One of my setups has started hanging allot at login and payment mostly.
Am not aware of any changes in the configuration.
My first thought is a network issue, the backbone of their network is a BT HomeHub.
Have been looking to get them to swap out/add a unmanaged switch after the homehub (as all terminals are set to static IP address this would also mean the tills would continue to work without interruption if they had to reboot the BT hub which is the internet gateway and sometimes needs a reboot.
Before rushing out to sort a switch anyone else have any suggestions?
The terminals are hard wired and the issue has only started recently after all"most a year.
Samba doesn’t crash, they say sometimes it hangs long enough to get the windows popup of not responding, is up to date v4, firewall is off, pc is core 2 duo 3ghz with 4gb ram and task manager only shows 10% usage don’t think its anything to do with the pc.
Server is a respectable branded pc with AMD 64bit processor can’t remember GHz, 4gb ram.
Pretty sure its network issue but wanted to see if any other suggestions.
Is there any login specific automation? PS. if it were network they would feel it at other times not specifically at those 2 points so this leads me to think it may be something else.
Can you get a backup of the database for testing?
Did they start automation for running backups?
They are the two points I noticed anything when testing.
They have the switch user setup with recall ticket id but has worked flawlessly for almost 12 months.
Have shows manager to update prices and confident he abides by my instructions not to go in to the automation section.
Yes backups are daily.
If it truly were network related it may do things like slow to add orders… ticket screen freeze for a bit, management screen might even freeze. If its specifically login and payment then its probably something else.
If you can pm a copy of the database I can look at it to rule out any rule conflicts or database corruptions.
Am just sending that now.
Its odd as its not everylogin etc, its intermittent which is what made me think it wasn’t samba.
Sent…
Just seen it hang on adding a product also…
Thanks for having a look.
If you can have a quick once over, would be good to sort before busy Saturday tomorrow.
Although this is the first issue I’ve had like this since using samba for anyone else reading this 
It works fine on my end. Since you added more info and it looks like its hanging randomly that does indeed sound like network issue.
Is it all terminals or does the one that has the database run fine?
They only have one main terminal and a screen only terminal which opens min draw, have asked them to do next few trans on that one and see it it does it too.
I think its network issue, as I said been pushing them to switchover to a little 8port unmanaged netgear like I have used on most of my other setups.
Thanks for taking a look.
Thats odd. So your hard wired to the network? Do you have some decent cat5e that doesn’t run over 328 ft?
Yes hard wired and only maybe 30m run but pretty sure it’s the switch/modem.
The home hubs are good but like most things get bogged down after months of being on 24/7.
Changing to a backbone of an unmanaged basic/switch only would be my preference anyway.
The bt home hub also powers there public wifi so lots of additional traffic but was the infer structure in place when I installed.
Have to wait for a verdict as to wether or not the second/backup/overflow terminal also shows same issues. If it does network or server will be the issue but still confident it’s the hub.
As always it’s at the start of the weekend these type of issues show themselves lol.
Sure I will resolve and will let you know the verdict just wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas to check.
That is contrary to how they work… It could just be poor quality if its losing performance after being on for so long. I mean its not like the data sent is just floating around in a storage box building up over time…
I know what your saying but your not telling me that you’ve never fixed an issue with any piece of tech by turning it off and on again :-p
When there is no real reason that that should make a difference.
I have done this yes but it never truly fixed the issue. So I started trying to find the issue and because of that now I never try just turning it off and on again I search for the real issue. But I do understand your point.
By the way I was not implying this… sometimes turning it off and on again can help identify faulty equipment. If it makes a difference then it lets us know more about what might be the problem.
There are many people that will just continue turning it off and on again… and that’s fine I just thought I would offer my thought process on these things.
I’m not challenging your suggestion :-p
Just if I replaced every price of tech that I have ever had to restart to solve a problem I would be completely skint LOL
Appreciate the fact that that it should often not make a difference.
Good example of my stand with this situation is the hotel (my day job) s wifi which I have improved for them.
They have about 12-15 access point through the hotel.
On average I would have to restart at least one every week or two where it freezes up.
Now they are only £25 tp link and I’m pretty sure the issue is the passive POE distance being borderline too far, however they are cheap enough to keep few spares and replace if they break and they generally preform well. Any passive poe at this price is very handy
As life is generally a compromise the decision to me is obvious, nipping upstairs and unplugging the poe injector every so offen is an expectable trade off for the savings.
Plus the hotel would never be able to budget like 200£ each for a enter price grade cisco type wifi boxes anyway, especially not 12 of them 
Have changed the switch and the main terminal still seems to be doing it…
Have asked them to use the backup terminal in restaurant more to see if it also exhibits the same issue.
If not I plan to change the terminal PC.
I assume they are using MSSQL?
If the main PC hosting the DB is exhibiting the problem…
Check for disk errors. Maybe memory errors too.
Set a static IP or reservation for the PC.
Change the connection string to use the IP, or as I always do on the server, use LOCALHOST.
I used to have some lag from time to time on mine, but have not seen it in a long time now. Here is what I did:
Upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB.
Replaced HDD with SSD.
Installed Win8.1 x64.
Upgraded to SQL Express 2014.
Ensured all sleep or power-saving features are disabled/off so the PC always stays “alive”. Especially disk spindown.
Personally, I think the SSD is the real difference.
The SQL is on a separate ‘server’ (not real server, just win 7 PC).
All devices have static IP and have set host name resolutions in the hosts file.
Am contemplating upgrading/swapping out the terminal PC with one of my pre installed machines with SQL so the SQL is on the main terminal rather than a seperate machine, as they use the one behind the bar 99% of the time having the SQL locally to that should minimise any potential issues on the main machine.
You can install Express Profiler on SQL Server PC to monitor SQL Queries performance. If SQL Server is lagging for a reason you’ll discover that.
I’ll suggest a virus scan too.
Thanks, will give that a go.
Out of interest when you talk about ssd are you referring to the server machine or the client machine, or both?
He said it was the server. But both would be ideal.