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#295338 - 15/03/2007 09:58 Server Busy
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
Quote:
This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy. Choose 'Switch To' to activate the busy program and correct the problem.

Anybody come up with this text box in XP, I seem to be able to open programs, but then it pops up immediately I try to work in them.
Googling tells me that many people have/are having this problem, but offers no definitive remedy.
Any Ideas?
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#295339 - 15/03/2007 15:06 Re: Server Busy [Re: boxer]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
I had this happening to me on a Windows 2000 system for a while. I eventually tracked it down to a hard disk that was being intermittently faulty, and which eventually failed completely.

Backup early, backup often.

Also, have a scrape 'round the knowledge base at support.microsoft.com and search for that error text.
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Tony Fabris

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#295340 - 15/03/2007 15:24 Re: Server Busy [Re: tfabris]
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
Cheers, Tony: Yes I'm fully backed up - always. A new hard disk has recently been added, but the fault predates it. I couldn't find anything on Microsoft.
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#295341 - 15/03/2007 16:06 Re: Server Busy [Re: boxer]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
I couldn't find anything on Microsoft.


It's an OLE message. Effectively you've got two Windows programs talking to each other using OLE/COM.

The first one has called the second one, and is waiting for a response. Because it's single-threaded, it appears to have stalled.

Rather than have you think it's crashed, Windows brings up this dialog box, prompting you to switch to the second program (which might be asking you a question before it returns control to the first program).

These days, you should rarely see it, since more and more Windows programs are multi-threaded, but it does still sometimes happen.

It's either a bug in the program, or simply that the program's taking too long to do its thing. As Tony says, this could be a looming hardware failure. Alternatively, maybe your machine just needs nuking.
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-- roger

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#295342 - 15/03/2007 19:05 Re: Server Busy [Re: Roger]
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
Quote:
maybe your machine just needs nuking.


It's a Dell which is still under extended warranty, so hopefully that won't be necessary! Thanks for the, very full, explanation.
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#295343 - 18/03/2007 08:27 Re: Server Busy [Re: Roger]
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
Quote:
These days, you should rarely see it, since more and more Windows programs are multi-threaded, but it does still sometimes happen

Thinking back, it started at about the time that I started using "BT Digital Vault", when I checked before uninstalling, I saw that they had new software, which, when installed seems to have solved the problem.
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