Settler software nightmare

[loops]

Two things more
1- my backslashes are missing from above post \\
2-my beef is with field-mate & master I happen to like Gold just fine.
I also give credit where it's due, since my first post here, the support has gone from poor back up to excellent.(Which is the level I expect!)
I'm sure this matter will be solved very shortly, stay tuned~~

[MCSA4]

First of all, let me commend you on acknowledging that the level of service has improved. That is a step in the right direction and I hope that you will let them know. A little sugar can go a long way!

As for paying for support, everyone does and getting a call back in less than hour is EXCELLENT support. Try calling Microsoft sometime....you'll be on hold for at least an hour and get charged $50.00 per call. As for callbacks, unless you are a big corporation paying big dollars for support ...good luck! Do not set your expectations too high for surely you will be disappointed.

As for Millenium, let me clarify...I am NOT a Microsoft tech...I am certified which means I have written the Microsoft exams, thus proving that I have some knowledge about their software. I do not work for Microsoft and it is a personal decision to not support Millenium. In fact, I wouldn't allow it near my computer and trust me my computer gets a real work out testing out different softwares! But that is my opinion only - you will find some techs out there that like it.

I don't know Field Mate or Master and I am not a programmer - thus will not attempt to answer anything that relates to the files that may or may not be installed. But I do know that system32 files are core operating system files that are installed by the operating system and only digitally signed (certified software) can overwrite these files. Therefore, if Field Master is not on the list, then it shouldn"t be able to overwrite these files IF that is the case. For more info on Windows File Protection and digital certification refer to this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/system_file_protection.asp
Therefore, based on your information, it is not clear to me how this program can cause this problem. By the way, just because you couldn't find the software on Microsoft doesn't mean that it is good or bad - it only means that Microsoft tested it and it has met a certain level of testing. Whatever that means...other than someone has paid very big dollars to have this done. It still won"t guarantee that it will work with every system out there....like I said before - hardware and software must work together and with all the different type of hardware out there no software company (including Microsoft) will guarantee that it will work with EVERY system. Thus the disclaimer....Hardware is one of the main reasons why some people have problems with a software and others don"t. That is why proper troubleshooting techniques must be employed and one cannot jump to conclusions.

Sounds to me that your operating system for whatever reason has become corrupted and reinstalling it would be the sensible thing to do. It is not uncommon to do that. Files are files and they do become corrupt for a variety of reasons.Sometimes we never know why. But if reinstalling the operating system can quickly remedy the problem we just do it. No big deal. It's no different that uninstalling and reinstalling a program. Nothing to get too excited about provided you have properly backed up your data regularly.

Running a weekly scan with your Anti-virus is a good preventative measure. However, when there is an unexplained problem, the first thing to do is manually update the signature files and run a virus scan. So....have you done that to prove out that you don't have a virus?

Congratulations on your 2.0 grade. Does this mean you are working on your certification? If so, what certification are you working towards?
Good luck in future exams!! Having some knowledge is good but experience teaches good troubleshooting skills and that is an everlasting learning curve. Good luck in your future endeavors!

[loops]

Well this didn't work as I had planned but here's the latest. I did take my computer to Regina, it spent 8 hours on the bench being tested. They found no hardware or operating system errors. I never made it to Settler as everything was closed by the time I got it out of the repair shop.
Once i got it home I found that it still wasn't working properly. Phoned back and was advised it wasn't worth doing anymore tests, that I should just format the hard drive and start over. To a person like me I find that maddening that i've never had a problem in my life before and suddenly have to format the drive twice within 6 months and the problem starting both times while installing the same software.
The owner of the repair site told me that it's not that the software is sub-par it just conflicts with my particluar computer hardware/software configuration.(This still doesn't make me feel any better)
While in Regina i purchased a 120gig external hard drive with software to create a perfect copy of my computer so I never have to do this again. But when checking with the company found it won't work quite that way, so I've come up with a solution.
I've ordered another internal hard drive. My computer will now have a total of 5 hard drives with 2 complete windows XP operating systems. I will run my farm books on one and my photo business on the other and use each to create a perfect copy of the other. Be like having two computers networked.
Sounds like a lot of work? try downloading over 40 hours of programs and updates twice in 6 months! The people who say formating is no big deal don't live in rural sask on dial-up!
Once this is done and i've created a copy of the farm drive I will try settler program once more.(There will only be 3 programs on it, all by settler and they had better work!)
I really hope no one else ever has a problem like this, it's almost enough to make me pull out my old pocket notebook and pencil!

[MCSA4]

Big difference between formatting and downloading programs - why don't you burn these programs to CD so you don't have to download every time -

As for the 5 hard drives - good luck - I hope you have done your homework in properly setting up RAID or you are creating yourself a ton of grief - this is not to be attempted by someone with little experience - even a headache for those who do. So if you have problems, don't blame the software. And no this is not networking computers....not even close. Whatever computer course you took...I would get my money back....

See ya!

