This document will tell you what you need to know to perform a basic installation of Motive Power. More details are available in the Motive Power Help system. The Help system is available from any screen in the Motive Power program. You can also click on the file MotivePower3.chm in the root folder of this CD to run the Help system. Any questions that we receive that are not already documented in the Help system get added to the FAQ at www.motivepower.com

Click here to download this document.

What’s on the CD or available for download?

The Motive Power CD contains a MotivePower folder with the installer. The root of the CD also contains this document and the help file MotivePower3.chm. To begin installing from the CD, navigate to the MotivePower folder and double-click on setup.exe. From here on the procedure is the same whether you received a CD or downloaded the program.

 The download available from the internet is the Motive Power installer. You can also view or save the Motive Power help file separately. If you downloaded Motive Power from the Internet, you will have a self-extracting file named MotivePower3.exe. Double-click on this file to extract the Motive Power setup program and run it. From here on the procedure is the same whether you received a CD or downloaded the program.

During the install, you will be offered the choice of a Server Only or Workstation install. You should choose the Server Only option for your first install. Because Motive Power is a client-server program, you should use your fastest machine to run the database; we’ll call this the Motive Power Server. This installation creates 2 desktop shortcuts in addition to the program group, and will ultimately create an instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express named CAI2.

Running the install and choosing Workstations installs the Motive Power software and ultimately the SQL Server 2005 Client Tools. It does not install the SQL database engine required to use Motive Power. Run this setup on additional computers other than the Motive Power Server computer. These additional computers will connect to the SQL Server Express on your Server computer. Refer to the documentation for details.

You can also read the documentation without installing Motive Power. If you have the CD, double-click on the file MotivePower3.chm in the root to display the help file. On the Web site, double-click on the Motive Power Help Only to view or save the help file without the rest of Motive Power.

Installation Procedure

To start installing Motive Power on your best computer (the Motive Power Server), either:

• Double-click the file MotivePower3.exe that you downloaded from the internet; or
• Navigate to the MotivePower folder on the CD and double-click the file setup.exe.

Follow the instructions on the screen. When you come to the choice between Server Only and Workstations, choose the Server Only install.

When the installation is completed there will be two desktop shortcuts and a Motive Power 3 program group on your machine.

Run the Motive Power 3 shortcut. You should be asked if it’s ok to install SQL Server Express; click Yes. When the SQL Server installer has finished, run the Motive Power 3 shortcut again. This initializes things and connects Motive Power to the SQL engine. Enter SW with no password on the password screen. If you’ve purchased the program, you should see you shop’s name at the top of the main screen. Look around a bit, then exit. If you haven’t purchased the program, you’ll be notified; click OK to exit.

Run the Motive Power 3 Learn shortcut. Enter PS with no password on the login screen. Look around a bit, then exit.

If you plan to install Motive Power on other computers, you’ll need to do some work with permissions and the firewall on your Motive Power Server. See the help file, MotivePower3.chm, for details on how to install Motive Power on additional computers.

The plain Motive Power 3 shortcut will not get you into the program unless you have an engraving file. The engraving file, RunMe.cai, unlocks a copy of Motive Power for a particular company name. If you have an engraving file, copy it to the Program Files | MotivePower2 folder. This folder will be on your local C drive if you took the defaults during the installation of Motive Power. If you chose a different location for Motive Power, copy the engraving file to the location you chose at installation.

Engraving files are made for your company when you place your order. You can order engraved files on the Internet when you download Motive Power or after your evaluation. You can also order engraved files through your local computer specialist or the support specialists listed at www.motivepower.com

Your Motive Power installation contains several items:

A Motive Power 3 Learn icon that starts a live copy of the program with sample data files including the following sample data:.

• Customers
• Vehicles
• Open and Finalized estimates and work orders
• Configuration files for an automotive or light truck repair shop
• The ability to add your own customers and vehicles
• The ability to change settings to match the way you do business
• The ability to view, print and save reports
• The ability to create 18 new work orders from scratch

and the following help system features:

• Introductory chapters explaining the basic concepts and approaches used
• Technical details including install and uninstall instructions
• Users guide with very detailed breakdowns, including:
  • Work orders
  • Customers
  • Settings
  • Reports
  • Daily tasks
• Context sensitive help available using the F1 key
• Index and Search capabilities

A plain Motive Power 3 icon that starts a live copy of the program with empty data files:

• Configured for an automotive or light truck repair shop
• Ready for your engraved files
  • We can e-mail your engraved files so you can start right away

A Motive Power 3 program group with the following entries:

• Entry to run Motive Power 3 with your engraved files
• Entry to Restore a backup
• Entry to LogOut All Users.
• Entries for Motive Power help.
• Subfolder containing the Learn program and its related programs
• Subfolder containing Utilities

Running Motive Power for the First Time

The first time you run the program it will install the SQL Server 2005 Express data engine. The second time you run the program it will establish links to the SQL database and make entries in the registry. If you have any RunMe.CAI or RunMe.SQL files in the Motive Power folder, those will be handled automatically by the Motive Power startup procedure. You will be in a small window labeled Motive Power Login. The fields are for your user code and password.  The user code is SW. There is no password set, so leave it blank. Click OK.

When the main Motive Power window appears, click on the Help button. On the Contents tab, click on Introduction. Read each of the short items in the Introduction. This will help you to understand the Motive Power point of view.

Now you are on ready to go. Book learners should just keep on clicking into the User’s Guide and read all about it. All the details are cross-linked so you can follow different paths through the documentation. The more cautious among you should start Motive Power 3 Learn and look through the open work orders and customer histories to see how things go together. Press F1 when you get stuck and Help will appear. Video gamers will want to see what works how by trying everything.

If you want to try Motive Power on additional machines, be sure to read the instructions in the help file under Preparing For Additional Computers. Then follow the instructions in Installing Motive Power on Additional Computers.

Getting Fresh Learn Files

When you have gotten to the point that you want to start over with new Learn files, here is what to do.  Close Motive Power. Go to Start | Programs | Motive Power 3 | Learn and pick Start Over Learn Data Files.

Getting Help

First and best thing to do is to search in the on-line Help system. Use the Help button within the application for the complete Help system or press F1 on any screen to get help about that screen. If you don’t find an answer there, next try the FAQ at the web site. There is a hotlink to the web site (www.MotivePower.com) on the title page of the on-line Help system. Click on Motive Power and then FAQ and see if your question has been answered there. Any Motive Power questions that we receive are posted on the FAQ list. If you can’t find an answer there you have more options. You can send an e-mail to support@ComputerAssistance.com for free support. You can contact your local computer specialist or one of the independent support specialists listed at the web site for paid support.

Until things are configured properly, you may find that the program complains when you try to access something that has not been set up yet. You may get an error message and the program may close. When this happens you get this error message when you try to start the program “XX is already  logged into Motive Power”.

If you are the only person running Motive Power, you know this is not the case. Go to the Windows Start button, then Programs, then Motive Power 3 and choose Log All Out. If you are running Motive Power Learn, pick Learn and then Log All Out.

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