Gower Optimal Algorithms Ltd.

Technical Support.

We are pleased to report that PALLETMANAGER, CARGOMANAGER and SLIPSHEET MANAGER do provide relatively trouble-free operation. They are full 32 bit Windows applications written entirely using Silverfrost Fortran which provides fast, flexible and reliable code (faster than C++!) and future potential support for Microsoft .NET. All products operate under Windows 98 / NT / XP / Vista / Windows 7 and require < 20Mb of disk space. Licensed systems can be installed either locally or on a network. 

The April 2010 releases of the software have been developed on Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines. We were impressed with the speed of 'boot up' and running of Windows 7 on a low specification test machine, and for those who have migrated to Vista, Windows 7 was certainly fairly familiar.

Issues relating to the pre-2010 releases can be found here.

General:

The two page Installation Summary documents (PDF format) sent with all CD's can be accessed here:

The installation process uses the familiar Installshield / Windows MSI installer used by many applications and further details on this are available here. Normally the installation process will operate correctly with normal virus scanner settings, however we have had one occasion with Mcafee Viruscan on a server when access rights required the virus protection to be switched off during installation. Also on Citrix systems with re-mapped drives you may need to install on a local workstation and then copy to the Citrix server (a known Citrix Knowledge Centre issue with Microsoft Installer).

The other point of reference in the case of problems should be the appropriate user manual - especially Section 2 and Appendix 1 in both manuals (available below).

With all our products this is automatically installed with the software and is accessible from most screens within the applications. (Full manuals for all products can also be accessed here.) Networking issues are dealt with here.

Version Numbers:

Whilst we typically refer to (say) Version 7.7 of an application, in practice versions 7.70 / 7.71 / 7.72 etc will exist. Versions such as 7.70 and 7.71 are typically used for evaluation / trial versions whilst later numbers in the sequence (7.72, 7.73 etc) are used for release versions and updates to the same.

TRIAL systems are protected and restricted to 21 day operation and/or limited numbers of uses. They MUST be installed on the local drive of the pc. (Licensed systems can, of course, be installed locally or on a network). To run TRIAL systems occasionally administrator status is required. This is discussed in more detail here. 

Other PALLETMANAGER Issues:

Other CARGOMANAGER Issues:

System fails to Run.

If either PALLETMANAGER or CARGOMANAGER fails to run after operating correctly for some time then the most likely cause is a machine problem or file corruption. The following steps are recommended:

1. Shut down the computer and re-start. Try the software again to see if the problem has been cured. This can sometimes overcome problems - if not:
2. Re-install the software (from disks / CD). When installed in the same folder (default folder is PMNT) then user files will be retained. Try the software again. [This will correct any potential problems with any of the executable files being corrupt]. If the problem persists:
3. Install the software on another machine in a temporary folder. In this way all the operational files - both executable and user and inbuilt data files - will be new. 

If Step 3 cures the problem then the problem may be with one of the user data files. A full list of these is given at the end of Section 2 of the respective manuals. Copying each of these to the temporary folder should help identify any invalid files.