Repairing a Precinct Connection Database

Repairing a Precinct Connection Database

Repairing a Precinct Connection Database


For our existing Precinct Connection users, if you ever experience a corrupt database (may show as 3343 error) and you cannot open your Precinct software, please do the following:


Make sure all Precinct software is closed and move to your main host computer where the database is. 


Open Windows File Explorer and open your local C: drive. Look in here for your Precinct folder. If you don't see it in here, check in Program Files. 



Scroll down and find the database called crimconn.mdb. Right mouse click it and choose "Rename"



Add OLDTodaysDate to the file name. Example: crimconnOLD6302020.mdb and press Enter to save. It will now show like this:



Press the letter "J" on your keyboard to jump to the JetComp.exe utility. (Note, if you do not have JetComp.exe in your folder, please download it from here JetComp.exe and copy and paste it into your Precinct folder. 


Browse for the database that you just renamed and select it. 



Double check to make sure you selected the right one. Then type "crimconn.mdb" without the quotes into the "Database to Compact Into (Destination) field"



Without changing anything else in this utility, click Compact. Wen it finishes (please be patient as it may take a while depending on severity and amount of corruption,) click Exit. 



You may now close the File Explorer window and open Precinct Connection. 






Here is some info on causes of database corruption:





Network & Power Settings
99.9 % of the time it's due to a network drop somewhere. If a machine has Precinct open and it loses connection to the database even for a second, transactional data can become stuck and it causes corruption. You want to most importantly make sure everyone is shutting down Precinct at the end of the day or even when they will not be using the computers for an extended period of time. You can also adjust each computers power settings so they don't go to sleep or go idle including the network card (NIC.) You'll want to make sure all computers are hardwired to the router. Running WIFI with an access database system will always cause problems including latency and corruption so we strongly recommend against WIFI. 

If you have done the above and it's still happening, you'll need to bring in a computer technician/network technician to determine where the breaking point is. Sometimes this involves not using any other computers except the computer where the Precinct database lives to see if the problem continues. When it doesn't, you start up one other computer and then test with two and so on to try to find the culprit. There are other tests that a network tech can do to find issues as well. Note that ping and trace routes unfortunately don't provide enough info in cases like this. The db corruption stems from an outside event and is not happening from Precinct itself so there is nothing to alter or change within Precinct. 

Here is an article on setting power instructions for all computers including the host computer. Power Settings Instructions



Antivirus

Antivirus while protecting your computer can cause interference with other software running on your computer such as Precinct Connection especially real time scanning. You'll want to be sure to add Precinct.exe from inside the Precinct folder and the entire Precinct folder to your antivirus and malware scanning applications.




It's very important to have someone look into your environment to try and track down the cause of the database corruption. If this continues, at some point the corruption will be too severe to repair and you'll need to restore from a backup. It's imperative that you backup your Precinct Connection database each night as well. 

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