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When I start PSS it displays the message, "Downloading TD Ameritrade Message of the Day" then it hangs. It does the same thing with the other quote servers as well. If I close the program and reload it then about 75% of the time it will work. However, sometimes, like today, I have been trying to login for over an hour with no luck. This problem seems to have started after installing version 9.7.1, so I suspect that it may be connected to the upgrade.

We haven't seen this over here, so I need to ask a few questions to help us track this down:

What operating system are you using? XP? Vista?

Have you installed any other software recently? Firewall software?

If you have access to another computer, is it happening there as well?

Using XP with all the latest updates.
Haven't changed anything recently, but I do have a firewall. I tried disabling it, but the problem persists.
I use it on my laptop as well and the problem occurs there also. It is running Vista with all the latest updates.

I would have suggested the firewall as well. I doubt it is related to the latest software update, since this part has not changed in a while. Unfortunately I'm not sure what else it could be at this point. Have you tried running it on a different network, like at a public hot spot or from work?

I have the "hanging" problem too. If I click cancel when it is trying to login to prophet.net, then it logs in anyhow and there is no more "hanging." I didn't report it since it seemed like a problem for prophet.net and not PSS. Obviously, I was wrong.

Ellen

How long have you let it sit before closing it? (Speculating that it might be a timeout issue)

Actually, one time I went away for several hours to do something and came back and it was still hung.
Today, something a little different: It downloaded the message of the day and presented the login screen. I logged in, but the streamer icon was yellow. I ran a network configuration test and it passed. I also right-clicked a stock and clicked on research and everything else worked. The streamer remained yellow for about 5 minutes, so I closed the program and re-opened it a half dozen times with no live streaming. I left it yellow for about 30 minutes, closed it, reopened it and this time everything worked. While all this was going on I tried it on my laptop and it also didn't work.

The network test uses a different network access method, and contacts different servers, so it won't necessarily exhibit the same problem. However that it passed is good. Do you have Internet Explorer properly configured on this machine? Are you able to access the TD AMERITRADE web site and their Java-based streamer using Internet Explorer with no problems?

Yes and yes. In fact that's how I could monitor my stocks and place trades was directly on the TDA website with their streamer running.

The next time it hangs, please see if you can access the http://www.collabinvest.net site using your browser.

We have to narrow down whether it's a problem with connectivity, the servers or the client software.

OK, will do.
This morning all worked perfectly. The only thing that changed is that I deleted all temp files on my computer and did a chkdsk /f - a process I do every week or so.

How close were you to having your C drive full before the cleaning? That would be another thing to check if you have this problem again, and make sure there is space on the C drive.

There's more than 500 GB free. I don't delete the temp files for the space, but rather to prevent conflicts. Unfortunately,many programs leave behind temp files when they terminate abnormally. Then when the program loads the next time it sees the temp file and tries to use it, resulting in conflicts that sometime blow the program out or cause erratic behavior. I don't know if PSS does this or not, but thought I would clear out the temp files to see if it helped.

I let it hang for probably 10 min. the first time, but neither the message nor the program did anything but sit. I then dcided to hit cancel and everything was fine again. It actaully surprised me that it hung and then would continue as if nothing happened. I am sure that something is wrong now since reading these posts. My computer is working as long as I hit cancel and wait for the program to update everything on the page.
I think those of us who thought it was nothing should get an award for not complaining!:-) I was sure it would be fixed in the next revision. You notice that I suffer the small issues easily, but when there is a bog one, I'm not as easily satisfied.

So, I will await the update to find out why our program is hanging and why it is sitting on the login page trying to login and not going anywhere at all. Please try to get these problems worked out before the next major upgrade to the program.

Ellen

If something is not working please let us know! If no one tells us, then we won't know there's a problem.

In this case we haven't yet been able to reproduce this over here and did not know this was an issue because no one had reported it before.

The big challenge with any issue is for us to reproduce it. Once we can reproduce it then we can fix it.