Tag Archives: freeze

CPU Usage may increase to 100% while you are scrolling through a Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

CPU Usage may increase to 100% while you are scrolling through a Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

This can occur if the “Use smooth scrolling” option is enabled in “Internet Options” by default the “Use smooth scrolling” setting is enabled in Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9.

To resolve the issue you just need to disable/untick the “Use smooth scrolling” option in Internet Explorer by following the steps below

  1. On the “Tools” menu in Internet Explorer, click “Internet Options” then click the “Advanced” tab
  2. Click to untick the “Use smooth scrolling” check box as shown in the screenshot below

The Microsoft knowledge base article KB 885355 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885355

Sage Accounts and Sage Payroll – Crashing or Poor Performance

Sage Accounts and Sage Payroll are two very popular accounting products and in general work nicely on a well configured computer/network.

The most common issues that affect Sage Accounts and Payroll are listed below

  • Verify that your computer at least meets the minimum requirements to run your version of Sage Payroll or Sage Accounts (You cannot expect optimum performance from a machine that only just meets these basic requirements or that is below the outlined specs.  You might be able to upgrade the Memory in your existing machine to improve its performance or it may be time to consider a new machine)
  • Consumer Oriented Anti-Virus Products (These are usually bloated and will consume a large percentage of the system resources, the inbuilt software firewall may disrupt or interfere with the accessing of Sage Data files on other machines.  If you have a network strongly consider a corporate anti-virus product that does not bog down your machine and can be centrally configured rather than relying on each user to add exceptions for specific Sage files)
  • Accessing your Sage Data via a Wireless or VPN Connection (Both these type of connection only offer limited throughput and are prone to unexpected disconnections due to external factors, losing connection to your Sage Data whilst you are using it can result in a crash or worse still corruption. Consider having network data cabling installed or if this is not possible in your building/home then Ethernet Over the Mains may offer a suitable alternative)
  • Outdated Network Adapter Drivers (Your network adapter may have drivers installed that date back to 2005 or 2006 when you first purchased your computer, even most new computers do not have the very latest network adapter drivers installed.  Please take a look at my previous article for information on how you can find out if your network adapter driver is upto date and performing optimally)
  • Old Data Cabling and Network Hubs (Consider upgrading your internal cabling to Cat 5e or Cat 6, these both support speeds up to 1000Mbps or 1Gbps, this offers a significant boost over older 10Mbps networks.  You may also find that if your cabling is already suitable that your Network Hub or Switch is only capable of these slower speeds.  The best performance can be achieved by using a Managed Gigabit Switch, this will offer 1000Mbps to any computer/server/laptop that has a suitable network adapter installed or at least 100Mbps to those machines with older network adapters)
  • Unpatched Machine (Your desktop or server may be missing important Service Packs or updates that improve the overall responsiveness of the system or correct issues related to poor network or disk throughput.)
  • Operating System Hotfixes (Sometimes if an issue is not widely acknowledged Microsoft will release a requestable Hotfix rather than post the update to all users, this Hotfix may make it into a subsequent Service Pack but until this is released you may need to request appropriate hotfixes from Microsoft via http://support.microsoft.com )
  • Data Corruption or Repair may be required (If your data has been damaged in the past then a repair may be required to make it consistent, it is also possible that your Sage Data could be compacted to reduce the overall size and thus improve performance when accessing the data)

Hopefully you find this information useful, it does not cover all possible issues but should generally aid most Sage users.  Please always make several backups of your Sage Data before making any changes to your system or Sage.  Ideally you should make sure that at least one of these backups is to external media (USB pen, DVD/CD, External Hard Disk).

Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Small Business Server 2011 is slow to respond or may stop responding for 10-20 seconds

If your Server is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 or Windows Small Business Server 2011 Service Pack 1, you utilise RAID and have more than 4GB of memory then you are likely to be affected by this issue.  It seems to impact those servers running memory hungry applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server/Express and Microsoft SharePoint the most.  It can cause the server to operate slowly and/or stop responding for 10-20 seconds to requests.

This issue is related to a limitation in the memory allocation of the storport.sys driver, this file is part of the Microsoft operating system.

All is not lost as Microsoft do provide a solution/fix. The first step is to ensure that your current RAID Controller driver is upto date, the latest version can usually be found on the server manufacturers support site or if you are not sure which update/driver applies to your system then contact the manufacturers technical support by phone or e-mail.

Please note that for HP Smart Array controllers you should be using Driver version 6.28.0.64 (Released 18th Feb 2014) or later for this change to take effect (Enables customers to make use of Microsoft HotFix which enables 64-bit command addressing described by MS KB2468345).

Now that we have the latest RAID controller driver installed lets ensure that we have the latest version of storport.sys installed, the latest version for Windows Server 2008 R2 to date is available from Microsoft using the following link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528357 we need this newer version of Storport because the version included with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 – Service Pack 1 does not correct the memory allocation limitation.  Once the storport.sys hotfix (KB 2528357) is installed on your server you can proceed to the final step of resolving the overall issue.

The final step is to create a registry entry under the RAID miniport driver to allow it to address more than 4GB Memory via the storport.sys driver that we have updated.

We need to add a registry key so lets open Registry Editor by either typing regedit in the Start Search box or the Run Command and then pressing “Enter”

You will need to browse and locate this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\<MINIPORT>\Parameters

In place of <MINIPORT> in the example key above you need to enter the name of the Storport miniport driver that is in use on your particular server, i have attached a screenshot of where you can find this information, the example is based upon a HP Smart Array P410i Controller (HpCISSs2) but the principle is the same for most brands of server and RAID controller.

For the HP ProLiant server this Registry key would be: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HpCISSs2\Parameters

Once in the correct key click on the “Edit” menu, click “New”, and then click “DWORD Value”

Type Supports64BitAddressing, and then press “Enter”.

Right-click Supports64BitAddressing, and then click “Modify”

In the “Value data” box, type a value of 1

Your entry should look like the screenshot below

Close the Registry Editor and Restart your Server.

Now the RAID miniport driver that uses the Storport.sys driver can access more than 4 GB of physical memory and it should resolve your performance issue.