Technical FAQs

The Acces setup program requires that your registration information (school name and key code) be typed in EXACTLY as it appears on the registration sheet shipped with your copy of Acces. Here are a few tips to ensure that your registration information is entered successfully:

• Enter the school names using the same spacing and punctuation shown on your registration sheet
• Do not expand abbreviations and do not add periods to abbreviations unless otherwise shown
• When entering the key code, make sure that you are entering zeros (0) and ones (1) and not the letters O and I
• Enter the dashes between each set of numbers/letters in the keycode

If you are receiving the error "Key code is the wrong version for this CD", make sure you are using the Acces CD that's paired with your registration sheet.

If you are still having problems entering your registration information, let us know by emailing us at support@educaide.com. In your email, please include the following information:

• Your name
• The school and school district you're working for
• The version number of the CD you're installing from (printed in the upper right area of the CD)
• The last 6 characters of the key code you're using

If you don't see a shortcut icon on your desktop after installing Acces, you're probably running Windows XP or Windows 2000 under a non-administrator account. The Acces setup program creates its shortcut icon in the "Desktop" folder of the "All Users" folder so that all users of the computer can see the icon. If you've installed Acces while logged in as a user without administrator rights, the desktop shortcut can't be created.

If you will be the only person using Acces on the computer, you can manually create a desktop shortcut to Acces.

1. Right-click your desktop.
2. Point to New, and then click Shortcut.
3. In the Create Shortcut dialog box, click Browse...
4. Locate the Acces program (named ACCWIN or ACCWIN.EXE). The program is installed in the C:\ACC folder by default, but it may be in a different folder if you changed the program location during the installation process. Click Open, then click Next.
5. Type Acces for Windows for the shortcut name, then click Finish.

If other people with different login names will want to use Acces on the computer, it might be better to create a desktop shortcut for all the people who use your computer. To do this, administrator rights are needed. You may need to find a technician from your IT/IS Department to do the following:

1. Login to the computer as an administrator.
2. Open My Computer and open the "All Users\Desktop" folder (usually found under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop).
3. Right-click on an empty area in the folder view, point to New, and then click Shortcut.
4. Follow steps 3–5 as mentioned in Solution 1.
5. Edit the shortcut's properties so that the "Start in" folder is one that users have write/modify permissions for. Using a temp folder like C:\TEMP or C:\WINDOWS\TEMP is recommended. (Note that currently, using environment variables will not work.)

For step-by-step instructions on installing the Windows version of Acces on a network, along with network-related troubleshooting tips, download our Network Notes:

Network Notes (PDF)

The Mac version of Acces cannot be run over a network; Acces must be installed locally.

Third-party database modules (such as the ones by Addison-Wesley and CORD) can be installed using a command-line utility called WINSTALL. To install the modules so that Acces recognizes them:

1. Make sure Acces isn't running. If it is, exit the program.
2. Insert the floppy disk or CD containing the database module into the appropriate drive.
3. Click the Start button, then click Run...
4. Type in the following command:
   X:\ACCPATH\WINSTALL Y:\DBPATH
   where X:\ACCPATH is the drive and path where Acces is installed, and Y:\DBPATH is the drive and path containing the database module you wish to install.
   For example, if you want to install the AW2 module, and your Addison-Wesley CD is in drive D, and your copy of Acces is installed in C:\ACC, you would type:
   C:\ACC\WINSTALL D:\WIN_DOS
5. Press OK.

Once the WINSTALL program finishes, you will be able to run Acces and use problems from your third-party database module.

Note: These directions assume that the file WINSTALL.EXE is in your Acces folder. If you don't have this file, you can download it from our Updates Page.

The -5000 error usually occurs when you don't have write permissions on the folder Acces is installed in. To solve this problem, you'll need to find someone with Administrator rights and ask him/her to grant users Read and Write permissions on the Acces folder.

More information about modifying permissions can be found in the "How to View and Change Permissions in the Finder's Info Window" section of the following Apple article:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n106712

This error usually occurs when running Acces on a computer that has been upgraded to Windows XP/2000 from Windows 98/95, and the AUTOEXEC.NT file is missing.

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following lines into Notepad:

   @echo off
   lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
   lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir
   lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx
   SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3
   

3. Save the file as <Path to Windows>\system32\autoexec.nt, where <Path to Windows> is the drive and path to your Windows directory (usually C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT).

