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TroubleshootingMANWORRY.GIF (6328 bytes)

If the following frequently asked questions don't answer your questions, then call (866) 295-0166 x 2. Support is available to all users 60 hours/week from 9:00am to 8:30pm Eastern time on market days. 

If you are dissatisfied with our support, ask that the problem be escalated to senior technical support. Call (866) 295-0166 x 210 to talk with a member of our management team.

We will assist you with any aspect of using your computer needed to run FastTrack. Of course, there are a lot of non-FastTrack problems that we cannot handle, but we can always help you isolate the issues in preparation for your call to other support organizations.

books.gif (17831 bytes)Data Problems

If your data has been corrupted by a hardware or power failure at your end:

Try our online integrity check.

If your data, even a single point, is incorrect for no apparent reason:

Sometimes we make mistakes that cause big spikes or stair steps in your charts.

CALL (866) 295-0166 x 217 to report the problem on our 24-hours/day, 7-days/week "Data Corrections Hotline".

or, send email to data@fasttrack.net

PLEASE give us your name and phone number. Often the data problem is only on your machine's database, we will call you. If the problem is us, then we will fix the problem in your next download, and still call you to thank you for the feedback and to ensure that the problem is resolved.

If a distribution is missing:

We try hard to get all the distributions in advance for all the issues we carry. We are successful about 2/3 of the time. Please call (866) 295-0166 x 217 and report the problem on our 24-hour/day, 7-days/week "Data Corrections Hotline". or, send email to data@fasttrack.net Give us the ticker symbol, X-Date, and amount, if you know it. We will verify this information with the fund company and work with them to get more timely information in the future. The distribution will be posted in your next download.

If you believe FastTrack is improperly adjusting the data when distributions occur:

We have been at this for many years and are confident that we do it right (given the right data). See the Distribution Adjustment Work Sheet that will show you step by step how to make your calculations properly. If you still feel, we are in error please call.

If FastTrack cannot access either your funds or stocks databases:
  1. Start the FTCOMM 2 communications program.
  2. Select the User Tab.
  3. This displays the databases available. If the database names are incorrect, find the data files on your disk then fix the file names on the User Tab. As of July 2002, there are three possible databases FTF15.DAT,  FTS15.DAT, and FTS25.DAT.

When FastTrack restarts, it will rebuild index structures that point to the new database.

Interaction with Other Programs

CleanSweep by Symantec - and other uninstallers

The FastTrack upgrade process uses the Windows program, REGSVR32.EXE. Cleans Sweep (and possibly other uninstallers) watch to see if this program is run. Cleans Sweep pops up a message box each time FastTrack uses this program. Give Clean Sweep permission to monitor the uninstall process or disable Clean Sweep at anytime during the process by right-clicking on its icon in the system tray on the right end of the Windows Taskbar. Neither way will hurt the useful operation of  clean Sweep to uninstall FastTrack. After uninstalling, you will find that the FT directory still exists and contains files, but this is because uninstallers do not always uninstall "data" files (defined as files that are changed after installation is complete.)

Norton AntiVirus - and other virus checkers

FastTrack data updating will be noticeable slower, about 50% slower on a Pentium 200. Virus detection programs analyze the data being sent to a file when the files are being changed. This creates considerable overhead not just in FastTrack, but in most other programs as well. There is no fix other than to disable the virus detection.

Printing

See our general printing discussion. There is a lot that can go wrong with printing. Printers are very different in their qualities . . . but there is much you can control. Here are some general guidelines.

  1. Under the Page Setup button be sure your margins are appropriate for your printer. Some printers will lock up if you attempt to print too close to the edges of the paper.
  2. Use the Black and White option button to print on a black and white printer. On some b/w printers, printing a color image works fine. On others, it is impossible.
  3. Use the Printer Setup button. Investigate your printer's properties.
  4. Uncheck the "Use Background" option if the diagonal lines or Investors FastTrack logo look bad.

The Printing Looks Blocky

Make the chart image on your video display as large as possible. Use an 800 x 600 screen or larger. The printed image is taken from the drawing on the screen. If you display a 300 x 300 pixel chart and then print it on the printer with the dimensions 8in x 8in, then each printed pixel will be clearly visible as small square.

HP and other Laser Printers

  1. Under printer properties choose "raster graphics". There are a variety of problems with "vector graphics". In general, raster graphics make it easy for the preview image and the printer image to match up. With vector graphics, the computer passes "instructions" to the printer instead of a final image. Sometimes the printer interprets these instructions strangely.
  2. Large graphics take a lot of memory in a printer. If you are having problems with a printer made before memory became cheap, try reducing the size of the chart.

Color Ink Jet Printouts Look Lousy

  1. Don't print black backgrounds on plain paper. The ink saturates the paper. Each ink drop spreads into a blob. Use special coated paper or transparencies.
  2. Use the paper especially designed for your particular printer. This is especially true for transparencies.
  3. Some cheap printers print black by using all three color inks mixed together . . . three times as much ink. This will NEVER look good. Get a printer that has a separate black ink cartridge.
  4. Some amount of ink spreading is inevitable. Use the Appearance dialog to make the chart lines wider. This will make them standout against a dark background.

Printing Multiple Blank Pages with Internet Explorer

This is a known problem with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Microsoft has published a solution on it's website. The solution is simple and goes as follows:

  1. Open your Internet Explorer Browser.
  2. Click on View from the Internet Explorer Tool Bar.
  3. Point to the Encoding option.
  4. If Auto-Select is checked, left click on it one time to disable it and try printing again.

We encourage you to read the article published by Microsoft on this specific issue. It can be found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271583/en-us. Because the URL may change, make note that the article identification number is 271583. To our knowledge, this problem does not occur with Mozilla FireFox so if you have it installed or want to install it, the printing function should work fine with that particular browser. You can get it at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/.