Database created in Win98/Off 2000 crashes in XP

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I have now had two different incidents using two different sets of machines that is leading me to suspect there might be a bug in some recent update to Office XP or Windows XP.
Case 1: A database (front end) I work on at home on my Win98SE/Office 2000 machine and take to a client who is using XP in a networked environment with front end on the client computers and backend on the server. More than once I have taken a complete copy of various upgrades, sometimes on a CD sometimes via zipped file and emailed. When I install the new front end, it crashes on open. I solved this one the first few times by creating a new database and importing everything. This is a bit of a pain because I have to reset the DAO reference and rebuild a little custom toolbar. Lately, I just take the fixed/new elements and import them.

Case 2: This is the one that leads me to suspect it isn’t something between my system at home and the first client’s. I have another database I work on on my work computer (also Win98SE and Office 2000) where I have been emailing fixes and upgrades of the front end since February. For the first time ever, this client reported exactly the same problem and sent me a screen shot with exactly the error message.

All of this started about a month ago. Two totally different sets of systems with exactly the same problem cropping up. It’s not unworkable but awfully inconvenient. Anyone seen this, know what is going on, know of a fix?

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Although many error messages are non-informative, could you tell us what the one you get says?

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Here’s a screen shot of the error message. It is a bona fide crash on open, leftover LDB file, the works. It happens every time. Sorry if it is blurry. I don’t have good editing software and needed to make the file small enough to post.

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Thanks, that’s the standard message, unfortunately it provides no information.
I assume that your frontend has a startup form or AutoExec macro. Does the crash also occur if you bypass these by holding the Shift down while opening the database?

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We’ve seen this kind of behavior in Access 2002 off and on, and it seems to happen more often on some workstations than others. Do you know if the clients have SP3 of Office XP installed? Our experience is that it happens less frequently with SP2 or SP3, but still happens. And I gather a compact and repair doesn’t help at all – is it possible that you have some residual VBA code that Access 2000 is happy with but 2002 is not? If it involves the opening of a form as Hans suggested, that well may be the culprit. Otherwise it could be a corrupted form that Access 2000 is OK with, but 2002 is not.

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For Hans: Yes there is a startup form and yes, the crash (as I recall) still happens when I hold down the shift key.

For Wendell: I can’t say which service pack is installed since in either case since I had nothing to do with it. I can investigate but that will take a few days at least. Since the crash happens before the database is even opened, the compact and repair isn’t an option although I suppose I could do it with JetComp before I even start. Could you give me an example of what you mean by residual VBA code. Certainly there is gobs of it. In Case 1, much of it written by others since I inherited and it was a rats nest with very complicated homemade security. In Case 2, which is what really made me suspicious, this is a database I built from scratch and have never ever had a problem like this before. No security (not necessary) and only using a switchboard to start.

It seems a little odd to me that two completely different databases built on two completely different systems all of a sudden start having exactly the same problem at exactly the same time (startup) when transferred to XP. In addition, one case of XP is on an office network, the other is a home system.

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