Software 'Incompatability'

pontovic

Hi

Heres a question for you. Basically I built a PC for a mate who is a car dealer. He got some software from Carzone that allows him to put the cars for sale he has online on their website.

The PC works fine and has never crashed anytime I have seen it, but the software these guys have installed for him is crashing all the time. He got onto them and asked them about this and they have been out to try to fix it for them. It still keeps crashing on him and he got onto them again and they came out again to try to fix it. It still kept crashing.

Now they tell him that his pc is 'incompatible' with the carbase software he has and that he may need to get a new PC, which leaves me with an unwanted PC and no money for building it.

The PC itself is an AMD Sempron and has 512mb of Ram with windows XP home edition. Everything works fine with it.

My question is, is it fathomable that software can be 'Incompatible' with a PC these days ? The software is not that old, ie its not written to run on windows 3.1 or dos or anything like that.

I think the guys at carzone are trying to fob him off. I think its rediculous that the reason that this software is crashing is because of my PC and not the fact that the software is badly written.

What do you think ?

Beano

You might ask for opinions of the carzone software over on the motors. I recall them mentioning that its pretty rubbish. Either way, how does that leave YOU of pocket? You built the PC, the PC works for everything apart from this piece of software? How is that your problem? If your mate is refusing to pay up then find a new mate.

TomCo

Exactly, tell him its carzones fault not yours.

Christ, the amount of badly coded ****e that passes for a commercial program these days is disgraceful.

pontovic

Is this software renowned for being really badly coded ? I think it is personally anyway from using it. Even if you look at it it crashes. It's as if there are no catch exceptions in there at all.

My mates reasoning is that all the other dealers in his area have a PC with this software, and since it all works for them on their PC's without a bother, it must be something wrong with the PC that he has.

We have to remember that the logic behind someone with a non-IT background it alot different. I know for a fact that this software is well dodgy, but through his logic he seems to think the computer is 'broken'.

Tom Dunne

Sometimes, non-techies need convincing.

Show him the computer operating normally, i.e. surfing the 'net, sending e-mail, printing documents. Then show him the computer when working with this software. See if it crashes under normal use, see if it crashes with this software.

It's an utter cop out to say the computer is incompatible - tbh, it sounds more like the twat who installed the software hasn't a clue and can't be seen to blame his own software.

TomCo

Here's one for you, ask them for the program requirements and compare them to the pc spec's.

Ask them exactly what isnt compatable, you've got the upper hand because you know what you're talking about.

stevenmu

Does the carzone software need XP Pro by any chance ? Try and get in touch with the carzone guys yourself, don't mention the problems you're having and either ask them for a recommended spec, or better yet send them your spec and ask would it be ok.

SouperComputer

start with the "stealth" approach above. Ask about any know software compatiblies or common issues.


At a later stage call up the guys who "write" the software. Be nice as pie, but make sure you push to get answers as to what is "incompatible". Dont take cop out answers, ask for other examples of common issues.

If it comes to it put them under pressure and let them know you dont appricate your equipment being rubbished without a vaild reason or from someone who has half a clue about what they are talking about.

Is the software functional in any way, shape or form, even for a short period?

Nea

I know this has probably been tried but did you try running the program under compatibilty mode for a different OS?

I once had a customer trying to use some software he paid about 4 grand for and it wouldnt work with XP home, I changed the compatibilty to win 2K and it worked fine!!

Gurgle

TomCo wrote:

Christ, the amount of badly coded ****e that passes for a commercial program these days is disgraceful.

Oh good god tell me about it.

Ever had to slow a CPU down to the minimum the motherboard would allow so that a program would run?

pontovic

At this stage, I think its a problem with the fact that the software is running under windows XP. The other dealers have no problem because theyre all running windows 98 as far as I know. Maybe some newer versions of older windows 98 dll's are called and thats where the problem lies.

Their software should ideally run on all windows OSes from windows 95 all the way upto windows Vista. Jesus you would swear they are coding for a space shuttle or something, I mean how hard can it be to write a little piece of software that uploads some images to a server. They must be tied into some crappy legacy infrastructure system at their end thats years out of date.

SouperComputer

Interesting, BOCHS or compatability mode then. FFS windows 98, way to get your dealership owned by a script kidde.