The most common cause of these errors is installing Acces on Windows XP or 2000 as an Administrator but running Acces as a regular User. To solve this, you will need to find someone with Administrator rights and ask him/her to grant Users write and modify permissions on the folder Acces is installed in (usually C:\ACC).

More information about modifying permissions can be found in the following Microsoft article:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/security/accesscontrol.asp

When a problem is extracted, it and any auxiliary files it references (such as reading passages) lose all style settings that haven't been loaded by any previous problem in the document. This bug will be fixed in a future version of Acces.

To work around this problem, you will need to restore the style settings manually by referencing them in the TeX options dialog box.

1. Open the Layout menu and select TeX options.
2. In the Global commands edit box, type in the following line:
   \input xxx.sty
   where xxx is the database code for the extracted problem (e.g., TX8, TX5, NY2, etc).
3. Press OK.

For example, if you've extracted a problem from TX8 and need to restore the style settings in your document, you would type in the Global commands edit box.

If you can print without errors in other programs (such as Microsoft Word) but are seeing the errors mentioned above in Acces, download and install the latest program update for your version of Acces.

If you notice a significant (15+ seconds) delay while trying to preview or print a document (a delay that seems to lock up your computer), you might have an anti-virus program running in the background. Acces launches an external program to preview and print documents, and some anti-virus programs misinterpret this as "suspicious" activity. The anti-virus program will scan the program being launched, which will cause a delay in previewing and printing.

To verify whether or not an anti-virus program is the cause behind the delay, try disabling your anti-virus program temporarily. Run Acces, preview a document (it can even be a blank document), and see if there's still a delay. If there is no more delay, you can either keep your anti-virus program disabled (not recommended), or you can do the following:

Most anti-virus programs let you create and edit a "whitelist," or a list of files and programs that it considers safe and will not scan. Please refer to your anti-virus program's documentation to find out how to add entries to this list. The Acces files you should add to the whitelist are:

• ACCWIN.EXE
• VTEXWD.EXE
• VTEXWS.EXE
• VTEX3S.EXE

Previewing/printing delays can also occur on network installations of Acces. If you experience previewing/printing delays (5-10 seconds) while working on a computer running a networked copy of Acces, you may not be using the local hard drive for Acces' temporary files.

Note: This solution only applies to networked installations of Acces

1. Right-click on the Acces shortcut icon and click Properties.
2. In the Shortcut tab, make sure that the Start in folder is a local folder on your computer's harddrive (e.g.: C:\TEMP, C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, C:\WINNT\TEMP, etc), and not a folder on a network server.
3. Click OK.

This error occurs when Acces' TeX engine fails to compile a document's TeX code. The error most commonly occurs in documents where problems have been extracted and edited. If the document previewed/printed correctly before, and the error occured after a problem was extracted and edited, double check the edited problem. Make sure all curly braces are matched (i.e., there is one { for each } in the problem) and all math-mode dollar signs are matched.

Another thing to look out for when editing problems is empty \mc commands. When working with multiple-choice problems and the \emcee and \mc commands, you must make sure \mc commands are followed by something. For example, the following code will not compile because of the empty \mc command:

What's $2 + 2$?

\emcee{
  \mc 2
 *\mc 4
  \mc
  }

The last \mc command must either be removed, edited so it has an answer choice (e.g., \mc 3), or if you really intend for the answer choice to be blank, edited so it's followed by an empty pair of curly braces (i.e., \mc {}).

One last thing to look for is whether or not the very first problem in your document is extracted. If it is, try manually referencing that problem's associated style settings, as described in this FAQ entry.

If none of these suggestions work, you can email your .ACC document to support@educaide.com and one of our technical support representatives will try to repair it.

The cause of this error is the same as the cause of the "Cannot open file C:\ACC\TEMP\ACCES1.DVI" error. Please check that error's FAQ entry for tips on correcting your TeX code.

Creating custom database modules is a task recommended for advanced users, only. It requires experience writing problems in Acces and the TeX language, and a basic understanding of working in a command-line environment such as DOS.

A link to a PDF with instructions for creating an Acces database is given below. The document is provided "as-is". EducAide Software cannot provide any technical support to users who run into problems trying to create custom database modules; users who do so will be on their own.

Instructions for Creating a Custom Database Module (PDF)

Note about the document: If you're using Windows XP or 2000, the command given in Step 9 will not work as printed. The correct XP/2000 command is:

(Windows XP and 2000 treat the & symbol differently from Windows 98 and 95.)