Troubleshooting¶

The launcher tries to be honest about what goes wrong rather than fail silently. This page covers the most common error scenarios and what to do about them.

"Update Incomplete" dialog¶

A dialog appears listing specific files that couldn't be updated, with Retry and Cancel buttons.

The update did not complete successfully.

3 file(s) could not be updated:
  - Pulse Dashboard.exe: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
  - PulseLib.dll: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
  ...

Most common cause: the application is already running¶

Pulse Dashboard is open in another window, which locks its own files. The launcher can't replace files that are in use.

Fix: Close all open Pulse Dashboard windows, then click Retry.

Less common: antivirus blocking the copy¶

Antivirus software occasionally locks files briefly while it scans them. The launcher already retries 3 times automatically, but persistent AV interference can defeat that.

Fix: Click Retry. If that doesn't work, ask IT to add the launcher folder to the AV exclusion list.

What "Cancel" does¶

Clicking Cancel aborts the launch entirely. Pulse Dashboard will not start. This is intentional — the launcher won't run an out-of-date application on top of a partially-updated install. Better to know something's wrong than to silently use stale code.

"Server Not Found" dialog¶

The launcher can't locate the master copy of Pulse Dashboard.

The server executable could not be found.

Server location: \\old-server\share\PulseDashboard\

Would you like to browse for a new path?

Causes¶

Network connection is down.
VPN isn't connected (for off-site users).
The server share has been moved to a new location.
The user lost access to the share.

Fix¶

If the server has genuinely moved, click Yes and browse to the new location. The launcher will save your selection so future launches use the new path.

If you suspect a network issue, click No to exit and check connectivity before trying again.

For background on how the launcher decides where to sync from in the first place — and why this dialog appears when something has gone wrong with that process — see How the server location is found.

Launcher takes a long time to start¶

Most launches finish in well under a second. If yours consistently takes several seconds: 1. First launch on a slow VPN — expected. The initial sync has to copy everything. Subsequent launches will be fast. 2. Server share is slow — check with IT whether the share is overloaded or whether your network connection has issues. 3. You're using /verify — strict-mode hash verification rereads every file. This is intentional and slower; remove the flag for normal use.

The log file breaks down where time is spent (scan, copy, cleanup) so you can pinpoint the slow phase.

"Clean Incomplete" dialog¶

You ran the launcher with /clean, but some files survived the wipe:

The clean operation did not complete successfully.

2 item(s) could not be deleted:
  - PulseLib.dll: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
  ...

Same root cause as "Update Incomplete" — usually a running instance of Pulse Dashboard, or AV interference. Same fix: close the app, click Retry.

If you click Cancel, the launch is aborted. The launcher won't proceed to sync over a partial wipe and pretend everything's fine.

I made changes to my installation and they keep getting overwritten¶

The launcher's job is to keep your local copy in sync with the server. Any files you edit locally that also exist on the server will be reverted on the next launch. This is intentional.

The exception is the Settings\ subfolder, which holds this machine's SQL connection configuration. That's preserved across launches; see The Settings folder for details.

If you have a legitimate need for a per-machine modification, that's a deployment question to take to IT, not something to work around at the launcher level.

How to gather diagnostic info for support¶

If a problem isn't covered above, the log file is the single most useful thing you can send to support. It contains: - Timestamps for every operation - The specific files that failed and why - Phase-by-phase timing breakdowns - The user, machine, elevation status, and resolved server path

To grab it quickly: re-run the launcher with the /showlog flag. This opens the log in Notepad immediately after the launcher exits, ready to copy-paste or attach to an email.