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Topic starter
We have had problems with GE randomly crashing on a daily basis. Often times it occurs multiple times a day for a user. Sometimes it produces an error..... "The system has encountered and error and must close"....and sometimes it just freezes up and we have to use task manager to close the program. Users have even resorted to rebooting the computer when GE freezes. This is happening with All users and can't be designated to a specific task. It is a major annoyance. We recently switched our internet carrier and now have much more speed, which we were hoping would help resolve the issue of GE crashing. It has helped some but not completely. (At least I think it has helped, as less crashes are reported but that may just be because users are tired of reporting a problem that doesn't get fixed......and have just learned to tolerate it)
I have contacted GE support about this in the past but since we can't recreate the problem they haven't been able to provide any help. Anyone have recommendations on what we could do to try and prevent these crashes from occurring?
Posted : November 22, 2016 3:21 am
This is a very common problem that has been going on for multiple years and multiple versions. Some versions are more stable than others, but none of them are great. I tell my users that "it's a bonus feature". And maybe it is, seeing as how GE started including a little executable called "RESET CPS PROCESS" (I think starting in CPS10) that is designed specifically for the situations you are describing. Although it's still extremely annoying, it's better than having to reboot.
Incidentally, a faster internet connection wouldn't make any difference to Centricity unless you are using thin clients, or fat clients over a VPN. Maybe you are.
Steve Peterson
Director of I.T.
Circle of Life Women's Center
Posted : November 22, 2016 4:03 am
The proper way to recover from a system lock up:
•First, use Alt+Tab to make sure you don't have a warning message or prompt or pop up hidden behind other windows that is blocking you
•Then use Reset CPS Processes: do not use the task menu to stop CPS
•Open the patient’s document that crashed.
•Put it on hold & make sure the checkmark for Sign clinical list changes is Unchecked
•Then log off cps using the Blue Door icon
•Make sure all Internet Explorer windows are closed.
•Then Reset CPS Processes again
•Log into CPS
Reset CPS Processes is a program that you should be able to find in the Centricity Practice Solution program group from the Start menu. You should have all users pin that to their start menu.
These things we've found do help with stability:
-train your users to click the green sign and send icon in the medications window if they do not sign their scripts within the Med or Refill windows. i commonly see a crash if the user has the "sign clinical list changes" checkbox checked at End and they have unsigned med changes.
- make sure you train your users to use the Blue Door to log out of CPS. The x in the upper right doesn't close CPS gently.
- make sure you limit the use of global variables in your programming. globals are global to the session and do drag from patient chart to patient chart. that can cause a buffer overrun.
-if you see crashes consistently when working with medications and/or problem lists, you might have an issue with your JBoss.
- reboot the ap server at least once a week.
- reboot the db server at least every other week.
-personally, I lay off the cams and watcher expressions when I program custom forms. I think watchers running the background on a bunch of forms collide with each other and mess with performance and stability.
Posted : November 22, 2016 4:11 am
Do you have access to run SQL scripts?
The error popup, “The system has encountered and error and must close” actually has a drop down arrow that gives more detail about the error that occurred. Unfortunately, most users do not notice this and do not click on it and have already clicked through the popup by the time they contact the HelpDesk.
You can, however, still see these error message details. If you look at the ErrorLog table in SQL and look for errors that have a LogLevel of "Fatal" you can see the errors that caused crashes. Most Fatal errors cause crashes, but some have been coded inside Centricity to actually be trapped and not cause a crash. These trapped errors can sometimes be related to slowness as well as the non-Fatal errors can also be sometimes related to slowness.
The LogMessage field in the ErrorLog table gives you the details of the error, the ComputerName field tells you what PC (Thick Client) or Terminal Server (Thin Client) the user was connected via, the WinLoginName field tells you who the user was and the LogTimestamp tells you when the error occurred. You can use this information when creating Service Requests with GE to let them know exactly what the error was. Be forewarned, there are a number of errors that GE already knows about and may tell you that this is a "Known issue that will be fixed in a future release."
Posted : November 25, 2016 3:56 am
Topic starter
Curious as to why you recommend not using the task menu to stop CPS? We have used Reset CPS processes in the past and still had process running in the task menu that we had to end.
Posted : November 25, 2016 5:17 am
I have had much better luck with "reset CPS processes" than finding all of the processes as they can change from version to version. CPOPM06.exe has not changed since version 6 but ml.exe has evolved to several different process names in recent versions.
Also, it is much easier to get a user to click on a desktop shortcut or start menu item (sometimes) than do a reboot or use task manager. Many users struggle with things which they define as technical but can usually pull this off. I think it gets overused sometimes if the users are not reigned in though
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : November 30, 2016 2:33 am
The errors are also dumped to txt files too (no SQL reporting necessary). You can find them at:
c:\Users\USERNAME_OF_PROBLEM_USER\Appdata\Local\Centricity\Crashlogs
You will see a file names Errorlog_number.txt with all the information pertinent to the CPS application, and some technical information about how much free RAM there was at the time of the crash, number of processors, OS version, etc. This information may help you if you see low memory and such.
I tell my users to email me immediately when they see an error and tell me what they clicked on or what they were working on when the error occurred. That way I know which error is relevant to the user based on the time stamp of the text file. GE usually wants to know what the user clicked on to cause the error. Things like "user clicked on "billing" is helpful
There is also a corresponding .DMP file which is useful to GE. I think this information used to be sent to millbrook.com even if you didn't open a case. Not sure if they do that now.
Sample of error log:
Exception Stack Trace:
No .Net exception found
Thread id: 10124, Name: ML Thread
Application crash log generated from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Centricity Practice Solution\Client\CPOPM06.exe
App Version :
12.0.12.2500 / DB 12.0.12.2500
Windows login : mikez.
Centricity login : Michael Z
Error occurred at 9/12/2016 12:11:12.
Operating system: Windows 7 x64 (6.1.7601).
8 processor(s), type 586.
48% memory in use.
0 MBytes physical memory.
0 MBytes physical memory free.
0 MBytes paging file.
0 MBytes paging file free.
2048 MBytes user address space.
1219 MBytes user address space free.
Module 1
C:\Program Files (x86)\Centricity Practice Solution\Client\Branding.dll
Image Base: 0x10000000 Image Size: 0x00009000
Checksum: 0x00000000 Time Stamp: 0x57089c33
File Size: 21504 File Time: 4/9/2016 01:07:48
Version Information:
Company: GE Healthcare IT
Product: Centricity Practice Solution 12.0
FileDesc: Product Branding DLL
FileVer: 12.0.12.2500
FileVerStr: (null)
ProdVer: 12.0.12.2500
Module 2
C:\Program Files (x86)\Centricity Practice Solution\Client\GEHC.Centricity.Common.Skinning.DLL
Image Base: 0x10000000 Image Size: 0x0000f000
Checksum: 0x00000000 Time Stamp: 0x57089ad2
File Size: 45056 File Time: 4/9/2016 01:01:56
Version Information:
Company: GE Healthcare IT
Product: Centricity Practice Solution 12.0
FileDesc: Common Skinning control implementation
FileVer: 12.0.12.2500
FileVerStr: (null)
ProdVer: 12.0.12.2500
Module 3
C:\Program Files (x86)\Centricity Practice Solution\Client\zlib.dll
Image Base: 0x10000000 Image Size: 0x00011000
Checksum: 0x00000000 Time Stamp: 0x3c8f7466
Lots more but you get the idea
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : November 30, 2016 2:47 am
