[RetailEdge Moderator]

RetailEdge Works Great with Older Systems.

RetailEdge is designed to be a cost effective solution and it will work on a range of machines with lower processing power, less RAM, etc. We want you to be able to re-purpose and reuse older computers and use your existing computers as long as you can.

However, there are times when using older machines are NOT the most cost effective solution for your business. Here are some things to think about.

Average Computer Lifespan. The average lifespan of a computer is 3-5 years. How well RetailEdge performs is going to be dependent on how healthy your computer is and how well your business runs is going to be dependent, in part, to how healthy your computers are.

What can happen and what can you do? Here are three of the most common problems RetailEdge support sees with older slower machines and some things you can do to make sure your system runs as smoothly as possible.

System Corruption. RetailEdge uses the computer's system software and services all the time (e.g., Windows printer drivers and printer spoolers). As machines fails, these system tools can fail too. If Windows can't print, then RetailEdge can't print and then receipts and labels can't print and your business suffers. If you think your systems might be failing Windows Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor can tell you a lot about what might be happening.

Power Failures and System Shutdowns. As computers age other system applications or processes and power supplies can fail. Premature system shutdowns can cause data corruption. RetailEdge is a database application that is constantly saving, modifying and creating new data. It does not operate like Microsoft Word where you make some changes and save once. For instance processing a sale posts to an average of 6 tables. If you are doing a sale a minute for a 10 hour day, that is 3600 times a day you are posting new data to the RetailEdge files. If you pull the power, prematurely shut down the computer, or the power supply simply dies during these postings you can cause data corruption. If you think this has happened, you can Verify Tables from the Tools menu to check that your RetailEdge data is in good shape.

System Slowness. RetailEdge is designed to run on older systems but many customers use their machines as multi-purpose tools for every imaginable software. If you system is running slowly see what other programs might be running in the Windows Task Manager. Running Quickbooks and graphic programs and streaming music all take processing power. Many times turning these other processes off or not running them at the same time as RetailEdge will speed things right up.

The sky is not falling but new Windows computers are inexpensive and sometimes just buying a new one can save lots of time and aggravation (yours and ours). So as approach this 3-5 year range, you should think about purchasing a new or upgrading your existing computer (e.g., RAM upgrades, etc.). If you have questions about your systems, send us an e-mail. We are here to help.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

From a long time RetailEdge user:

Maximizing RAM is usually the first hardware solution to a slow computer, but I discovered another really effective upgrade a year or so ago: Solid State drives. We had a system which must perform a lot of duties including being our second register (and streaming music which we sell onto our overhead speakers.) It got so slow that our usually non-complaining employees were really vocal about it. I used the Resource Monitor (standard in Windows) and determined that the C-drive was holding things up. I swapped it with an SSD and the system really took off. I have had no complaints about it since then.
I was so impressed with the SSD that I bought one for my own PC when I built it last fall.
I do recommend Intel SSDs. They have proven far more reliable than other brands and more so that any hard drive.