Mercury Systems works perfectly on new Microsoft Windows 8 Operating System

Windows 8 is Microsoft’s new operating system designed to compete with Apple iPad’s, Samsung Galaxy’s and the like, and uses the new ‘Metro’ user-interface.

Last week, Mercury Systems was installed for the first time on a new touch-screen laptop running Windows 8, and I am happy to report that everything worked perfectly.  The customer had purchased a Dell XPS-12 flip-screen laptop, and being a touch-screen meant that he can now record customer signatures directly into Mercury Systems.  As it is a Windows device (i.e. not using Apple IOS or Android operating systems), he can also run Mercury K-Base to look up installation guides, parts diagrams, service bulletins etc. and run other Windows software, just as he can in his office. 

If you are considering giving smartphone or iPad devices to your engineers, it may be an option to equip them with a Windows-based touch screen device instead, such as the XPS-12, so that they can run standard Windows software.  Currently these are expensive devices, however the prices should fall over time.

(FOR OFFICE-BASED USERS, at the time of writing I still recommend and prefer Windows 7 if you can manage to obtain it from your pc supplier)

(note:  do not buy a device with ‘Windows RT’ operating system installed.  Windows RT is designed for tablets, however is it not backwards-compatible with any software that you are currently running on your office pc’s.  The device must be running either Windows 8 or Windows 8 ‘Pro’ operating systems if you want to run ‘traditional’ Windows software such as Mercury Systems)

What to do if Mercury Systems doesn’t start up…

Very occasionally, Mercury Systems may display a white screen or an error message with ‘connect timeout’ somewhere in the error text when you try to start the program.  Usually, this happens following a restart of your server or primary pc (the one holding the databases).

The reason is straightforward:  the Microsoft SQL Database Engine hasn’t started up automatically following the machine restart.  Mercury Systems requires the SQL Engine to be running at all times in order to retrieve and store data, and if the databases are not running, the program will hang or display the timeout error.

Fortunately the fix is straightforward too.  Either:-

1. Restart your server/primary pc again and the databases will start up correctly

OR:-

1. On the server/primary pc only, click START, then RUN and type ‘services.msc’ in the run box (or if using Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 / 2011, type ‘services.msc’ in the search box immediately above START).
2. When the Services utility is displayed, scroll down until you see “SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS)” (may also be called “SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS2008)” on your system).
3. Highlight the line (single-click) and click ‘Start’ towards the left hand side of the utility.
4. Watch for the word ‘Started’ to be displayed in the Status column of the highlighted line.

Mercury Systems will now locate the databases and work correctly when it is opened.

If you need to kill the hung program, either click ‘quit’ within the error message, or use Task Manager to kill the Mercury Systems application (also shown as MSysM.exe within the processes list).

Check “Mercury Background Tasks” Is Running

This utility is installed either on your server console, or on your main pc which holds the service/stock databases (i.e. not on the client pc’s), and when running the ‘Mercury’ icon (grey/black circle within a black square) is displayed down near the time in the system tray area.

It is very important that you periodically check to see whether the utility is running correctly as it is responsible for – among other things – the backup of your service and stock SQL databases.  Double-click the icon to display the information panel, and check that the screen does not list dozens of ‘Unable to start task…’ messages, which can occasionally happen.  If it does display these messages, or the icon cannot be found down near the system tray, follow the instruction below to restart the utility.

• To terminate the utility if it is stuck:  Right-click the icon and select ‘Exit’.
• To start or restart Mercury Background Tasks utility:  Click START -> ALL PROGRAMS -> STARTUP and select Mercury Background Tasks.  Once the utility panel is displayed, you can minimize or close the utility screen (which will still run in background).

Mercury Background Tasks is vital to the safe running of Mercury Systems, so please periodically check (perhaps at least once per week) that the utility is running as intended.

If you have any questions about this, please call.

Xmas & New Year Support Hours

For normal enquiries / conversations / training, I will not be available on:-

• Monday 24^th December (Xmas Eve)
• Tuesday 25^th December (Xmas Day)
• Wednesday 26^th December (Boxing Day) 
• Tuesday 1^st January (New Year’s Day)

That said, if you have an urgent issue that needs my assistance, I should be available after 2:30pm on the days listed above, and after 1:30pm on all other days (i.e. as usual).

*** IMPORTANT - For those of you that use Skype ***

Please remember that if you have an urgent problem that occurs outside of normal hours or on weekends, for a quicker response please email me in the first instance instead of using Skype – this is because outside of normal working hours, I check my email all the time, however I rarely check Skype for messages.

Enjoy the mince pies and mulled wine!

Producing Credit Notes

A customer of mine who runs a high-street shop was recently subjected to a surprise 7 hour tax examination by HM Revenue &Customs.  During the audit HMRC stated that if you raise a credit note, you must record the customer’s name and address on the note.  This is presumably so HMRC can check with the customer that you did in fact refund money to them. 

Fortunately this customer had been doing everything right with regards to operating the stock system, maintaining records and raising credit notes etc., however I know some of you will not be aware of this requirement.

You can still sell an item to an unknown customer (i.e. you can still select ‘Counter Sales Customer’), but when refunding money you must create a customer record first (if it doesn’t already exist) and then select that record when raising the credit note.

Any questions please call…