Using non-alphanumeric characters in Empower 3 causes project MFC crash with Oracle error ORA-01877 (PCS 55278) - WKB25743

SYMPTOMS

• Empower crashes with error message "[project name] MFC Application has stopped working"
• For example, "Harrier MFC Application has stopped working"
• Empower message center shows Oracle database error "ORA-01877: String is too long for internal buffer"

ENVIRONMENT

• Empower 3 (multiple versions)

CAUSE

Non-alphanumeric characters were used in Empower 3. These can be regional language characters, mathematical symbols, or invisible characters inadvertently copied from third-party applications such as Microsoft Excel or Word. These can be present in custom fields, method or sample names, or anywhere that has user-entered text fields.

FIX or WORKAROUND

1. Remove non-alphanumeric characters.
2. Sometimes it is necessary to re-make a project from scratch and manually enter text. Avoid copying and pasting text from third-party applications. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION