Continued credit card processing frustrations.

[bridgeweaver]

The problem: I want to be able to swipe credit cards using the authorize.net gateway which is where my merchant account is. They have a virtual terminal into which I can type credit card info, but this is tedious, and I get charged a higher transaction rate. However, whenever I try swiping a card, the browser session crashes and recovers without

Comments

[bridgeweaver]

Yes, there is a mode that disables all add-ons, which would of course include the VPOS activex control. I have tried this too, selectively re-enabling the VPOS control to no effect.

[thewronghands]

When the browser crashes, what does it do? Freeze? Close? Is there anything in the Event Log on the system with the problem?

[bridgeweaver]

Hmmm, where would I look for the event log? The message I get is the wonderfully helpful, "this tab has been recovered, IE encountered a problem and had to reload the page." message.

[thewronghands]

Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools, you should have an Event Viewer. Have a look under Internet Explorer, and under Application. See if there's anything indicative in there.

[bridgeweaver]

Ok, after delving through the event log, I can find no evidence of reported errors when the tab crashes but the browser stays afloat. Occasionally the entire browser crashes, and I haven't been able to make sense of the data the event log shows when that happens, but the error is annoyingly self-contained most of the time and doesn't show up in any branch of the event log tree.

[aleeceh]

32-bit or 64-bit Windows? If 64-bit, can you confirm your card-swiping device is specifically supported on 64-bit systems and that you have the 64-bit driver/software installed, not the 32-bit versions

[bridgeweaver]

It's 32-bit XP home on a net-book, so no built-in drives, though I have both a usb CD drive and a USB floppy somewhere. I've patched the hell out of Windows since getting the computer. I'm sure I have the original recovery media somewhere, but there would be eighteen months worth of security updates and other patches to install

[aleeceh]

Misc. security patches aren't so much the issue I was getting at. It's specifically the major Service Packs that matter. If your machine is only 18 months old, chances are it was originally and still is Service Pack 3, which should mean a "repair install" is possible if you can find your original media. Unfortunately, I think only XP Pro includes the Windows Backup utility. If so, that eliminates the backup & restore cure-all. Note that neither of these options would cause you to lose any data or software, and some Windows settings are preserved. These operations should be painless enough to be worth trying when you have the option and are out of other ideas, and definitely nowhere near the pain level of reinstalling Windows from scratch

[bridgeweaver]

Hmmm, I sense a great disturbance in the force, as if a perfect barter opportunity had just materialized. Let me get everyone healthy; six of seven of us are down with something or other, but once we're healthy, perhaps something could be arranged.