Posted QuickBooks Software, Software - Third Party Programs on Sunday, July 31st, 2005.
QuickBooks Data File Repair Instructions
Working for the IT department in a private accounting firm it is inevitable that a large number of our clients use and will continue to use QuickBooks accounting software. It is an inexpensive and well-marketed program that many bookkeepers already know. Unfortunately, Intuit provides poor technical support, has a badly-designed, proprietary database format, and there is little free support since Intuit has encouraged pay-to-play 3rd-party support. This article is a start at expanding the free, online support information available for the program.
The custom database format used in Intuit’s QuickBooks .QBW files isn’t very resilient and often results in the need to rebuild database files and then recover the data lost during recovery. The custom data format means that only the simple tools built in to QuickBooks (QB) can be used in the rebuild and recovery process, so fixing damaged QB files is tedious but not very complicated.
The lack of resilience of the .QBW data format makes determining the cause of corruption difficult. In fact, many files are damaged long before errors are finally reported by the QB program. Using QuickBooks in a multi-user, networked environment often results in errors when one or another client computer disconnects. Because QB doesn’t perform a full scan of the database unless the Verify or Rebuild utilities are run, no error messages are reported until the damaged data is accessed by the program. It isn’t worth tracking file usage closely enough to determine who or when integrity problems occur.
Check to Determine if File is Corrupt:
Following the appearance of an error message that indicates data problems, first run the Verify utility to determine if problems exist with the file or if the error was due to network or drive problems. To run Verify pull down the File menu > click on “Close Company/Logoff” and then pull down the File menu again > click Utilities > click “Verify Data” and then select the correct .QBW file from the computer or server drives. After a file is selected the utility will run and report on the data integrity of the file. If there are any problems with the data QB will report “Data has lost integrity”. Continue on to the steps outlined below to repair data. QB will report “QuickBooks detected no problems with your data” if the data are not corrupt. In this case, other problems on the network, PCs, or servers involved may have caused the error.
If Corrupt, Prepare for Rebuild:
In the event the Verify utility does report integrity issues with the .QBW file in question, the following steps outline methods to prepare a file for the Rebuild utility, to run the Rebuild utility, and then to manually restore transactions from rebuild log files.
Preparation Steps:
Accounts: Pull down the “Lists” menu > select “Chart of Accounts” > Confirm that active and inactive accounts are being displayed. Depending on the version of QB, confirming which accounts are displayed is done from the Chart of Accounts screen. Depending on the version of QB being used: A) by clicking the “Show All” or “Include Inactive” checkbox at the bottom (next to the “Reports” button), or B) by clicking the “Account” button at bottom-left > select either “Show Inactive Accounts” or “Show All Accounts”. Finally, click on the “Account” menu at button again > select “Re-sort Lists” > click “OK” at the prompt.
Items: Pull down the “Lists” menu > select “Item List” > repeat the steps from accounts, above, to show all accounts and then re-sort the lists.
Customer Names: Pull down the “Banking” menu > select “Write Checks” > open the checking name list by clicking in the “Pay to the Order of” field > press “Ctrl” and “L” to open the list > repeat the steps from accounts, above, to show all accounts and then re-sort the lists.
Rebuild and Reverify Steps:
Rebuild the file by selecting the “File” menu > “Utilities” > and then “Rebuild Data”. The utility will first prompt to backup the QB file unless one was just run. Run the backup and, then click “OK” on the next dialog confirming a rebuild of the data file. Again, this step should only be performed on a local (C:\) copy of the .QBW file, as a networked file is likely to be corrupted in the event of a connection failure.
Before running the Verify tool again, rename the QuickBooks log file. This file, always named QBWIN.LOG, can be found by searching or by looking in the installation folder for QB (usually C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks ##\, where ## is the version year) and there is one of them for each version/year of QB installed on a computer. I prefer to keep the file name and just add a date, such as QBWIN-2008-02-29.LOG. Now rerun the Verify utility via the “File” menu > click on “Close Company/Logoff” and then pull down the File menu again > click Utilities > click “Verify Data” and then select the correct .QBW file from the computer or server drives.
