CR 9.0 seems to be unable to to talk to DBA.  When opening the DDF (in the company subdirectory), CR9.0 takes about 5-7 minutes to list files.  Also, any report with more than 1 selection criteria bombs 9.0.
 
Same reports in CR 8.x work fine.
 
CR 9.0 has no problem with Pervasive sample DB or its own sample DB.
 
DBA tech support has no response to this.
 
Any thoughts?

I agree with Chris that 7.0 was the last version that works well as a report writer with DBA/Pervasive.
 
Problem is, you can't buy it anymore as far as I can tell.  Trying to help someone out, I searched high and low in the software clearing houses and had no luck.  Maybe someone else knows.
 
MS Access is a good option for someone starting out and would probably be the best bet in the long run.
 
I'm staying with Crystal 7 as long as I can because I like the built-in formulas.

You are right about Access with a few of the tables as Phil wrote his OWN DDF's and they weren't necessarily all industry standard, and Access can be quite picky.
 
That said, it does depend on the Access version as well it seems.  We have tried with 97 and there were MANY files that would not import or link.  With 2000 that dropped considerably to a few, and with 2002 that eliminated a couple more.
 
We have found that SQL pass-through queries can get us through quite a few problems, and Active-X accomplishes just about all the rest.  But you need the Pervasive developers kit for the Active-X connections.
 
I had created some CRW reports for a client (new Balance Sheet, P&L, and aging reports - All divisionalized), but after a while they found them just too slow.
 
We have re-done that in Access and they run VERY fast (almost instantaneous update from DBA), and they are very happy with this.
 
Now we are trying to work on a new Access-based Job Costing system and are having major troubles with WOROUT.  Ahhhhh, trials and tribulations......