AS400 problem

Hi,

I have an I9300 w/specs:
Pentium M 1.73 Ghz
1 GB RAM
60 GB HD 5400 rpm
Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 256 Mb
8x DVD/CD RW Combo
Intel 2200 800.11 b/g with Dell Bluetooth
9-cell battery

I got this machine last Tuesday right out of the box. Anyway, I use it for work and personal use too. The reason I use it for work is because my company finances me any notebook I want and then I pay them back in 40 monthly payments without interest.

Anyway, down to the issue at hand. I have to use AS400 to consult inventory and stuff like that. I never opened it till about 15 min ago on this computer since I needed to consult something. I was about 1 min in and the laptop made a BEEP (beep as in the oldest beep possible, meaning a loud and ugly sounding one) and it turned itself off!!! No warning, no nothing, just beep and black screen.

I wasn't playing videogames or anything, just doing office work. It's not running on battery mode since I'm plugged in and recharging the battery. I don't know if it's a software related problem or if something (hardware-related) is uncompatible with this program. I don't want to turn it in to the people at the Systems Department because, well, they're not as computer-lilterate as they should be.

The program as it displays in the Windows>Programs tab reads as IBM iSeries Access for Windows and its version is 5 revision 2.

Please, let me know if any of you have encountered this before as I probably won't be able to get rid of that little program.

 

alot of the IBM stuff runs off of Java. Make sure you have the Java runtime that your company uses. Your company might not use the latest one.

 

Thanks. I tried to check out via Control Settings the version of Java the AS400 uses, then left it open and tried to open Java Plugin and screen went blueish with white dashes....i'm really worried something is happening here....this is the second time I've seen this screen, though I don't remember what I was doing back then when it first appeared. Did it turn like this because I tried to open the Java Plugin or is it a faulty contact with the monitor (I'm guessing the latter). How can I know which version my company uses??? I'm afraid to try and see for myself since it gives me so much trouble.

So now I have two issues.

 

I used Dell laptops with AS400 Client Access 5.2 for years with no problems. I would suggest a reinstall of the Client Access software. When asked if you want Java installing say yes to that too.

If it still happens you could always log a call with IBM but I don't think the software is at fault.

 

Me again, I had to use this dreaded program again today (AS400) and my computer shutdown immediately as I said earlier, so I went to Systems Dept. (in a related issue about clearance) and I asked them about this and they found it odd. They worked on the computer using AS400 and nothing happened, I'm using it well into 30 min and nothing happens....The odd thing is I tried using it a bit before I went there and it did the same thing (BEEP and shutting down), so I think this is more of a conflict issue with another program....
I had opened this before shutdown:
Lotus Notes 6.5 (open at shut down)
Mozilla Firefox 1.05 (open at shut down)
Windows Media Player (whatever comes with the MCE edition, opened before but not at shutdown)
Microsoft Excel (open at shut down)

Now my theory is that something is conflicting with the As400...I don't think is the Excel since I've been working with both things open at the same time, so that leaves either Lotus Notes or Firefox...I know there are things running at the background but I haven't made any changes to the registry so they should start at startup and since there are no changes, I rule them out. I'm more inclined to say that it may be the Firefox since nobody in this office uses it (and they all use Thinkpads for that matter...and because of this, I thought it may have been hardware issue), hence nobody has reported this before.

So, can anyone tell me if I'm correct and what can I do to prevent this (besides not opening the conflicting program at the same time)?

Btw, feel free to move this to the software board if more appropiate.

 

Isn't there someone that can help me out here???? I tried restraining use of Firefox instead I used Explorer but it did the same thing this morning. I'm worried since I was plugged in when it shut down and I could hear the electricity crackling inside because of the sudden shut down....I don't want to fry my computer but I need this **** program. The people in the systems department don't know what to do about it...as a matter of fact, it doesn't even shut down when they try to see the problem!!! Please spare jokes about my computer not liking me or similar. I still don't know if the problem is hardware related or not. Please advice.

 

you didn't post if you had tried the above two suggestions?

i seriously doubt it's a software issue. what kind of environment are you in when using the notebook? a cube? a warehouse? can you connect to the backend from another place like from home via vpn or something? maybe you're getting power spikes where you're at currently.

 

You're right, I haven't reinstalled it again. This is due to the fact that well, whenever I go to the Systems Dept, the AS400 works and since they don't see any issue, they don't feel the need to reinstall it since they are pretty busy with other people's problems and they don't think Java has anything to do with it.

I work in a cube. I don't really think it's a power spike since I work on wireless and I don't usually work with the laptop plugged in and the shut down has occured already 5 times (4 of them completely unplugged) and it's always while i'm in the AS400. It never shuts down with any other program.

Btw, I can't connect from home, my ISP only allows two computers to connect and it has registered them already, meaning this one is not registered with them hence it doesn't connect.

 

Well, I tried again and they reinstalled it. No Java installing option came up so we'll see how this works. They think it may be an incompatibility issue between the AS400 and the MC edition of Windows XP since I'm the only one with this edition.

 

Well, it was reinstalled and the problem still persists. I was about an hour using the AS/400 when it happened. I again went down to the systems department and they' re going to ask IBM (well, their specialist on AS/400 anyway) to see if there's any compatibility issue between Windows XP MC and the AS. They did check the event log and nothing was registered there either. Now let's see if someone can help me out here.

 

Check the event log. Something like this should put up some kind of error.

