If there is no process listed in your server's task list with that number, double-check with the user that you're looking for the right one. Once you are sure that it isn't there, you have a situation in which the client process exists and the server process doesn't. Instruct the user to "End Task" on his APPX Client session via the Windows Task Manager. It may pop another box up, saying that the process is not responding. Instruct them user to click "End Task" on that box as well.

If the server-side process does appear in your server's task list, then you have more sleuthing to do.

Find out what the user was doing. Do they see any error messages on their screen? What process are they in? How long have they been waiting for a response from the system? Try to find out if they are doing anything that requires locking a record (they probably are). (The user himself may not know the answer to this. Refer to your application for the final word.) If so, try to find out if that record is likely to be held by another interactive user, or perhaps a JOB that is batch updating a series of records. In many instances, even if the user does not receive a message to the screen, the culprit of these hangs is that their process is trying to access a record held by someone else. (If, for example, the INPUT calls an UPDATE as an automatic process, and that UPDATE runs into a locked record, it will silently wait for that record to become available, without advising the user.)

If it is possible that they are waiting for a lock, check with other uses and see if you can discover (and then eliminate) the source of the lock conflict.

APPX user, Bruce Johnston, has put together a suite of utility processes he uses in the day-to-day administration of his APPX server. There are a couple of methods for determining who has which files open. While it cannot tell you who has which records locked in which files due to NT O/S design limitations, it can point you in the right direction. Remember also that the system might just be slow. Check to see what system performance is like, before assuming that their process is actually paused, as opposed to just running slowly.

ASI has not tested and in no way warrants the utility software from Bruce Johnston, it has been available for some time now, and we have heard no negative feedback regarding it. You might want to check it out at www.cansyswest.com/nt_utilities.htm and see if serves your needs.

If you were unable to narrow the situation down to lock contention, and solve it, and are also certain that the process is not just running slowly, it is time to look at killing the process.