Dialing problems with ACT! 2013

[Davidjp]

I have ACT set up in a small office with 4 salespersons using it at the same time.

After about 4 or 5 calls, never more than 8, ACT locks up and will no longer dial.

The dial button on the dialer is greyed out and cannot be pushed. To "fix" this

they have to exit and restart ACT on their workstations.

Any ideas? We are running the dialing on a TAPI over IP phone system.

[bclark]

Sounds to me that Act! isn't properly receiving the response it expects from the TAPI driver.  The biggest thing I can suggest is to turn off UAC if you're running on Microsoft Windows Vista, or higher.  Also consider turning off any antivirus or firewall you have set up and test the connection to the TAPI interface by trying to duplicate the issue again.  Anything we can do to eliminate possible causes would be best.

To turn off UAC, follow these instructions:

http://kb.swiftpage.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20220/kw/turn%20off%20uac

http://kb.swiftpage.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/25665/kw/turn%20off%20uac

[Davidjp]

Thank you for replying so quickly. I have tried turning off UAC as suggested by tech support. It is still locking up. I tried turning off the firewall, on a hunch, as well and that did not help either.  I have not tried disabling the anti-virus entirely yet, but that is probably my next step. Do you possibly have any other ideas to try?

[bclark]

You can try uninstalling and reinstalling the TAPI system with the most updated software.  Unfortunately in this case Act! takes queues from Windows and the TAPI drivers themselves.  If it doesn' get the response it's looking for, Act! may ignore the information being sent to it, while waiting for the specific string.

Does it appear to happen more often when you hang up on the client, or when the client hangs up on you?  I've seen some people who have varied results with that.

Are you using an addon, like CallOnCRM or anything similar?

[Davidjp]

No sir, I'm only using the QSalesData addon. No dialing addons at all. Also, when it locks up in ACT, I can still use the windows dialer or dial straight out of Outlook with no problems.

[Davidjp]

Still having dialing issues with Act 2013 pro. Still locking up periodically or not working from program boot up. When it does this, I'll have to go into Dialing Preferences and uncheck use dialer, exit this setting, go back in and recheck it to get it to start working.  Is there any fix for this or is the program broken and no one cares?

[wellmet]

There are quite a few places it could be breaking.  What happens if you use the Windows Dialer 10 times in a row?  Does it lock up the Windows Dialer?  What about if you dial out of Outlook 10 times in a row?  Does Outlook lock up?  ACT! uses the Windows Dialer to do the dialing so I suspect that if you might see the same problem if you use the Windows Dialer 10 times in a row.  If that's the case then you will need to get with the company that wrote the TAPI driver and see if they can fix it.

Stan

[Davidjp]

Yes sir, that's the problem. Even when it's locked up in Act, the dialer in windows and outlook both work fine. I can also make at least 20 to 30 calls out of the windows dialer without any problems, but i figured 30 was good enough to test and didn't go further.

[wellmet]

If it really is an issue with the ACT! interface to the Windows Dialer it's probably going to be a while before it is fixed.  Not because they don't care but because you have an intermittent problem that may only occur in your environment or with whatever TAPI driver you are using.  Your best bet would probably be to go with a 3rd party dialer.  There is a product called DialIT which I believe will work with a generic TAPI driver.  You could try that one and see how it works.  If it doesn't work or has the same issues you would probably have better luck getting it fixed because they specialize in that area.

http://www.actaddons.com/products/2005/crm_dialit.asp

Stan 

[Davidjp]

I've tried DialIT, and it has the same issue. I'll just try and muddle along myself until a fix presents itself or tech support figures something out. Thank you for your time.