3cx suddenly not working....please help

[Mioduz]

Tuesday everything was working fine with my setup. I just got back from out of town and none of my phones where registered. I tried loading the Management website, but nothing loads. I have restarted my computer several times. I tried to use the back up utility but I get an error "The connection to the Database was refused" Please help

 

[leejor]

Unfortunately, this is like telling a mechanic "my car won't start". There are many things that could cause something like this. Hard drive corruption, memory fault on PC, file corruption, virus,something else running on the PC, etc. Or, it could be something very simple. Shut down all other programs running on the PC. Run the error checking tool in Windows and a virus scan if you have one installed. Try doing a defrag of your hard drive, trouble there will indicate upcoming hard drive problems, if that is, in fact what it is. (It's a good idea to do that once in a while anyway) Worse case scenario is that you have to reload 3CX. Try to get a copy of your last backup off the hard drive and move it to a USB stick or burn onto a CD. I, myself, do all backups onto a USB stick (and a copy to a second stick) in the event of catastrophic failure of the the hard drive.

 

[RandyChev]

I had this problem as well. Only services that would start were Abyss Web Server and possibly 3CX PhoneSystem SIP/RTP Tunneling Proxy. None of the others would start. Couldn't start Windows Management Console or Backup and Restore Tool because the database could not be found.

I solved this problem today WITHOUT doing a total restore. Note: The phone system was working yesterday AFTER the date of the previous version restore point mentioned below so I knew I was restoring files from a working system.

On Windows 7 you can restore from previous versions of files called restore points. Google for more details on restore points. I restored these folders with yesterday's version:
C:\ProgramData\3CX
C:\Program Files (x86)\3CX PhoneSystem

I right clicked the folders and chose "Restore previous versions". Note this will often not work on files that have not changed since installation. Just because they haven't been officially changed according to Windows doesn't mean they haven't been corrupted. Restore the whole enclosing folder to replace all these "original install" files.

The folder C:\Program Files (x86)\3CX PhoneSystem would not restore but I could open the restore point and copy all files to restore them.

I'm not sure which file(s) was/were hosed but this restored enough to get the services to start on boot.

Addendum: Assuming other (or I again someday) may be searching for this solution, I thought I'd add some of the symptoms for search purposes. 3CX services will not start, either at boot or manually. When attempting to start 3CX PhoneSystem service I got, "Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start."

BTW, the only thing that might have happened to cause this seems to be a thunder storm with possible power outages. We keep the computer on a UPS but who knows what happened overnight. But all hardware and all other functions and programs seemed to be unaffected.

 

[craigreilly]

I hope that in 3 years Mioduz got his system back up and running Randy

 

[RandyChev]

I hope that in 3 years Mioduz got his system back up and running Randy

I agree. And I'm sure he did.

But for those of us who search these forums for an hour or more only to find the best answer is "Worse case scenario is that you have to reload 3CX", I thought I'd add my solution. At the very least maybe _I_ might find it next time this happens and save myself 4 hours of disk scans, virus scans and reviewing cryptic log files, all the while dreading the looming possibility of a total reinstall.

My ultimate fix took all of 15 minutes and did nothing more destructive than replacing files from yesterday's automatic restore point. I hope it helps someone else as well.

 

[leejor]

In the three and a half years since the original post came out, there are probably a lot more people using an operating system that has the options of a restore point. I have had to (try to) make use of that several times (not on a system running 3CX) and have found that, unfortunately, it is not guaranteed. In some instances I simply get a message that says the restore did not work, try another restore point. So, nothing is infallible.

 

[RandyChev]

leejor,

I totally agree. After working with pc's for 33 years I've learned nothing is certain! I offered my "solution" as a solution that worked for me and I hope will help others in the future... it is one other avenue to try.

Also, I should point out I didn't take the whole computer back to a restore point, just the 3CX Program files and Data files. I don't know where "Services" are stored so if any of those had been corrupted my fix would not have worked. Also I have moved our system from one computer to another so I'm not beyond doing a uninstall/install/restore but since I was fixing this remotely I was attempting to minimize the havoc I caused to the remote computer.

Finally, I've added some wording to my original post in hopes that someone with the problem will find it sooner than later. I found your suggestions of checking my system after about an hour of searching, reading, log-searching, etc. You post at least got me to make sure my system was healthy, which it was. That led me to my last attempt before the total restore, which for me worked.

Thanks for your posts and what I assume is your constant input to this forum for those of us who come here only when we have a problem. You all are appreciated!