Data Detective v Windows BlueScreen of Death
The Data Detective - The Case of the Windows Blue Screen of Death (AKA: The Case of the QuickBooks Customer Statements' Memory Crash Dump)
The clock on the Data Detective’s mantle had just struck ‘tea time’ as our old sleuth relaxed in his favorite chair before a cozy fire. His trusty maid was delivering his tea and crumpets when the phone rang that distinctive ‘ring-a-ding-ring’ indicative for a QuickBooks user crying out for assistance. Sure enough the rather distinguished sounding gentleman on the other end pronounced, “every time my bookkeeper attempts to email out these 200 customer statements, not only does QuickBooks crash but the whole computer crashes, only to restart again.”
Shoving the crumpets into his pocket, while abandoning the urge to take swallow a burning mouthful of tea, our sleuth scarves himself and dawns his trusty cap and capecoat and heads for the scene of the computer crash. Upon arriving he witnesses the same scenario, the bookkeeper goes about selecting the customers in need of a statement, and sure enough once the email process begins, QuickBooks and the Windows 7 computer both crash without reporting any error.
Unfortunately our Data Detective knows that this is a new form of an old problem associated with QuickBooks, Memory Allocation. While some operating systems will yield a ‘crash dump error’ indicating insufficient memory, when QuickBooks is running on a Windows 7 computer, it is not uncommon for the computer to crash without reporting any error, only to be followed by an automatic restart. Our sleuth also knows that no manner or tenor of tinkering he does is going to resolve this flaw, only the QuickBooks programmers will be able to render 'the final solution’ to this culprit.
In the meantime, it is best to email statements to only ‘small groups’ of customers with open balances. Depending on the statement lengths and complexities, this might be as few as 10 customers or as many as 20 customers at one time. Since the problem tends to be associated with how computer memory is being used during this process, the crippling effects of an unexpected shut-down with its possibility of data corruption, can be avoided by restarting QuickBooks after every 3 or 4 batches of statements being emailed. Of course, another possible course to take is to set-up daily statement batches, whereby only 1/20th of your customers get sent statements each work day; this is the similar to the approach that large ‘utility companies’ take to invoice their customers on a cyclic basis. Following this model should reduce the size of statement email requirements, and hopefully prevent the ‘Windows blue screen-memory crash dump’ defect from striking your QuickBooks operations.
Upon preparing for his departure, our old sleuth let the client know that he will keep them advised as to any progress QuickBooks makes in resolving this problem. With that said, our Data Detective bundles up and sets his strides on home, fumbling his pockets he finds those crumpets, inviting even if no longer warm, and soon he is sleuthing out a neighborhood café in which he can finally enjoy ‘his cup of tea.’ After all, “tea and crumpets are elementary My Dear Watson.”