Automation Error (Access97)

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Strange happenings. A couple of days ago I had starting making some changes to the frontend of an Access97 database; new forms, etc.

Today when I went into the database, I immediately got an error on my menuing form (which had not been changed) that said “Compile Error: Automation error”. It highlighted a line that was “Dim rsGroup as Recordset”! I thought, what the hell, I’ll just change this to DAO.recordset; but when I did this it just took out the DAO! I got out of database, then went back in (holding shift key down) and manually went to this line. I typed in “dao.” in front of “Recordset”, but when I went to next line, the dao didn’t capitalize! I think I repaired the db at this time, then went back in again, and this time totally deleted the line and started typing and it recognized the dao right way.

Continuing on to call up a form, I got another Automation Error message, but this time it highlighted the declaration of one of my standard subs that sits in a module.

BTW, I only have the minimum 3 references declared in this database (Access library, VBA, and DAO 3.51), and none of them show as “Missing”. I even tried deselecting then reselecting the DAO reference, but that did no good. There is no replication or anything like that (only references in MSKB I could find for “Automation Error” dealt with replication). And I’ve got all the patches/releases of Access97 (as far as I know).

I finally restored the db from backup, and imported all the objects I had changed/added from the “bad” db. Seems to work fine now. Anyone got any ideas on this? I’ve never seen it before.

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Hello Mark,

Your database probably got corrupted, and “Automation Error” was a non-specific error message. This problem is mentioned frequently in the newsgroups, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear idea about a specific cause. Suggested “solutions” are: decompile > compile > compact, and importing database objects into a new database (or into a non-corrupt backup). So you have already hit upon one of these. There’s probably not much more you can do.

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Hans,

Thanks for the info. At least I probably don’t have to worry about this part of some larger issue! It’s just “one of those things” that happen with Access, and which we learn to live with. Never seen it before, though.

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It turns up, even in Access 97. I’ve seen it many times, and it appears to be a situation where the system is interpreting your attempt to use an object variable as “automation” and it falls down on it. Every time I’ve encountered it, the problem has been corruption of some sort.

Reply | Quote

It turns up, even in Access 97. I’ve seen it many times, and it appears to be a situation where the system is interpreting your attempt to use an object variable as “automation” and it falls down on it. Every time I’ve encountered it, the problem has been corruption of some sort.

Reply | Quote

Hans,

Thanks for the info. At least I probably don’t have to worry about this part of some larger issue! It’s just “one of those things” that happen with Access, and which we learn to live with. Never seen it before, though.

Reply | Quote

Hello Mark,

Your database probably got corrupted, and “Automation Error” was a non-specific error message. This problem is mentioned frequently in the newsgroups, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear idea about a specific cause. Suggested “solutions” are: decompile > compile > compact, and importing database objects into a new database (or into a non-corrupt backup). So you have already hit upon one of these. There’s probably not much more you can do.

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