fowler. Now, SSP is installed only on the User side of the computer. It is no longer on the Admin side. I did NOT save or install a backup of the database. The only songs in the database were the ones that came with the download. All songs are correctly filed alphabetically.
A new program was created on the Projection Computer. It was not imported. All songs were saved to the User database. Two stock hymns were cloned. The clones were renamed, edited and saved.
During song practice, three of the songs in this first post re-install program needed minor editing changes. None had been cloned from a Stock Hymn. All had been brought in using the clipboard function. In two cases, after the editing changes were made when the operator pushed SAVE the computer put up a notice that “Changes to Stock Hymns is not permitted. Do you want to save to User Hymns?” Neither song was a stock hymn; both had been brought in from CCLI using the clipboard and both had been saved to the User Hymn database. The third song would not accept the editing change, which was a change in Edit Song > Edit Song Sequence. In order to make the change the operator had to remove the song from the program. Put the song back into the program. Then the sequence change was permitted and the operator could save the change on the song and save the program.
Obviously, there is still some sort of problem. I will no longer create workstation programs and package-to-go. I can still create the program on the workstation and then copy the program to a Word document (Print Program > Copy to HTML > Paste to a Word Document) and email it to myself. I can then copy the songs to a clipboard and import them that way.
Do you have a permanent solution? Based on the post re-install events, we suspect that the problems we have been experiencing are not gone, but will come back to plague the Projection Computer.
A suspicious related problem: On my workstation: I imported a song, put it into a program and Saved As. I emailed a print copy of the program to myself. Everything was included in the copy I sent myself.
When I opened SSP on the workstation later all of the lyrics for the newly added song were gone. The general information was still there, but the lyrics were gone from the program and the data base.
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...Until about 3-4 weeks ago everything was peachy. Suddenly we have a series of problems:
My intuition suggests this kind of problem is difficult to solve on a forum because of one of these reasons:
a. Is there any other software of any kind experiencing a problem? If so, maybe there is an intermittent hardware problem such as memory (probably not a bad disk since disk errors don't usually show up this way) or bad motherboard. If ALL other software runs correctly then this is likely not the problem.
b. Other clues leading to a solution may not be obvious and therefore not reported.
c. There is an internal software problem that we have no way of helping with.
In order to make the change the operator had to remove the song from the program. Put the song back into the program. Then the sequence change was permitted and the operator could save the change on the song and save the program.
A suspicious related problem: On my workstation: I imported a song, put it into a program and Saved As. I emailed a print copy of the program to myself. Everything was included in the copy I sent myself.
When I opened SSP on the workstation later all of the lyrics for the newly added song were gone. The general information was still there, but the lyrics were gone from the program and the data base.
I'm not sure what you mean by you have a Dual System. Two user accounts, or two systems or what?
When these problems all started, did you just recently upgrade anything on the computers? (Including SongShow Plus and drivers etc...)
We have dual monitors.
Although we had SSP on two user accounts, the only account that SSP was ever used on was the User Account.
We are only having problems with SSP. All other programs are working just fine, but this computer is used almost exclusively for SSP. Once in a while a Word doc is created on it. The internet is accessed from it--email, CCLI, Music Services, freefoto.com. We do not run PPT through SSP or at the same time. If one is open, the other is closed. PPT is primarily run on a separate system. It has only been run once through the projection computer in the past three months.
Nothing new in either hardware or software or dirvers has been installed in the past 3 months. The only upgrade was to SSP from Fowler's site, but we were already having some problems.
Everything was removed yesterday and re-downloaded. All old worship service programs were also removed. Our entire database was wiped. The only thing in the SSP database is what came with the download from Fowler and the new songs that were added for the worship service for this coming Sunday. The new songs were added directly to the Projection Computer via clipboard and CCLI. The new songs were saved to the User Hymns database.
One should be able to make editing adjustments to the song sequence without shutting the program or the system down. (select song > Edit Song Sequence > Save.)
Prior to the total uninstall of SSP we updated the Index, however that did not improve performance or help solve the problems.
I don't know why it suddenly started. We began creating the weekly programs on a workstation in Sept 2004, package-to-go, burn to a CD, uploaded. We only began having problems within the past couple of months. The problems began slowly--refusal to save a change, unexplained lock-ups of the system, the odd duplication of a song in the index, and gradually grew much worse.
The fact that we immediately had problems after a total uninstall/re-install does not bode well.
If the song lyrics contained "incompatible embedded characters" then they came from CCLI or from within SSP. The song was imported via clipboard from CCLI, and then edited within SSP, and saved. Only the lyrics were missing, the title, author, CCLI #, and copyright info were still there in General Properties and the song title was still in the database.
Originally, the Projection Computer was divided into an Admin account side and User account side. SSP was on both sides. Yesterday, when SSP was totally removed from the Projection Computer, it was re-installed only on the User account side...
I think our next step will be to totally wipe and reformat our harddrive. Reload everything and start totally fresh. The most important thing we had was the SSP database, and that's already gone anyway. I can replicate that, although it will be time consuming, it is doable.
I knew it would be foolish to import our User Hymns using SSP's backup utility and import our problems, so I put every User Hymn into a program, went to Print Program, saved it to the cliplboard, pasted it into a Word Document, copied that to eliminate the formatting boxes and repasted it into a second Word Document so I could save the text only. I also pasted the CCLI # next to each title. We can now copy each song to another clipboard and import it back into SSP. It sounds more complex than it was. Replicating the data base will take a little time, but every song will have the proper line layout, punctuation, words, and the sequencing will be evident too. We won't need to go back and put all that stuff in as we have to do when we import a new song directly from CCLI. All we will need to import from CCLI will be the copyright info.
Thanks for your help.
Dave
I also posted a topic SSp Issues - in addition to the issues I mentioned in that thread our SSP program has experienced most if not all of the details mentioned in this original post. It might be as suggested that SSP has a conflict with something else in the toolbar. In our case it is strange that the program runs fine for weeks or months and then the same re-occuring issues appear. In discussions with Tech Support it usually ends in uninstalling and reinstalling the software. We just installed a new computer and we are locking down who has access to it as well as what programs are run on the system. We will see if this makes a difference or not.
Dave
I really feel for you guys. In reading your posts, I can't help but wonder what happened in the interim to the computer before it started acting goofy. That is usually where you will find your answer. Did you update windows or any drivers?
I can honestly say that we are also very protective of our projection computer. Nobody sets up the programs but me and then only certain people are allowed on it to run it. Whenever something starts acting up, it is because I updated windows or a driver or something like that. We use the software a lot and I have never had to refresh our indexes. SSP has always known where everything is and I package to go the programs all the time. Another thing to note is that I never move stuff around. I'm too chicken. I always keep the images, slideshows, songs, etc. in the same place on both computers. I just feel like I don't want to confuse SSP.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but hopefully technical support will be.
This brings up a good point. Is there a way we can get Fowler to escalate a call to R-Technics, rather than just giving up?
Generally speaking yes. They will escalate if they can't resolve the problem themselves. However in thise case I took the issue over myself and have been working with them to get things resolved.
There was a bit of a communication error going on so it was to be escalated to me anyway. I just took it over on my own first.