Automation Error? (Access 97 (V?R? …doesn’t say in the ‘Abo

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Good Morning Everyone….

I’m a getting very confused as to what exactly is going on with the db’s in my department in the last week or so… For some reason, all of a sudden, whenever someone tries to compact one of their .mdb’s, we keep getting strange errors…

The one this morning is an Automation Error in the On Open event for the db’s main interface form… I designed this application for them over a year and a half ago… It has been used every day since, and there has never been any problems with it… and nothing was changed this morning… I knew that it needed compacting, so I did it…. This error popped up at the end of the compacting process…

So I guess I have two questions…

1) Any idea what this Automation Error is and how to fix it?…. I checked the references and they are the same as the backup copies of the .mdb (BTW… the backups open fine and without this error)

2) Does anyone know of a reason that mdb’s on a shared network drive could out of the blue, have problems?… Last Thursday and Friday, I had people coming to me constantly with different anomolies going on with their db’s when they were trying to compact and/or repair… ???

Examples: No Read Permission errors … to do with MSysModule tables etc….
Another user is trying to update at the same time… etc…

We had to have a few files restored from previous days… I’m confused… Is it possible that the network guys are doing something with the drive and that is effecting the db’s?

Any ideas would be appreciated… ‘cuz this is getting scary… (hahaha)
Thanks!!!

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If there’s no SR-x in the About dialog, then you don’t have any of the Office 97 service packs installed. I would recommend installing them because they did patch some things, although I can no longer remember what. You might also want to download and install the latest Jet service pack for Jet 3.5. That could eliminate some pesky problems you don’t even know you have.

It sounds like some kind of rolling corruption, and it could very well be caused by network problems. Get everyone out of the database and look for any stray LDB files to see if you’ve got some persistent locks out there mucking things up. If a user abended out of the program, a lock can be left behind, and it may not get properly cleared going forward.

Start with clearing any LDBs and then decompile the database before you compact it. See if that makes the problem go away. If not, post back for more suggestions.

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Thanks Charlotte…

I haven’t got the service packs yet… but I have a call into the tech guys to come and do it… (I would just download and install them myself…. but the Microsoft site said something about having the original installation CD and/or network install information)…

I did what you suggested and checked for stray ldb’s… None there… Then I did the decompile… It opened without error, but as soon as I try to compile I get a Dr. Watson error… blamo… Shuts Access down… Then if I try to re-open the mdb… Same old Automation Error…

I have recreated the up-to-date database from one of my backup copies… but I’m afraid that if I compact it in a week or so, this will all happen again…. Plus I am still concerned about what is going on with all of the databases in the last week…. For now, I’ll wait until I talk to the network guys and find out if there’s anything new going on with that drive… and post another question later if I don’t figure it out…. (I HAVE to know… lol)

If anyone has any more ideas or have experienced the same problems… Please share…
Thanks again for your help… It’s always appreciated!!

Trudi

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I can report that I’ve experienced the same sort of thing (Unexpected and obscure errors) on Office 97 when it’s on a shared directory

I’ve tried the decomplie and compile dance. I’ve done the backup an hope for the best….

Sorry to report I’m no closer to finding out what causes it – all I know is it comes and goes (A version that appears corrupt one day is absolutely fine the other ? )

I’ll be interested in any leads you get. Good luck.

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There are a multitude of causes for corruption in Access 97 – many of them are readily corrected with a compact and repair. One of the most common is when someones’ PC crashes, and leaves something open in the database. In that case, Access marks the database as suspect and nobody can get into it until you do a repair. The more serious stuff is when a table actually corrupts – the most common culprit seems to be memo fields that were being updated when an Access or PC crash occured. So what to do?

Do backups, and do them often.
Do regular compact and repairs (of course you need exclusive access to do that)
Keep a development copy of any front-ends as a design backup.
Consider upgrading to Access 2000 – it is less prone to corruption.
Look at upgrading to SQL Server for a back-end if the situation will justify it.

Hope this helps.

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