mde compile error

[keith_pyrasoft]

I have a strange situation with an access 97 database. When building an mde file, it will sometimes give an error, and sometimes not.

The error is 'Can't open database (blah). It may not be a database that your application recognises, or the file may be corrupt.'

I have been chasing this one every way I know how. Including opening a blank db and importing all the objects.

Typically, if I attempt to build the mde 6 times in a row with absolutely no modifications, the failure will occur on, say, the 2nd, 4th and 5th attempts!

Any ideas out there please?

 

[Rich]

Is your code compiled, and how many MDE's are you creating?

 

[keith_pyrasoft]

Hi Rich

Yes, the code is compiled and saved. I have the problem with only one mdb/mde, which happens to be my largest application.

 

[keith_pyrasoft]

Further attempts I have made are:

Decompiling, which seemed to me not to work properly on this database, because it gave an error on the first attempt, and then on a second try merely reported that it had converted Utility.mda, with no evident improvement or size reduction to my mdb.

I have downloaded the MS compact utility. Unfortunately, that gives the message 'Error compacting database'.

This is turnng into a frustrating one!

 

[Mile-O]

Have you also removed any pieces of code belonging to deleted objects?

If you have a textbox with some BeforeUpdate even and then delete the textbox - the code remains and won't let you compile until it is deleted.

 

[keith_pyrasoft]

Thanks for that one Mile-O-Phile .... I hadn't thought of that. I always try to be tidy when deleting objects, but it is very easy to leave code behind.

I shall start to look for orphaned code...... it's not going to be easy though!

And I'm still baffled by the sometimes will compile / sometimes will not effect.....

 

[keith_pyrasoft]

I finally got to the bottom of this one....

It was a self-inflicted problem, in a sense. The db affected was my oldest application, and contained references to Microsoft DAO 2.5/3.5 Compatibility Library and utility.mda. When I replaced these with Microsoft DAO 3.51 Object Library, my mde build problems went away, and I was now able to decompile. I am still at a loss, though, to know why sometimes the build worked, and sometimes it didn't......

Removing the reference to utility.mda produced another headache..... which I am posting as a new thread.

Thanks for the various ideas!

Keith