RoboHelp8 - More on Crashing

[Guest]

Hi, I've been using RoboHelp for quite some time (since RoboHelp5)  and I'm really taken back by the RoboHelp8 version.  I purchased the Tech Communication suite along with RoboServer8.  We also use RoboSource Control 3.1. 

We work on our projects on our local drives and check in/check out from the server location using RoboSource control.  We have a fairly new project that only has about 40 topics, which is nothing, since our older products have over 500 topics.  Also included are captivate Show Me videos which we kept to only three. 

My issue is that it is taking FOREVER to do anything within the project.  I get the never-ending circle when I try to open a topic, checkout a topic, make any small changes at all.  This is very cumbersome and a waste of time.  I dealt with this during a release that went out last Friday.  Now that it is out, I've come to the forums to find answers.  Is RoboHelp8 compatible with Windows7?  It says it is, but I'm starting to wonder because that is the Windows system that I'm using.  Although, I did see others on the forum that were working under other window systems and still had problems with RoboHelp8 crashing.  This is unacceptable and we all know that calling Tech Support is of no help at all.

Have there been any updates from our super users that could help?  If so, if you could point me to those solutions, I would certainly appreciate it. 

Thanks,

Lana

[Peter Grainge]

You don't say if you have the patches applied.

I wouldn't advise putting your email in forum posts unless you are wanting to hear from a representative of your late Nigerian uncle who left a large amount of money in his bank account. Also the idea is replies are on the forum to help others. I can remove it if you wish.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Peter, sure you can remove it.

Yes the patches were applied.

[Peter Grainge]

I can't help you if source control is the problem and as Amebr has pointed out, there have been reports of problems with RSC under Windows 7 64bit.

Have you tried deleting the CPD file which should be on the local machine only and not checked in? Back up first but I wonder if it could be that simple.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

We were having problems before I upgraded to Windows 7.

We wiped the RSC clean so we could start from scratch to see if that was the problem and for a while it worked fine. Then we had all of the issues with RoboHelp8 and added the updates as suggested 8.01 and 8.02.

The issues were:

Missing topics

Blank topics

DHTML stopped working

It was a nightmare and we are still trying to make changes by re-importing the topics, etc. It was a project that had over 600 topics. It wasn't good.

I know about the CPD file and have already done that as well as use the checkbox that is new with RoboHelp8 that empties the CPD, correct?

Anyway, I'm having a lot of problems convincing my company that we should stay with Adobe products even though we have invested a lot purchasing the Tech Comm Suite II and RoboServer8.

I'll check into the 64bit Windows 7 issue.

Thanks,

Lana

[Amebr]

Also, check your antivirus setup. I know we had some problems with RH (6 in our case), VSS and antivirus. The techs changed our antivirus so it now only scans outgoing, rather than incoming and outgoing files. I'm not sure of all the details, but I'm sure your technical guys can help.

This post also suggest AV can cause problems if it's being too enthusiastic in it's checks:

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[Amebr]

This post suggests says it's not compatible with the 64bit version of Windows 7, if that's what you're using.

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[Rasterdan2U]

We had many problems with RH8 and version control 3.1 after the update.  The way RH8 works is a bit different than previous versions.  In the past the .cpd file held it all together.  Now this file gets deleted and rebuilt from a lot of other files that exist all over the project.  If a .fjp file is corrupt or missing within a folder, then that branch of your book will dissapear.  We had to do a lot of cut and pasting from old versions to recover some major sections of our project.   Luckily one of our people did not open their version after the upgrade and access our main project so we could scavange some of the missing files.  One of the back-ups had other items.  Check to see that you have these .fpj files in each missing folder and open them in notepad to see if the content references the contents that are suppose to be there.

On your server, check to see that the RSO3 service and middle tier service are started.  We have problems with the middle tier service occasionally not starting and it seems to slow things down or stop everything.

I had a big thread or two with similar problems over the christmas holiday.

[Guest]

Thank you so much for this information, I certainly appreciate it.

Regards,

Lana