RH8 encounters errors

[Susan_Darling]

Hi. I upgraded my very large RH7 to 8 a few weeks ago and now it's crashing so regularly I can hardly get any work done. It takes all day to do about an hour's worth of work. I can edit a topic or two and if I check in my source right away, I can save it but only until it crashes again. Then I have to check out a fresh project to work may 20-30 minutes before it starts the crash cycle again. I am struggling to discover the thing(s) that may have caused this point of no return. Cut and paste from Word docs across the network to my local project? Delete a Word import that went awry inside RH Explorer? Rename files inside the topic list? HELP! I am under an avalanche of work without a shovel to dig out. I've tried recreating from the .hhp file - won't build.

[RoboWizard]

Welcome to our community, Susan

Sorry but I don't have an answer for you. Instead I'd like to clarify something.

You said you are checking in and out. Does this mean you are working with Source Control? If so, which system? (RoboSource, Visual Source Safe, CVN, something else?

Have you tried working with a project that is not part of Source Control? If so, does RoboHelp seem to be stable then? (Trying to isolate where the issues may be)

Cheers... Rick

[Susan_Darling]

Thank you. I am using SVN source control and no, I do not have any "uncontrolled" projects. Though my SVN is across a network, my problems didn't start until I imported my RH7 project into RH8. Coincidence?

The specific app error I get it "ModName: mdbms.dll." I see there was a post on this a few years ago...could it still be an issue?

Does having other applications open affect RH's stability?

Here's what happens, I check out a fresh copy and can work about 15 minutes before it crashes. Then when I reopen the project I can MAYBE work 1/2 the time before it crashes. If I reopen the project to finish and save what I was doing, again, the time I can work it 1/2 again until it won't even reopen. If I check out the project again, I can repeat the cycle to work for 15 more minutes. NOT a very desirable work flow, especially under an avalanche of documentation to get it for last Monday's product release!

I sure appreciate your reply and hope you have some divine inspiration.

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Susan. Can you create a new project that is not controlled by version controlled and so does not have to be checked in/out. Maybe even open one of the dummy projects and see if you can work on those.

[Captiv8r]

Dummy projects? Are these projects that have been created by dummies?

[Susan_Darling]

Yes, Tech Support suggested I try my edits/imports in one of their sample projects and I had not problem. They felt that meant my project was corrupt but I am not sure that was a good test. Was the Web Graphics project an RH7 upgrade? My project is also very large and so I wonder if these are valid factors. I need version control...is that suspect? Are you familiar with the mdbms.dll error at http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=rb_26268 ? Does this offer any clues? What does mdbms.dll do?

[Susan_Darling]

RE: source control, I deleted all the .svn directories out to a working copy to see if that association was a problem...it made no difference. any other ideas?

[Susan_Darling]

YEAH! Prior to posting this question I had tried RH's suggestion of removing/renaming the .cpd and .xpj files and try opening my project from the .hhp file. I was unsuccessful. But after reading around on other forums, I came across a suggestion to just delete the .cpd and try opening from the .xpj. This time I took Microsoft's "not responding" message a just a warning that it was still in process, even though the progress bar appeared frozen at 5 ticks for over 20 minutes. I left for lunch and when I returned, it completed and fixed my mess/corruption. Thankfully, I am 100% productive. Whew.