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Task Scheduler stops working until reboot

2K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Corday 
#1 ·
Hi all, I am running a Windows Server 2008 64 bit Standard box and the scheduled tasks are driving me crazy. This is what happens..

I have about 5 important tasks (opening macro'd excel spreadsheets) that run at various times from 7am until 3pm. Every now and then they just stop working. Nothing I can find on the net has resolved (and I don't have SOXE/Windows Live Essentials).

When they stop working..
a) I can't even get any of them to run manually (On demand)
b) They just say 'Running' but nothing happens.
c) even a very basic tasks such as display a message on the screen will not run (so its nothing to do with permissions
d) The 5 tasks are all different excel files are all in different locations

The only way I can get it back working is to reboot the server (which is obviously annoying) but I rebooted yesterday to solve this problem and its come back in record time today).

Would anyone have any ideas at all what is happening here please?

Thanks
John
 
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#2 ·
Hi, I have a bit more information which will hopefully help with a resolution.

I gave up on Windows Task Scheduler and tried a program called System Scheduler. and the following happens:

1. If I try to schedule the opening of a PDF file > Works!
2. If I schedule a .doc or .xls file I get the error: 'Last Recorded Status:%1 is not a valid Win32 application'
3. It seems there is a problem with office files but they open fine manually.
4. I've done a 'repair' on Microsoft office > still no change.

Hope that helps,
Thanks
John
 
#3 ·
Finally got the bottom of it!

Sometime in the past I have (lazily) connected to a remote app on the server using the Administrator credentials on a spare company laptop.

This laptop is now in regular use. I get a call this afternoon to say "something strange is going on, I keep getting a message on my screen saying 'Hi'"

This was exactly the message I was trying to produce on our server. Seems, for whatever reason, the tasks I was running were running somewhere on this other Administrator login.

I logged off my Administrator account and back on as a different user and found that (using Computer Management>Open Files) the 'Administrator' account still had a lot of files open. I closed this session down and then logged back in through VNC and scheduled tasks are now working perfectly again.

My own fault for using those credentials on a 'floating' laptop but at least I've got to the bottom of it!

Hope that helps out others.
John
 
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