[sims] Sims 'Flickering'

[SpoilerAlert]

I have had a number of staff here complaining to me recently that when they are creating or edit reports in SIMS and minimise the window it seems to flicker when they go back to SIMS, i have been to a couple of calls on this fault and it doesnt seem to flicker as the quickly flash through all the data that has been viewed by that account (which lasts longer the more they have done on SIMS).

My boss and another colleague have been in discussion and believe that the problem could be due to the fact that staff members do not have access to the C: drive and this is the default destination for SIMS to save reports, could this be the case and if so does anyone have any clues what we could do about this without reducing the security of the network?

[matt40k]

It's not permissions, I'll tell you that now. Reports go to My Docs and\or temp. Users should have full access to both, else reports don't work.

[LosOjos]

I think you may need to sit with them and see for yourself exactly what the "flickering" is. A couple of things that come to mind:

 

- You can sometimes see SIMS redrawing it's various panels when switching between views, especially if they have lots of things open (I know a lot of staff never close anything, they just keep opening new windows). This will be more apparent on slower machines, though it's not really a problem, they just have to be patient.

- If they're running a report in Excel, you do see Excel appear briefly before disappearing again, only to reappear populated with data. This is just a formatting macro run on all Excel spreadsheets that come out of SIMS - it can't be "fixed", but it also isn't a problem.

 

It could of course be something else, but physically seeing the problem in action will probably shed more light on it

[vikpaw]

I remember something similar http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/76850-sims-net-hanging-when-you-use-drop-down-menu.html#post685247 not sure of exact details, i also think there may have been another explanation.

I didn't believe my users either. You have to try it when nothing else is open or running, and also see what is going on in the background. It could also be related to the screen re-drawing or adjusting, i know a lot of our 'power users' like to have 800x600 resolution and / or magnify mode on, which doesn't help things.

[localzuk]

What spec are the machines running SIMS? It sounds like redrawing going on, and double buffering not doing its job. How much RAM do you have in the machines? Edited October 8, 2013 by localzuk

[SpoilerAlert]

Windows 7 Enterprise

Intel® Core™ i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz

4.00GB RAM

64-bit Operating system

[localzuk]

Hmm... that's more than enough to cope then.

[SpoilerAlert]

I have just had a member of staff demonstrate this error for me and this flickering does seem to be every file they have used since logging on that session.

This was demonstrated to me by opening and report, selecting the 'Screen based report' button and then clicking ok which causes Outlook web app to close. when the user then re-opens their email and then sims the 'Flickering happens then and can be fairly long depending on the work done by that user that session.

Not sure if this means anything to anyone