Correcting Continuing Errors or Missing Data:
Open the new QBWIN.LOG file, created by the Verify utility after renaming the old one. Programs like WordPad or Notepad, included for free in Windows, are much better than using Word which may reformat the text. Any errors found in QuickBooks will be listed in this file. Any items that contain the word “CHECKPOINT” can be ignored. Scan other items in the file to identify any QB transactions that were picked up by Rebuild. Those items include some combination of Amount, Date, Document Number, or Transaction Type.
Once the transations with errors have been identified open the QB file and go to the “Edit” menu > “Find” > “Advanced” button. In the Advanced Search use the Amount, Date, Document Type, and Transaction Type to find individual transactions in the QB file. Manually delete each transaction from the log file and reenter. Once all the transactions found in QBWIN.LOG have been reentered close the file and rerun the Verify utility. Odds are that there will be no more problems after a manual repair. If there are any more problems found then restart these instructions at the Rebuild step, a second run has never failed to repair a QuickBooks file for me.
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Posted Exchange Server on Tuesday, July 5th, 2005.
Exchange Server 2003 performs a memory configuration check when the Information Store starts. Microsoft suggests certain standards for memory limits and allocations. The server will log Event 9665 to indicate the memory configuration is not within those “standards”.
Typically this isn’t a major problem and not worth rushing a reboot for. Even when event 9665 is logged, no performance issues are usually seen unless Exchange is very close to maxing out available memory or CPU on a server. Correct the memory configuration according to the info below and reboot during the next maintenance interval.
Common Cause of Exchange 2003 Event ID 9665:
The most common reason for event 9665 on modern servers is due to the installation of more than 1GB of RAM in a server and not setting the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file. To set this switch go to the System Control Panel > “Advanced” tab > Startup and Recovery “Settings” button > click the “Edit” button to manually edit the startup options file (saved as C:\boot.ini). Add the text “/3GB” to the end of each Windows 2003 or Windows 2000 Advanced server operating system installed on the server (see quoted example below). Do not set this switch on Windows 2000 Standard Server.
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT=”Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard” /fastdetect /3GB
The /3GB switch setting and all of the less common settings are described in Microsoft’s Optimizing Memory Usage for Exchange Server 2003 article.
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Posted Network and Internet Configuration, Consulting Tips & Resources, Outlook on Saturday, July 2nd, 2005.
Setting up email for home users always ends up being a messy and long “quick fix”. Just in case the DSL accounts docs get lost (doesn’t everyone lose their documentation first thing?) - here’s a list of SMTP (outgoing) email servers for many major ISPs, updated June 2005. Nonetheless, the best bet for home user setups is to print POP, SMTP, and other settings before heading to the job.
- Adelphia: mail.adelphia.net
- Ameritech: smtp.ameritech.yahoo.com
- AOL (America Online): smtp.aol.com
- Atlantic Broadband: smtp.atlanticbb.net
- AT&T: mailhost.att.net
- AT&T Broadband: mail.attbi.com
- AT&T Global Dialup: smtp1.attglobal.net
- AT&T Worldnet: mailhost.worldnet.att.net or imailhost.worldnet.att.net
- BCPL: mail.bcpl.net
