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Motive Power® FAQ
Hardware and Operating System

What is the minimum hardware that will run Motive Power?

What is the recommended hardware for running Motive Power?

How do I find out if my hardware is certified to run any given version of Windows?

I just upgraded to Windows XP SP2 and now my Motive Power stations will not connect to the server. What do I do?

I just upgraded to Windows XP SP2 and now I can't connect to my Motive Power files from Word or Excel or Crystal or other report writer. What do I do?


What is the minimum hardware that will run Motive Power?

Motive Power 1 requires a computer running Windows 98 SE or later, 128MB of RAM and 300MB of hard drive space. Motive Power 2 requires a computer running Windows XP or Vista, 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space.

What is the recommended hardware for running Motive Power?

Motive Power uses the Microsoft SQL engine which is fairly hardware intensive. We recommend Windows XP or Vista, a dual core processor , at least 1GB of RAM and a fast hard drive with at least 4GB of free disk space. All hardware should be on the Microsoft approved list for the version of Windows you are running.

How do I find out if my hardware is certified to run any given version of Windows?

Go to www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx to check your hardware. If you have a brand name computer you can look under Systems to see what versions of Windows have been tested on that machine. If you have a homemade or locally built computer you need to look up each component separately.

I just upgraded to Windows XP SP2 and now my Motive Power stations will not connect to the server. What do I do?

XP Service Pack 2 tightens security in Windows. It does this by turning off ports and protocols via the firewall. You need to turn on the ports required by SQL server in order to access the Motive Power. Motive Power uses a named instance of SQL server. The name is MSSQL$CAI. Follow this procedure to enable SQL access for other stations on your network. The commands have been excerpted from Microsoft documentation and edited to match Motive Power.

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Run dialog box, type Firewall.cpl, and then click OK.
  3. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, click Add a Program on the Exceptions tab.
  4. In the Add Program dialog box, click the Browse button to locate the instance of SQL Server that you want to add to the exception list. The default installation location for the Motive Power instance of SQL Server is:
    C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Mssql$CAI\Binn\Sqlservr.exe
  5. Select the name of the instance, and then click OK.
  6. Under Programs and Services, select the check box that is next to the name you selected in step 5, and then click OK.

You can read the entire Microsoft article at support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=841251

I just upgraded to Windows XP SP2 and now I can't connect to my Motive Power files from Word or Excel or Crystal or other report writer. What do I do?

By default, SP2 closes all ports. You have to open them explicitly. Motive Power uses CAI (for Computer Assistance Inc.) as a "named instance" of SQL server. You have to take action to allow other programs to look at the Motive Power data. There are two exceptions that you may need to allow in order for other programs so access this data.

Go to Control Panel | Security Center and click on Windows Firewall under Manage Security Settings. If the firewall is OFF then this is not your problem. If the firewall is ON, click on the Exceptions tab. Choose Add Port. Give it a name like SQL UDP ACCESS. On the next line give it a port number of 1434 and choose UDP as the type of port. Next click on Change Scope and limit the access to My network only or set a custom address. Do Not make this information available to the entire Internet. Okay the change in scope. Try to see if your MS Office or report writer program connects.

If this does not solve your problem you will need to open an additional port. First you need to know the port number. Click on Start and then Run and enter SVRNETCN.EXE If you have more than one SQL server program or instance on this machine, use the drop down and make sure you are looking at the correct data. Under Enabled protocols highlight TCP/IP and then click on Properties and note down the default port number. Return to Control Panel | Security Center and add another port. This time call it SQl TCP Access and give it the same port number you noted down. Change scope to limit access to My network or set a custom address.

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Copyright © 2007 Computer Assistance Inc.
Last modified: 05/01/07