I have a database used by about 15 users.

Occasionally a record appears which contains strange characters in it rather then regular text and numbers.

The solution is to compact and repair the database but this means taking all users off the database.

But I need to find out how these characters are getting there - does any one have any ideas?

thanks in advance.

Valerie, I see this from time to time in my db's. I think it has to do with network spikes, etc. and as yet, I have not been able to come up with any solutions because it has been impossible to duplicate the problem. Does it lock your db up when it happens?

:) Ken

Database doesn't actually lock up to view, but can't add new records to the main table

Hum....

I know this doesn't address the problem directly, but I think the 'odd' characters are an indirect result of a unicode enabled db...

Ken

Sorry - but I don't know what you mean by "unicode enabled db."

It's kind of fuzzy with me too. From what I understand, newer versions of programs allow data to be stored in 16 bit chars instead of 8 bit. This allows for a much wider range which in turn allows a single char to represent symbols form other languages such as Chinese, etc. and not just English chars (or symbols).

Anyway, as I said, I doubt this helps in anyway except to partially explain a Chinese symbol in an English db...

I think Access allowed this jump (to unicode) between ver 2000 and 2002. Maybe if all your dbs are not 2002, this could be an issue?

Ken

So - the back end of this database is in Access 2000. The front end is being used by both Access 2000 and Access 2002.

But I am only using regular English text! and don't think I need unicode enabled (well not as far as I can tell) unless that is the cause of the problem.

Do you know - if I were to move the back end to SQL server would this make any difference to this problem?

Valerie

I'm not really up to speed on SQL Sever - Maybe if a SQL guru could jump in or maybe you could post the question in the sql section...

Ken

Thanks for your comments.

Going back to unicode. How do you make a database unicode enabled?

I tried looking up the article I read on Unicode / access issues and couldn't find it. Basically, and I may be wrong on this, but I think when you elect to convert a db to 2002 or later, the files are automatically converted to Unicode compatible format. While I didn't find the Unicode stuff, I did find this which may help a little:

Link (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnacc2k2/html/odc_acFormat.asp)

:) Ken

I had this happening with a foxpro database years ago. it was a bad memory stick (cache) on our raid controller. Documents and regular file sharing weren't affected, just the foxpro application. Was also a novell 3.12 server so this may be grasping at a straw, but just an fyi

Kevin