Is there anything more frustrating to see on your computer screen than this? Not only are you unable to complete the task you were undertaking, but the error message may as well be written in a foreign language. Are there 429 such errors, or is that the pet name the customer service department has given to this particular type of error? And who, in the name of Pete, is ActiveX?

Closing The Error Message
Once you look past the cryptic message, you’re left with the challenge of resolving the error. But wait, first you have to close the error message window. Good luck with that. If it’s like most error messages, the harder you try to close the window, the more copies of the message you see appearing on your monitor.

Looking Online For Answers
Now you’re left with two options: either you turn off your computer to delete the error message (and anything else you’ve been running), or you borrow a friend’s computer to do a Google search on the error. The search results yield a variety of forums where other frustrated users have asked the same question: “How do I fix this?” While there is some camaraderie in knowing you’re not alone in the struggle, there is an equal amount of disgust that the same problem has been occurring in one form or another since 2007–at least that’s what the forum dates indicate.

As a retailer you don’t have time to vent about the recurring bugs that lead to RMS runtime error 429 right now. You’ve got to get your POS back online as soon as possible. So you read the forums about resolving the problem. Most offer the following resolutions:

•     Do a system restore
•     Uninstall/reinstall the affected software
•     Register the DLLs
•     Run a repair

Losing Business
At the end of these suggestions, you see a sad refrain, “I tried all of that and it didn’t work.” That begins a discussion about which drivers and printers have been known to trigger the RMS runtime error 429 and what DOS prompt commands have to be entered.

In the time it’s taken you to go on this futile research journey, you’ve lost business. It’s not your fault the error occurred, but your company is the one that suffers the consequences. If your POS system is down, you can’t conduct transactions. It’s that simple.

A Helpful Suggestion
In the short term, I suggest following the recommendations of the forums in hopes that your experience might be better than theirs. In the long term, I offer a different solution: leave the Windows operating system in favor of one that has a history of better performance.

You shouldn’t need a degree in computer programming to work in retail. You shouldn’t lose years of your life searching for solutions to runtime errors you don’t understand.

An iPad based POS like Bindo runs on Apple iOS. It’s created to be user friendly. You don’t have to uninstall or reinstall anything because the updates happen real time in the cloud. For the sake of your sanity and the sake of your business success, look into upgrading to an iPad POS. With that, you can bid farewell to runtime errors and POS downtime in your retail stores.