What to do if Campground Master won't start

We suspect that anyone who has experienced this type of problem has already called support by now. However we're posting this information in hopes that if you do encounter this problem you'll remember that it was mentioned here. We don't expect you remember the details of course, but perhaps you'll remember this article and be able to look it up in the newsletter archives (use the Index to search for "Won't Start").

There are some files and a registry setting that Campground Master reads when it starts up. If these become corrupted, possibly due to a computer crash, it may cause Campground Master to get an error on startup or simply not appear on the screen. Of course the program file itself might be corrupted, but it's not likely. If this is suspected, you can simply re-install the same version of Campground Master to overwrite the program files.

Note: This information only applies if the program doesn't appear, crashes or shuts down before you get any kind of prompt. If you get an error message showing that the database is corrupt, can't be found, etc., then that's a different issue and you should simply restore form a backup or otherwise follow the suggestions in the message.

Try these one at a time (testing after each one) to solve a problem starting up:

You need to know where your database is being saved to in order to locate the log files. This is usually in C:\Program Files\Campground Master\ for Windows 95, ME, 98 and 2000, or "Shared Documents" for Windows XP, or "Public Documents" for Windows Vista -- but you may have saved it elsewhere.

Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder where your database is located. There should be a number of log files there that all start with the database name and include a date and a workstation number after the date, and will have a "prklog" extension or type. For instance, "My Database_2005-05-23_0.prklog".

2.	Locate the log file with the latest date, which should be today or yesterday.

4.	Press the Home key to move the cursor to the front (make sure the name is no longer highlighted), and type an "X" just to give it a different name.

5.	Click on something else to finish editing so it saves the new name.

Note: If this does not solve the problem, you should go back and rename it again, removing the X.

This file contains Printer Setup information, Network settings, and information about the last database and backup locations, so this should only be done as a last resort. You would need to re-do those settings if this solves the problem. This file will be found either in "Public Documents\Campground Master" (in Windows Vista), "Shared Documents\Campground Master" (Windows XP), or in the C:\Windows\ folder (older versions of Windows or in Campground Master versions prior to v4.2).

1.	Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, navigate to the appropriate folder.

2.	Locate the file "Campground Master.ini". The letters may all be lower case. If you don't see the ".ini" extension, the file type should be "Configuration Settings".

4.	Press the Home key to move the cursor to the front (make sure the name is no longer highlighted), and type an "X" just to give it a different name.

5.	Click on something else to finish editing so it saves the new name.

Note: If this does not solve the problem, you should go back and rename it again, removing the X.