Fatal Error Messages

Question

Symptoms:

Error: C0000005 will randomly appear in the program.

Error: C0000006 will randomly appear in the program.

Most Common Causes

Technical Support has been tracking calls on these errors for the past few years and compiled the following list of leading causes.

• 80% – Printer driver conflicts. HP printer drivers are a big cause of these errors.  Fix has usually been reinstalling the driver, using an alternate driver, or changing the printer used as your default printer.  For example, use the HP 5si driver instead of the HP 4000 driver (which is known to cause problems), you can also try using the Postscript version of printer drivers.
• 10% – Programs running in the background causing conflicts (GPF/IPF’s). Leading causes have been found to be Office Shortcut Bar and anti-virus software.
• 5% – Other environmental causes. Most often the temporary directory on the workstation marked as system file or temporary files themselves (0*.*, *.mem, *.tmp).  Having the Temp folder setup incorrectly can also cause this error, see our temp folder setup document.  This is also seen with bad network cards (NIC) and other hardware problems.
• 4% – Corrupted data or indexes creating the error. More often indexes are the cause but a few cases of corrupted data have been reported. Corrupted memo files (*.fpt files) associated with tables can potentially cause the error. Also reported that if a FOXUSER.dbf exists in the Pro installation and is corrupted it can cause the error until removed.
• 1% – Program causing error.

Answer

How to Troubleshoot the Error

C0000005 and C0000006 errors are general in nature and rarely are two reports of the issue the same. Finding the cause of the errors requires a methodical process of identifying when the error occurs and then eliminating variables (possible causes).

1. Look for a pattern. This is the most important step to finding the exact cause of the error. The following are some examples.
    
   • Does it always happen when printing or previewing? Most likely a printer driver issue if this is the case.
   • Does it happen with only some reports, forms, vendors, customers, etc.? May be a data issue if it occurs in only one company. The error may also be the result of corrupted memo (*.fpt) files for tables being used at the time. Someone proficient in Visual FoxPro can test this scenario by using the table and listing the memo fields in it. It will usually fail on those that are corrupt.
   • Does it happen on all workstations, a few, or only one? If all workstations it will most likely be a network, data or program issue. If just a few or only one, it will most likely be an environmental issue with programs running on the workstations, no temp directory existing on workstation or temp directory is marked as system file.
   • Does it happen in all companies? If yes, then it could be a program or an environmental issue. If no, then most likely it will be a data or index issue.
      
2. Continue to eliminate potential causes based on pattern found. The following are some examples.
    
   • It happens on all workstations when printing any report. Are they all using a single network printer or many different ones? Try changing the printer driver on one workstation to use a base emulation driver and remove the existing driver. Try a local printer to eliminate the network print queue as a variable.
   • It happens on one machine sporadically during AR entry. Check programs running in the background of the workstation and shut them down to avoid conflicts. Most likely an environmental issue with that workstation.
      
3. If no pattern can be identified fall back on the basics:
   • Try to make the workstation(s) as clean as possible by shutting down programs in the background until only Explorer and maybe Systray are running.
   • Clean, reindex and delete temporary files for the Pro Series program.
   • Use the system tools available in System Manager.
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4. If still cannot correct or identify the issue, have the user(s) record the following information when the error occurs. This can be very useful in identifying an actual pattern.
   • Screen shot of the error.
   • Exactly what they were doing just prior to the error. Very important to include what company, module, transaction, screens open, what customer/vendor/items, and last few steps they took in the program (including whether using mouse or keyboard).
   • What else they had running on the workstation at the time (i.e. Outlook, etc.).