Crash... crash... and crash...

[luisaccess]

Good Morning,
Need help... I have an Access Application that perform like this:
One .mdb where all forms are written and another .mdb where the data (several table resides).
Users has to copy the .mdb application to their machines and access via an icon.
This application in running for about 3 years without any problem.
I don´t know what´s going on, but from one month to now I´m having crashs and crashs everyday. The last one ( yesterday) after a long time we´ve discovered that the access has lost the primary key of one data table and the application become crazy. After repairing the database, application was fine.
I have fifty potential users in this application, and I´ve counted one day 30 using concurrently.
What may cause this kind of problem I´ve reported ?
Thanks for any help and best regards,
Luis Paulo

 

[Nero]

I think Access is your problem.
In my experience Access is a great tool but when you have 30 concurrent users you are stretching the limits a bit.
I think you would be better using SQL server as a back-end to Access front-ends for your users.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

To amplify this theme, your problem is (very likely) the increased chance that a user will depart from your application with a partial update.

Things you can do are limited for all-Access environments.

1. Assure that all forms, when they close, either explicitly update whatever record they were on, or explicitly undo the changes for that record.

2. Assure that all forms have OnExit ability to assure that anything you opened gets closed.

3. Warn your users to wait for Access to exit cleanly. They must NEVER EVER just turn off their machine and walk away. (You have my permission to chain them to their desks after the very first time they do a "turn off and walk away".)

4. Do your best to set up Access activities with Commit/RollBack protections.

5. Down the road, at least consider upgrading to a centralized server that can do protected transactions better than Access.

6. Backup, backup, backup. (Also do frequent repair and compress actions.)