Lost Screen Focus and White Screen - Please help!!

[Johnrg]

Hi All,

I am really stuck in the middle with this one and am starting to wonder where to turn.

We just dropped $18K on a new terminal server to run our database at work.

This new server is using the windows server 2010 operating system and is using 32bit Access 2010 runtime talking to three Access BE tables. We plan to move to SQL but thats another thread for the future.

We have six users connected to seperate front end files on this new server via remote desktop.

The data link is: Server - 100mb switch - fibre cable - 100mb switch - PC's but all the processing and programs are on the server so all we are bringing down the line really is remote screen shots.

In several of our more complex forms that run filters to return large record sets or run update queries to update lots of records to tables we are getting the screen turning white or flicking back to the hidden main menu after about 5-10 seconds of the query being calculated.

We NEVER had this issue on our old server running XP, runtime 2010 via remote desktop, or via the users with runtime on the pcs, with different OS's talking to the BE on the server.

I am really stuck in the middle here. The database designer is saying that its not a database issue, as these things only started happening when we switched servers, which is true. My IT guys says that everything is installed correctly and there is nothing more they can do.

The end result is lots of frustrated users and no real plan how to fix this.

We have tried:
1. Running windows server 2008R2 on the new server - same issue
2. Disabling the firewall - same issue
3. Running direct on the server - same issue
4. turned off all the code in the DB that related to screen painting issues - no better.

Can anyone suggest some other things to try, we are at a real loss here what to do next?

Thanks

JohnG

 

[boblarson]

Have him go into the access options for that database and disable the Use Windows Themed Controls check box and see if that helps.

 

[Johnrg]

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the reply,
I looked at the options this morning and this "Windows Themes" WAS checked.
Unfortunatlly after unchecking it we are still having the same issues.
One form is really bad. Its almost like something in the background start running during long queries and windows/access gets confused loses its focus. In this one form if I have the task manager running in the background EVERY time the query runs the hidden main menu gets the focus, if task manager is not running 75% of the time the same issue, the other 25% of the time the form behaves as expected.
Any other ideas?
JohnG

 

[gemma-the-husky]

do SOME things work normally?

 

[Johnrg]

Hi Dave,

Yes, pretty much everything else in the DB seems to work as expected.

Its just these three forms that deal with our two biggest tables. One has 45000 records, and its related sub table has 60000 records.

The queries in these forms, that drag data out of, or update these two tables, take a bit longer than queries related to smaller tables and it seems to be this extra time that causes the issue.

Any query longer than about 10 seconds and focus changes to the hidden background form, and then just wont come back.

We also have two forms that open an excel file. The code clearly says open and give focus to excel, and that worked fine in the old system, but now they open, you see them breifly but then they minimise to the task bar in the background and Access get the focus back. Real pain in the butt.

We tried lots of options in Access settings, but nothing seems to help?

Any ideas?

JohnG

 

[gemma-the-husky]

do you have a non-runtime version of access you can try - so you can test the raw queries, and so on.

maybe the new server is not handling the big queries in quite the same way. if so, perhaps you can redesign these queries to work slightly differently, if that is the issue.

how long did these processes used to take?

 

[Johnrg]

Hi Guys,

Well we found a fix, just by chance to be honest, maybe this may help some one else.

If you right click the access application when its running from the task bar there is a "compatabilty" option. We changed this to "XP Service pack 3" and all our problems went away. This was the OS of our old server that the DB worked on and the OS that delelopment of the program began in.

Maybe this will help other that have issues moving to windows server 2012. No one here had a clue this existed.

I have added an attachement to show you the tab.

 

[boblarson]

Thanks for posting back with your solution.