[loops]

How low can you go?(lets find out)
Well Mr. Sawyer, I was willing to let this quietly drop, but maybe it's time to take it up a notch.
Originally you entered this web-site designed for farmers to discuss issues on farming. From what I can tell you've never run Settler programs, never farmed, have no clue about anything to do with farming. I can only wonder who your "friend" is that sent you here. It's obvious your not interested in helping me with my problem, rather you seem intent on tearing me down.
As for your last e-mail, of course I backup every program I possibly can. If you paid attention you'd have realized I upgraded from Me to XP therefore most of my saved downloads wouldn't work on the
new Operating system. DUH! This time won't be as bad but I still will have to download several programs because of anti-piracy setups that are designed NOT to allow copying.
I have no use for RAID as i'm not interested in having several small drives appear as one large drive to my system. I WANT complete seperation from my photos,farm and backups. It's something we farmers call diversification!
Keep in mind Settler is making software for average farmers,not computer geeks.
Just today a large farmer was asking about a free trial of Agexpert he'd recieved and in the next breath, how he'd just sent his first e-mail! I'm a well known user of their products in this area, should I tell these people that until they have a university degree not to bother, no wait he DOES have a degree!
As for getting my money back you mean to imply I don't know S--t. I took a 3 month course, not to get microsoft certified or fix computers for a living.
I took that course as well as many other courses over the years to become a better farmer. The whole point of these courses is to have a basic working knowledge of all the systems we deal with. Today I believe a farmer needs to understand the basics of too many things to be an expert on everything. Knowing what we are capable of and knowing when to get proffesional help is half the battle. A lot of people claim to be qualified pro's but being able to tell the diffence between one who's out to help me or one who is out to get me....Priceless!
So the money I spent on my little course is well worth it. I may even send the instuctor a Bonus!
The last thing MY friend said when I was leaving his shop was "Do you really need that software?"
So why don't you tell YOUR "friend" to send me a refund on the software.
THE END!

[grassmarketeer]

MCSA4/Tom you do seem to be ridings Loops instead of helping him! Maybe a function of all those initials behind your name that most of those who live off this fine land cannot understand.
Anyways, Loops are you happy with the settler accounting package and the bulk of the Settler products? What would you recommend for a whole farm package?

[loops]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who can see through the smoke.
Settler Gold (Agexpert) is a good program BUT it's a real bear to get it intially started up. Many farmers have purchased it and gave up before they ever got it running. Take the courses from settler, a real must do!
The accounting program isn't for everyone. If you only want to enter income and expense, use a spreadsheet it's not worth it if used as such. However if you are looking for a program that can really go in depth and do everything, go for it.
Fieldmater/mate- don't reccomend it for anyone as is. The program is poorly designed and I don't mean because it doesn't work on my particular computer either.
My main beefs are that it's not intergrated with gold.(they will claim it is but believe me it isn't) It's not flexible enough and not easy to find info.
Such as, I'm zero till, to track crop rotations the drop down menu only allows selection of fallow or stubble, I want to know what type of stubble, to do that
i have to make sepearte notes and each of these notes must be opened individually. The program makes you use so many of these note entries that in order to find the info you are looking for - you end up opening dozens of notes or you simply end up not using them.
All grain sales, production, expenses need to be entered in both gold and fieldmaster, there's no reason for this, they should exchange that info automatically.
#1 stupid thing- in the crop planning area, say your comparing lentils/barley/canola. You can choose from 3-4 lines labeled (trying remember)I believe Herbicide 1-4 BUT you can't put the name of the chemical you plan on using in the planner so you either trust your memory or like me pull out notepad and write Herb 1- roundup
herb 2- Edge , get the idea?
Many entries are too complex, if you recieve crop ins. money on a lentil crop and you want to enter that in fieldmate
you first must SEED crop ins on all the lentil fields, then combine lentil fields, make new storage location for production, then finally sell crop ins for that money to show up in profit/loss. If that ain't ass backwards I don't know what would be!
I was one of the first to purchase the fieldmate-master/mate programs and talked many times to techs. at settler on improving the product to make it useable but it fell on deaf ears. In the end the worst $500 I ever spent. There is a real need for a program like fielmate/master but this isn't it. Settler should start over from the beginning make it a complete working extension of gold,(no more double entries) then work out the rest of the bugs. No amount of updates will ever make this program work as it should, stay away till they do a full rebuild.

[wedino]

Loops, Farm Works is the one you need. It's fully integrated.

[URL="http://www.farmworks.com/main/indexm.cgi"] Farm Works[/URL]

[loops]

That's it! I couldn't remember the name but I had seen it a the farm progress show and thought it looked great.
However since I was already using settler and they promised intergration, I expected it to work very similar. opps, my mistake!

[AgExpert]

Regarding FarmWorks… it is a quality product published in the USA, but it does not offer the same functionality as the AgExpert (formerly Settler) Field Manager software.

The handheld computer (software) in the FarmWorks solution (Farm Trac and Farm Trac Mate) is primarily used for data collection in the field. It then just transfers data to the desktop PC computer (software), but does not “synchronize” the field and crop records data between the handhelds and PC. This means that any data entered on the PC or previously entered in the handheld, are not available for review on the handheld after a data transfer to the PC.

This is significant as most growers want a system to use for both entering data in the field as well as to access their information on the handheld. FarmWorks only allows you to keep your data on the handheld only, or transfer data (basically a data dump) to the PC, but it doesn’t do both. You cannot have a 2-way synchronization of FarmWorks data between handheld and PC with the above software.

The AgExpert Field Manager software (specifically the Field-Mate Palm handheld software) allows you to enter data in a handheld – or multiple handhelds – and both update and synchronize the desktop PC with that new data, while still keeping all of the information in your handheld too so it’s always accessible and with you in the field.

For more information on the Field Manager system, please visit: http://www.agexpert.ca/en/products/agexpert_field_manager/agexpert_field_manager_e.asp

AgExpert (formerly Settler) software products are updated frequently, and the Field Manager program referenced in the thread messages above, has had a recent release including new features that included some of the suggestions above.

AgExpert continues to gather suggestions for our products from our customers, review these with other industry requirements, and blend these into the new features and functionality being added to the software. Many of the other suggestions in this thread are already in the future plan for subsequent version releases.

loops – I believe we’re still waiting for you to book an appointment to bring your system in for our Support staff to look at.

Rob Schmeichel
General Manager
AgExpert (formerly Settler)