Hi B Mungham,

You can try to stop and restart the connection manager.  Please go to the lower right hand corner of your windows desktop and click the connection manager icon.  In the Sage 50 Connection Manager pop-up windows, click the Stop Service button in the Connection Manager section.  After the service is stopped, click the Start Service button.  If you are unable to start the service, please go to control panel, administrative tools, services.  Look up Sage 50 Database Connection Manager and see if the startup type is Automatic.  If not, please change it back to automatic and then start the service. 

One friendly reminder is that even though you disable the windows firewall, the windows firewall service is still running behind the backgroup.  If you need to really disable windows firewall, you can stop it in services. 

The links below are knowledge base articles that you may have already explored.  This is for you information.

Error: "Cannot open company, there is an error connecting to a database" when opening a data file - 10372

Error: "The Connection Manager could not start the database engine. The database engine reported an error" or "Cannot open company, there is an error connecting to a database" - 11112

Which processes do I need to allow through my firewall? - 10080

If you have tried everything but still not working, you may need to fix your .net framework.  For XP, you can install up to .net framework 4.0.  For Vista/7/8, you can install .net framework 4.5.  You may need to either repair or uninstall/reinstall.

Hope this helps

I followed your suggestion and steps to ensure that the Connection Manager was set to "automatic". I also went to the Sage 50 Connection Manager and clicked the stop service button, to stop service, and reclicked it to start the service again, as you suggested. It seems to be set to "Automatic"

Do I really need to disable Windows Firewall, as you suggest to try to make Sage work?

In Sage, I seem to be able to go in and try to set up a new company in the software. I just cannot access the sample data, or the data files I need to access it for doing the training exercises. Very frustrating.

I also installed netframe 4.5. I was not prompted to uninstall anything in the process however, so I am not sure it is functioning.

As previously mentioned the mysqld-nt.exe file seems to exist but I cannot see it specifically in the Windows Task Manager. I am now into day 4 in trying to be able to use the software. How is that file so important in the process?

For the other links you provided, I believe that I have tried as you suggested.

I am ready to return the training material as my frustration level grows.

Hi Bmungham,

Sorry to hear your frustration.

If you are able to create new company and open it as per your description, do you know where in your computer you create the new company data file.  Try to move the sample company data or your training data to that location and then open it and see if you will get the same error.  If your simply accounting 2012 is not working, you should not be able to open or create any data file.  For your informaton, when you move the data file, please makre sure you mvoe both the .sai file and .saj folder.

I have not tried to create a new company to determine where the data file created would be stored on my computer. I only know that on the first Sage screen when you have the option of opening the sample company, or opening an existing company, or last company accessed, that I get error messages that refer to an error connecting to a database.

However when I open "create new company" I can proceed through a number of screens that come next, which is different from the other choices due to the error messages. As such I do not know where such data files would be stored. If you think it is worthwhile I can try to set up something and see where it is saved.  

The lesson data provided on the CD and copied to my hard-drive as instructed.with the course material is quite large as it includes sample information for a large number of exercises for each chapter/ module, so I am unclear which files to transfer. There are certainly many more than just the "start.sai" and "start.saj" files which seem to be those for the first lesson.

Hi Bmungahma,

Suggestion you can try in your situation are:

1. Repair .net 4.5

Repair .NET Framework 4.5: If you already have .NET Framework 4.5 while .NET Framework 4.0 is not installed, then your .NET Framework 4.5 may be corrupted. Try to repair it using this Microsoft tool: .NET Repair Tool.

2. Uninstall Sage 50, .net 4.5 and 4.0, reset 3.5, reinstall .net 4.5 and Sage 50

1. Uninstall .NET Framework 4.0 via your CONTROL PANEL then PROGRAMS. Reboot your PC.

2. Consider resetting .NET Framework 3.5 (see Resetting .NET Framework 3.5 below).

3. Uninstall Sage 50 2013 via your CONTROL PANEL then PROGRAMS. Reboot your PC.

4. Install .NET Framework 4.5. You can download version 4.5 from Microsoft’s website: download link. Reboot your PC.

5. Install Sage 50 2013.

Resetting .NET Framework 3.5: If your Windows comes integrated with .NET Framework 3.5 in the case of Windows 8 (or 3.5.1 for Windows Vista/7), then you may need to also reset this integrated version.  Sage 50 version 2013 and higher does not use .NET Framework 3.5 functionalities at all but .NET 4.0 may have interfered with 3.5 functionalities.  Resetting 3.5 will re-enable 3.5 specific functions.  Sage recommends resetting .NET Framework 3.5.

1. Go to Control Panel then Programs

2. Click Turn Windows features on or off

3. Uncheck .NET Framework 3.5, or 3.5.1, (whichever you see available)

4. Click OK

5. Reboot.

6. Go to Control Panel then Programs

7. Click on Turn Windows features on or off

8. Reselect .NET Framework 3.5 (or 3.5.1)

9. Click OK.

10. Reboot.

3. If still not working, run SFC (System file check) to try to fix your windows (Environment Issue).

4. If still not working, you can consider using the recovery partition to bring your computer back to day 1.  Remember to do a backup for all your important data.

Hope this helps