- Bellatlantic: gtei.bellatlantic.net or smtpout.verizon.net
- Bellatlantic.net: smtpout.bellatlantic.net
- Bell Canada: smtp10.bellnet.ca
- Bellsouth: mail.bellsouth.net
- Bestweb: smtp.bestweb.net
- Blazenet: smtp.blazenet.net
- CableOne: mail.cableone.net
- CAIS: smtp.cais.net
- CAPU: smtp.capu.net
- Charm.net: smtp.charm.net
- Charter Communications: smtp.chartermi.net
- Charter.Net: smtp.charter.net
- CharterMI.net: mail.chartermi.net
- CharterTN.net: mail.chartertn.net
- Coax.Net Central: smtp.central.coax.net
- Coax.Net East: smtp.east.coax.net
- Coax.Net West: smtp.west.coax.net
- Comcast: smtp.comcast.net
- Compuserve: smtp.compuserve.com or smtp.site1.csi.com
- Concentric.net: smtp.concentric.net
- Covad: smtp.covad.net
- Cox West: smtp.west.cox.net
- Cox Central: smtp.central.cox.net
- Cox East: smtp.east.cox.net
- Cox Business: smarthost.coxmail.com
- Crosslink: smtp.crosslink.net
- DCANET: smtp-relay.dca.net
- Delmarva Online: mail-gw.dmv.com
- Delta Net: smtp.deltanet.com
- Direcway: smtp.direcway.com
- DSL Extreme: smtp.dslextreme.com
- Earthlink: mail.earthlink.net or smtp.earthlink.net
- Earthlink International: ismtp.earthlink.net
- Edge.net: mail.edge.net
- Enter: smtp.enter.net
- Erols: mail.erols.com
- Etisalat: smtp.emirates.net.ae
- Ezy: smtp.ezy.net
- Flash.Net: smtp.flash.yahoo.com
- Frontiernet.Net: smtp.frontiernet.net
- Frontline.Net: smtp.fcc.net
- Fuse.Net/Cincinnati Bell: smtp.fuse.net
- Gateway.Net: smtp.Gateway.net
- GTI: mail.gti.net
- GMail: smtp.gmail.com, Uses SSL on port 465 or 587
- HotMail: mail.hotmail.com
- IBM Global Net: smtp1.ibm.net
- ioNet Inc: mail.ionet.net
- Interaccess.com: smtp.interaccess.com
- Internet America: mail.airmail.net
- ITOL: mail.itol.com
- Juno: smtp.juno.com
- Mediacom: mail.mchsi.com
- Mediaone: smtp.ce.medione.net
- MegaPath: mail.megapathdsl.net
- MCI: mailrelay.mciworldcom.net mailrelay.internetmci.com
- Mindspring: smtp.mindspring.com
- MSN: smtp.email.msn.com
- MSN DSL: secure.smtp.email.msn.com
- Nauticom: mail.nauticom.net
- NEBI.com: mail.nebi.com
- Netcom: smtp.ix.netcom.com
- Netcom Canada: smtp.netcom.ca
- Netscape: smtp.isp.netscape.com
- NetZero: smtp.netzero.net
- Nvbell/Nevada Bell: smtp.nvbell.yahoo.com
- NYU.edu: smtp.nyu.edu
- OLG.com: mail.olg.com
- OOL/Optimum Online Internet Service: mail.optonline.net
- Pacbell/Pacific Bell: smtp.pacbell.yahoo.com
- Panix.com: mailhost.panix.com
- Patriot Media: smtp.patmedia.net
- PeoplePC: smtp.peoplepc.com
- Pipeline: smtp.pipeline.com
- Prodigy: smtp.prodigy.yahoo.com
- PSI.Net: relay.smtp.psi.net
- PTD.Net: mail.ptdprolog.net
- QIS: mail.qis.net
- Quixnet.net: smtp.quixnet.net
- Qwest Internet Service: pop.dnvr.qwest.net
- RCN: smtp.rcn.com
- Rider.edu: enigma.rider.edu
- RoadRunner: smtp-server.
.rr.com - Rogers Hi-Speed: smtp.broadband.rogers.com
- SBC Global: smtp.sbcglobal.net
- SBC/Yahoo DSL: smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com
- Smallville Communications: mail.toto.net
- SNet: smtp.snet.yahoo.com
- SNiP: mail.snip.net
- Speakeasy: mail.speakeasy.net
- Spectrum DSL: mail.webstable.com
- SprintLink: smtp.a001.sprintmail.com
- Sprynet: m6.sprynet.com
- Starpower: smtp.starpower.net
- Swbell/Southwestern Bell: smtp.swbell.yahoo.com
- Sympatico: mailhost.sk.sympatico.ca
- The-Beach.net: mail.the-beach.net
- UMBC: smtp.gl.umbc.edu
- USA.NET: mail.netaddress.usa.net
- US Internet: smtp.usit.net
- UUNet: mail.uu.net
- Verio: smtp.veriomail.com
- Verizon: outgoing.verizon.net or smtpout.verizon.net
- Wans.net: smtp.wans.yahoo.com
- Wide Open West: smtp.mail.wideopenwest.com
- XO Communications: mail.njd.xo.com or smtp.concentric.net
- Yahoo: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
- Ziplink: smtp.ziplink.net
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