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Project 2003 crashes when using filters

11 replies [Last post]
Mon, 2008-01-21 12:55
Niek Zonneveld
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Dear Planners,

Since a few weeks, a number of people in my company have a serious issue with MSP 2003 running on XP SP2. When an autofilter selection is applied or when one of the selection criteria in a custom filter is changed, MS Project crashes. It aborts with the regular message: We are sorry, MS Project needs to restart, etc. etc.

We have tried to solve the problem with complete re-installs, detect and repair, and various service pack’s, but so far to no avail.

Also reproducing the problem on a different PC is impossible, so the problem is not related to a specific mpp.

Anyone with similar problems (and maybe solutions)?

Thanks,

Niek.
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Replies

Thu, 2008-01-24 17:52
#1
Niek Zonneveld
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Joined: 17 Mar 2005
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We have found the problem!

It is not specifically related to MSP 2003; in fact you’ll probably have the same issue in MSP 2007 as well. Using any pull-down menu in a cell will cause a restart.

The combination with MS Project and HP fingerprint software (ProtectTools) turns out to be a bad one. Disabling the fingerprint device seems to be an effective workaround for now. To be continued...

H.T.H.

Niek.
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Wed, 2008-01-23 11:44
#2
Paul Smith
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Thanks Chaps,

Paul
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Wed, 2008-01-23 11:38
#3
Niek Zonneveld
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Paul,

Also remove any unused baselines because these can take up a quite some space.

Also, a "save as" to another file name can help in reducing file size. A 4000-line schedule should be around 6-8Mb.

H.T.H.

Niek.
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Wed, 2008-01-23 10:24
#4
Paul Smith
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Nieck/Alexandre,

My file sizes are typically 20mb, about 3k -4k lines and a few views filters etc.

The reason I thought memory was some of the MSP messages told me to close other applications blah blah.....

I have increased the virtual memory and it seems somewhat better.

I am going to try having my laptop upgraded to 1gb RAM from 512mb. I’ll let you know if it helps
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Wed, 2008-01-23 08:18
#5
Niek Zonneveld
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Joined: 17 Mar 2005
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I’m afraid the problem is not memory related as it occurs with any size file; even one with just two activities.

On my laptop (HP NC4010 with 1Gb RAM) I run up to 25Mb schedules with >10,000 lines and a huge stack of views, filters, modules, groups, etc. etc. and I’ve got no issues.

On the PC’s that have the problem we have done a complete re-install so all the filters, tables and views are back at the default values. (the problem persists)

I suspect it is related to an MS Office patch (not even necessarily MSP) because these users had no problem until a few weeks ago.

Normally, I’m a pretty resourceful guy, but in this case I’m clueless to be honest.

Cheers,

Niek.
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Wed, 2008-01-23 07:14
#6
Paul Smith
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Joined: 15 Dec 2003
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I am running 2003 Standard and getting similar problems. However out of 14 people working with it here only I have the problem.

I think it may be memory related?

Will more RAM solve this?

Regards,

Paul
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Mon, 2008-01-21 15:16
#7
Niek Zonneveld
User offline. Last seen 2 years 23 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 17 Mar 2005
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Hi Alexandre,

We use 2003 Professional, which is indeed relatively stable.

The PC’s have been used for quite a while by full-time schedulers who have had no problems with 2003 until a few weeks ago. (The entire department has received exactly the same updates (via Radia) but only three users have the problem.)

Their problems seems to be completely unrelated to the mpp because every schedule crashes.

I’ve found a similar issue in the MS blog: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=mi...

Cheers,

Niek.
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