 

Already checked....there was no entry that marked an error neither shutdown nor error. Plain nothing.

 

I guess no one can help me then.......

 

Hard to help with absolutely no info. All help would be a shot in the dark. Best bet would be to get your IT guys to run some diags on it.

 

I know, it's not like i'm not giving you any info. It's just I don't have any info available. My computer shuts down while using AS400, it doesn't when it's on the background, just when it's the active window. It doesn't have an allocated time frame to shutdown, it would shut down in one minute or two hours in, it doesn't matter!! It's not a specific option either, it has made the dreaded shutdown anywhere inside the program (meaning I'm doing differents things in there, it's not when I choose a specific option). And to add more (besides not writing anything in the event log). Windows doesn't register the shutdown as improper. When I start up again, Windows doesn't go into safe mode or checks the HDD for damage or anything. It's a NORMAL startup. Windows never knew what hit it!!!! (or even if it was hit at all, lol).

But the one thing I'm sure of, is that this program is causing the problem as it's always the active window when the computer shuts down.

 

One lastthing you could try which is to up the virtual memory space. I have seen many odd problems when this is set too small. Does this problem happen when the as300 stuff is the only thing running? Really sounds more like it might be bad memory somehow and you finally bounce around to running from the bad memory.

Generally I can't think of any VALID reason for the machine to completely just shut down other than a driver problem or a hardware problem. Even driver problems are caught by the blue screen of death most times. Find a memory diagnostic and run it for a long time just to check.

 

Thanks, what program would you recommend for memory diagnostic?

Virtual memory allocated is 1536 MB, I didn't change this setting, it was there by default. I'm not that computer literate but I'm pretty sure that should be enough.

 

Well the number there is the amount of "Fake" memory the system will pretend to have running all of your programs. A point of interest is that driver level (ring 0) programs don't page and hence don't make use of this.

the number you enter here can be thought of as the size of a bucket from which you will start removing cups of water (as you run programs and load things into programs like a spread sheet or mail messages). When the load starts to get equal to the number you entered odd things start to happen. The number you have entered there is large so I don't think this is the problem and even if it was Windows would attempt to crash gracefully.

I think the Windows kernel beeps and halts when bad things happen. One other guess is to check the video driver and make sure it is up to date. It is possible (I am not an IBM user) that the As400 thing is attempting something which should be valid but the driver cant stand it. It might be worth attempting running the thing by itself and FULL screen. If it runs see if it runs for some amount of time which is so long that it must be fixed. Like if it has never run more than an hour and you can run it over night this way, I would call that fixed. Is the AS400 thing a "Dos box" app? If it is press >alt>Enter and run it in really full screen mode.

I would google for a memory diagnostic and see what you can find. unfortunately I don't have one any more.

 

Get Memtest86... if can be found at www.memtest.org that is what most people are using.

 

I appreciate that link myself I have another computer which has symptoms similar to this but is old enough I thought of just chucking it. I am going to give this a try myself.

 

USAFdude02:
Thanks, I have already downloaded the memtest86 but unfortunately I don't have a floppy driver to run it nor a blank CD to run it from there.

JustJimdelany:
I adjusted the virtual memory setting to 2GB just in case, I'm using the latest drivers from Dell for my videocard and considering the video card, I wouldn't think that's the problem (Go6800). I have fully charged the battery and am going to attempt to run the AS 400 (as I heard crackling once while I was plugged in) with only Excel open as I have to finish a report and see if it works out. I don't think I would be using for the whole afternoon since I'm almost done with what I had to do in the meantime, but I wouldn't really know how much time I should "work" on it. Fourth time it happened I had been working on it for at least 2 hours...it certainly got me fooled that the problem was solved so I'm not that trustful in thinking that if it doesn't crash in this session, it won't crash later...

I'm not too sure as to what the AS400 is completely, for what I have been using it, is to look up data stored in a server. It doesn't run in Windows environment but I don't think it's DOS based. It's supposedly running via emulation (windows emulates the environment that AS400 needs to work in) but I wouldn't know if it's another OS.

This is an extract of the IBM website that merely explains what this program is:
"IBM eServer iSeries Access for Windows provides industry-leading PC-to-server connectivity. It offers an all-inclusive client solution for accessing and using resources from your Windows desktop. iSeries Access for Windows includes 5250 emulation, access to DB2(R) Universal Database(TM) (UDB) for iSeries through its data transfer, access to the OS/400(R) integrated file system and printers using iSeries NetServer, and more. It also has a variety of middleware for using and developing client applications to access OS/400 resources and includes iSeries Navigator for administering servers. iSeries Access for Windows is a licensed program."

Thanks for the people who have replied, let's hope someone that's knowledgeable on this program better may come around and post.

 

Well I also have the 6900 and have seen it screw up with some screen savers, (you could try turning all of that off too) but the symptoms are an out of sync screen not crash. An interesting experiment would be to press <alt>Enter while the as400 screen is active if you hear a beep it's a windows program, if the video flips it is a dos box app painting the screen to look like a window.

 

Didn't you also have to add a tokin ring adapter of some kind? I thought all IBM stuff was Gtokin ring.

 

I'm going to try now. Nothing (adapter or anything) was added. The other laptops here (IBM) don't have anything added....perhaps they're built in???

Edit: Tried the press ENTER thing...nothing happened, no beep, no video flipping...so it's not Windows nor DOS. Bump.