Hmm. Nothing too informative there. I inform her that it appears to just be a memory issue. She is puzzled at this because she "... just did a memory thing the other day." I ask her what she means by this. She admits to not knowing. I ask if she installed RAM sticks. She hesitantly says "yes" and says she did this because she was running out of memory. Okay. So she has no idea what she's doing. No biggee.
Has she tried rebooting the computer? No. Ok, we'll try that.
Hmm. Nope. Still getting the error. Let's check the version number. Ok. There's been one patch released since she last updated but I'm not aware of anything like this having been addressed. Still, no harm in updating.
Hmm. Nope. Still getting the error. Weird. Ok. Skip it. I'm just gonna get her database. When something goes wrong nine times out of ten it's the database. So I begin walking her through the process of sending me the database.
Me: Ok, let's go into My Computer, Local Hard Disk C:, Program Files, OurSoftwareFolder...
Client: Ok. I'm there!
Me: Ok, we're looking for a file called dbFluffyStuff.dll.
Client: Nope. No file by that name.
Me: ... Are you certain the software is installed on your computer? Perhaps you're logged in to a server that has the software installed?
Client: Nope. We do have your software networked but my computer is the server.
Me: Okay, let's take another look in the same folder. The file we're looking for is called dbFlu-
Client: I'm telling you it isn't there.
Me: Let's try this... In the top menu of the window, do you see the menu items labeled File, Edit, View...
Client: Yes!
Me: Okay! Let's click on View. In the second section of that list, which on has the mark by it?
Client: Tiles.
Me: Okay. Let's click Details. Do you see how all the files are now lined up on the left-hand side of the window? Now they're listed alphabetically. Let's take another look for that file. The file name is db-
Client: It isn't there.
Me: ... Ok. Well, there are a number of files and sub-folders in this folder so it may be tricky to find the file we're looking for...
Client: Well there's two.
Me: I'm sorry?
Client: You said there were a lot of files in here. There aren't. There's only two.
Me: ... Could you please read me the names of those files?
Based on the Client's descriptions I can tell there's one non-critical sub-folder and our main executable left. Suddenly, I understand why the program is bombing and it has nothing to do with the database
Me: That's curious. I wonder what happened to all the other folders and files...
Client: I moved them.
Me: I'm sorry?
Client: I moved them. Some of them. I deleted others. There were way too many files in this folder! It looked terrible! Plus they were taking up all my memory.
Our program generally takes up less than 100 MB. Her C:\ drive has over 60 GB free.
Client: Was I not supposed to do that?
Me (suppressing a combination sigh/laugh): Actually, no. Once a program has installed files the general rule of thumb is to leave the files where they are.
And thus it is all made clear: the "memory thing" she "did the other day" appears to have been a ritual of her own making. It would seem she's given to randomly deleting files on her system based strictly on aesthetics. It's a miracle her computer is even running.
Me: Ok! Now I see the problem. Let's start by deleting OurSoftwareFolder and downloading a fresh install file from...
