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Did you recently install the Act! software or Upgrade Act! from a previous version?  Are you noticing some things that just don’t seem to be working correctly?  Here are the most common problems that occur when an Act! Upgrade or Installation did not go as well as planned.  It’s important to note that sometimes there isn’t an error that pops up during the installation or conversion process that’s causing the issue.  There could be a step in the instructions that was skipped or you could have another piece of software on your PC interfering with the Act! Software. 

Here are the common problems:
Installation or Upgrade procedure didn’t finish.
     Solution:  Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - do not try to reconvert the same Act! database!  If you do it will be very painful and extremely frustrating.

Computer froze during the installation or upgrade process.
     Solution:  Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - check that your PC and Server meet OUR recommended requirements for Act! before continuing.  Don’t go with it what it says on the side of the cereal box, look at our requirement, RAM is cheap and Speed Rules!

Email is not working properly - ex. you pull up a contact and click on their email address and it doesn’t open a new blank email for the contact.  Also, you might be sending emails and expecting Act! to attach the email to the contact record so you can simply click on the email history item to launch the email but there is no link back to the email.
     Solution:  Your Act! settings for email are not configured properly.

Notes and History are missing from new database.
     Solution:  Database was not converted correctly - Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - do not try to reconvert the same Act! database!

Act! is running slowly or has Act! has poor performance.
     Solution:  Several things could be causing the poor performance, hardware not being up to the recommended requirements (Check OUR recommendations for processing power, remember Speed Rules….) and conflicts with other software applications, this one should be dealt with by a professional, call an Act! Certified Consultant.  When properly installed on a computer that has the required processing power the Act! software does NOT run slowly or perform poorly - it has a very good response time when configured properly.

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As with a lot of software, Act! has a recommended minimal requirement for the PC or Server on which you will be running the software.  If the Act! software is running slowly or performing poorly, there is a problem in one or more of the following areas:

1) The PC or Server does not have enough horsepower.

2) The software was not installed correctly and probably needs to be reinstalled.

3) There are other software programs conflicting with the Act! software and as soon as you work through the conflicts, the Act! software will begin zipping from screen to screen.

Here are Compu-Tutor’s recommendation for running Act! on a PC or Server:

1) PC’s should have an absolute minimum of 1Gig of RAM, but we recommend running 2Gig of RAM.  RAM is Cheap and Speed rules when it comes to software, just do it!  Remember not to rub your feet on the carpet when holding the RAM, you’ll zap it before it ever gets into your computer.  We recommend visiting www.crucial.com for determining what RAM is available for your PC - it will scan your PC, tell you how much RAM you can put in and it will let you order it right from their site.

2) Servers should have a min of 4Gigs of RAM, yes we know Act! says you need less, scroll up and read - RAM is Cheap etc….

3) Using a PC as a Server for installs with more than 2 or 3 people is not a good idea.  Many installs in the last decade were configured with a fast PC acting as an Act! Server, we do not recommend doing this because of potential problems that it is going to cause.  People with this configuration always call our Help Desk more often and have longer resolution efforts than people that do it properly.  A smaller end RAID 1 configuration Server with a backup method running Windows 2003 Server or above (not Windows Small Business Server) is the recommended configuration.

4) Do not run Act! on a wireless network.  Let us explain in more detail - DO NOT run Act! on a wireless network.  Can it be done, yes.  Is it a good idea, NO.  There is a tremendous amount of data that goes back and forth between a PC and the server, the data transfer is going to slow down other processes on the wireless network and make Act! perform poorly.  Exceptions to this rule:  running a standalone version of Act! on a PC and the data sits on the same PC - even though wireless, will not be a problem; running a wireless connection through Terminal Services to an Act! server - should perform ok, not great but ok; networks with very little other traffic happening (still haven’t seen one of these in a company running Act!) would be ok.

5) Connecting to Act! via a VPN connection is not recommended.  The overhead of the VPN typically kills the Act! connection and causes the application to perform poorly.  There are other methods of connecting into an Act! database including Terminal Services, Configuring a Port for Act! traffic, and Act! for Web.  An Act! Certified Consultant should be contacted for all three of these types of connectivity.

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The most common and potentially most costly mistake that the owner of an Act! 6 database can make is not properly backing up their database.  We receive numerous calls from people using version 6 of Act! that believe that simply copying the Act! database file to a back-up drive or the entire Act! folder on their computer to a back-up drive will allow them to restore the Act! database if it becomes corrupt or inoperable.  Often they use an automated process that scans their computer for directories or files that have changed since the last back-up and they assume that the scan will provide a copy of an Act! database that they can restore if a problem occurs, but they are wrong.  

The ONLY restorable Act! 6 database file is a .zip file that is created from the Act! Backup procedure that is initiated using the Act! Software.  If you are reading this and you currently aren’t running the backup procedure out of Act!, stop what you are doing, ask everyone to get out of the Act! database, sign on as the Administrator, and create a backup.  Your data has the potential of being lost in total if you don’t produce a proper backup immediately.

Instructions for backing up an Act! 6 Database:

1. On the File menu (inside the Act! 6 appication) choose Backup.  Follow the prompts and choose to save the Zip file to the hard drive of the computer you are working on or better yet on a removable drive or external hard drive.

2. We recommend rotating backup files and taking a copy off-site in case of a local flood or fire that wipes out the computer that holds the Act! database currently.

Remember, based on the date of this posting if you are still running an Act! 6 database it means that your Act! software and database are probably at least 4 years old.  The Act! 6 software is no longer supported by the manufacturer, Sage, so you won’t have much recourse if your database becomes corrupt or you have a hard drive failure.

If you would like to upgrade your Act! 6 database to a newer version of Act! - don’t take this step lightly.  The back-end database for Act! 6 data is FoxPro and you will be converting to a Microsoft SQL Server database.  This conversion is not for do-it-yourself-ers.  If you want your data in tact, you should have it converted by an Act! Certified Consultant.  Read more in one of our Blog entries about converting Act! 6 Databases.

Restoring an Act! 6 Database is an easy task - IF - you have a properly backed up database to restore.  You cannot restore an Act! 6 database using the restore function in Act! if you do not have the .zip file that is created from the Act! Backup process.  A copy of the Act! 6 database file that was saved to an external drive without using the Act! procedure (for example - an Act! file that was saved by copying the entire Act! directory to an external drive) is not recoverable using the Act! software and the data is most likely lost.  To determine if you are backing your data up properly - read the beginning portion of this entry.

Instructions for restoring an Act! 6 Database:

1. On the File menu (inside the Act! 6 appication) choose Restore. 

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