Computer Problems
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Note: This section applies to problems encountered after a successful installation of HER.


Sometimes people will have problems with HomeSchool Easy Records (HER) but the problem may actually be with their computer. Their PCs act up and things stop working right.

Here are some guidelines of things to try when this happens...

First start by shutting down your PC and turning it off. Wait 10 seconds

then turn it back on again and let it "boot up".


1) If you have a good backup of your HER data, great. Hang onto it.  
 
If you don't, use Windows Explorer to copy the file  
 
named "hsr2dat.mdb" (or "hsrdat.mdb" if you have HER version 1) to  
 
a floppy disk. This will serve as a backup of your data.  
 
If this file won't fit on a floppy, copy it to some other directory  
 
on your hard drive in case you need it later.  
 
2) Run scandisk on your PC to fix any hard drive errors.  
 

- Click on Start (bottom left of screen) then click on Run...  
 
- In the box that pops up type in "scandisk" (without the quotes) where  
 
it says Open: then click on the OK button  
 
- Scandisk window will start  
 
- Select the drive C:  
 
- Click "Standard"  
 
- Click "Automatically fix errors"  
 
- Click on the Start button and let scandisk run  
 
- Select and scan any other drive you want to check  
 
(still using this window)  
 

- Close the scandisk window when you are done.  
 

Now try running HER again. If it doesn't run properly, re-install the program and try it again. If it starts running and your data doesn't look right, do a data restore operation from your backup. If your backup didn't fit onto the floppy, just copy the file "hsr2dat.mdb" that you saved elsewhere back into the directory where you installed HER.

Windows Problems

Another thing that can sometimes happen is that your Windows installation becomes damaged somehow -- some files can get lost or overwritten -- especially if you've un-installed some other software and the un-installer took out more than it should have (.dll support files). In that case it may be good for you to re-install Microsoft Windows, right over the top of your current installation -- you don't need to remove any programs or files in order to do this. Windows will be "smart" enough to just re-install the files that are missing.


Startup: PC freezes or has an error when you start HER program (P15)

Some customers with newer PCs have experienced problems when staring up or running HomeSchool Easy Records. The installation of the program goes OK but then when they start up HER, the boy/girl startup screen appears then the PC freezes or an error message appears. This is typically a problem with the PC video card or video driver interacting with HER. It seems to be happening with newer PCs or video cards. It also seems to happen mostly with Windows 98.


Please try this possible solution...


1) Click on Start (bottom left of screen)  
 
2) Go to Settings then click on Control Panel  
 
3) Click on the System icon (near end of list)  
 
- The System Properties window will appear  
 
4) Click on the Performance tab  
 
5) Click on the Graphics button  
 
- The Advanced Graphics Settings window will appear  
 
6) Move the Hardware Acceleration slider all the way to the left  
 
- Click OK on all windows that appear to accept the new setting  
 

- Allow your PC to restart (re-boot)  
 

Now run HER and see if this helps. If it does, you can repeat the above process, and each time increase the video hardware acceleration slider by one click. Do this until HER freezes again, then reduce the acceleration by one click. You have to restart the PC each time you change the acceleration setting.

Normally, you will not notice any change in the performance of your computer after this change. One or two folks who did notice a slowing down of a couple of graphics-intensive video games they had.