Checklist of Troubleshooting a GP Problem

By Jivtesh Singh

Developer and entrepreneur Leon came up with a Troubleshooting Checklist while developing an application.

Check it out at http://www.secretgeek.net/simple_checklist.asp

Leon's a funny guy - here are some of his Gems

• blame the guy who left last week
• disable the customer experience improvement program
• what would Jesus do?
• reboot 3 times
• temporarily allow Popup's
• remove and then recreate all Bluetooth partnerships

There are 164 items, enough to Keep you busy, if nothing else !

Inspired, here is my list for

Troubleshooting a Common GP Problem

All the items don't apply to all cases, looking at the problem you normally know which ones to look at first. I'll probably update this - but these were all the things I could think of at the top of my mind.

1. Note the exact error Message
2. Search Knowledgebase with exact search on
3. Search Microsoft GP Groups
4. Search your system using Google Desktop or Microsoft Desktop
5. Does the problem occur only on one machine ?
6. Gather the following information from the machine that has a problem
   1. Generate a DexSQL Log and review it
   2. Get a copy of Dex.ini and Dynamics.set
   3. Check Version of Software (GP, FRx, IM, Biz Portal, 3rd Party, SQL)
   4. Check Windows version and service pack
   5. What 3rd party products are being used ?
   6. Check the ODBC
   7. Is the user using named printers ?
   8. Does the logged in user have restricted permissions ?
   9. Does the user have required permissions in the required folders on their machine and on the network
   10. Check Hard Disk Space
   11. Are any Anti-virus software's running on the machine ?
   12. Have any changes been made to this machine recently ?
   13. Check Event Log
   14. Create a new ODBC
7. Check the user's security, try the process with a user with full permissions
8. Talk to the IT guy to get this view
9. Try and replicate the problem on the test server for the company
10. Try and replicate the problem on your test server
11. Check queries fired in Profiler
12. Use the Support Debugging tool
13. Ask a consultant who has used Great Plains in the last millennium
14. Open a support ticket with Microsoft Support

And then, follow up with the user after a couple of days for small talk, and to make sure they are doing fine.