Why does app kick me out of Access???

[webmeister]

I wasn't sure if this is the right spot for the probelm I'm having, but....

In Access 2000, I have an application with a Report selection menu, from where you can choose one or several reports, key in a from-date / to-date range, select whether to preview or print and then click a command button that'll run the selected reports.

Each report iws based on a its own group of queries.

Until today, everything was running OK, but today, when a certain report is selected, an hourglass stays on the screen for an awfully long time, and then I'm tossed out of my application and tossed out of Access completely! There are no errors displayed, there is nothing displayed.

If anyone has a hint of an idea, I'd sure love to hear what's causing this strange behavior. Thank you to anyone or any group of people who might be able to shed light on this!!! I think I need medication!!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you have rights to do this on the machine in question, get to the Event Viewer, which is usually accessible from Control Panel >> Administrative Tools (and you might have to play around a bit more in that screen).

Note the time that you get kicked out and then look in System and Applications events (two separate sections) for events at that particular time. If anything shows up as an event, it might give you a clue as to what failed.

Another "gotcha" comes about if you have installed something else and it has a side-effect of changing a .DLL file you had referenced with Access. That "something else" could include automatic Windows update service. In the latter case, it is a broken reference.

 

[webmeister]

Doc Man,

Thanks for your reply! I'll give that a shot, but this strangeness happens on more than one computer, and nothing else has been installed recently.

I've never had something like this happen in the few years I've been "playing" with Access.

Thanks for writing back...it's appreciated.

 

[webmeister]

Doc Man,

no luck with looking into events, as you suggested. One other thing I noticed - when I get kicked out of Access, there is an .ldb file left over. Don't know if that's important to note or not, but I am slowly going insane!!
I checked my VBA code references and everything looks good there, too.

If you have any other ideas or thoughts, would you be so kind as to toss them my way?

Thanks!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

From the description, this could be a network timeout. (The hourglass is one indication that suggests "trying and failing to get data".) If it is on a shared drive, then maybe you are having a network issue.

Can you see the shared drive via normal browsing?

Can you ask the admin of the file server if s/he can look at file locks on the particular file to see if a problem has locked up a parent folder to the database in question?

 

[webmeister]

Hi, Doc Man,

Yes, I can and will ask my network guy to scope out a couple of things, like you suggested.

However, even when I have copied the app to my hard drive, I get the same dang thing. I can see and "play" with my tables, with my queries, with my macros and with my forms, but when I try to even edit the report in question, the hourglass shows and then I get tossed out. That's what's crazy. A report can cause this kind of grief????? Oy!!

Thanks again..... Keep your ideas coming - they're appreciated!

 

[jkl0]

Possibly a printer problem?
(Report was based on a specific printer)
or
Adobe was installed recently? (Has been known to cause problems with Access)

 

[boblarson]

Could just be a corrupt report. Try importing that report into a blank database and delete it from the main database. Then try importing back. Or, just try importing all of your items back into a new db. And one last item - it's possible some unfinished code on that report (either intended code or a leftover from a control that was deleted) is causing a compile issue. You may have to just delete that report and try over from scratch.

 

[webmeister]

jklo,

I'm looking into printer issues as we speak, but thanks for the thought and the heads up.

boblarson,

I don't really think it's the code, because all was well with this darned application as of this last Friday. The other irritant is that I can edit some of my reports, but can't edit all of them. That's what's getting me. In other words I have recently discovered that it's not just one report in my app...it's several of the reports I created.

In any case thanks to both of you for responding with your ideas - I appreciate it. Maybe I'll just pull a gun and either shoot the ap or shoot myself.

 

[boblarson]

I've run into this issue before- with a corrupt Db and also with code I added, of which didn't appear on the surface to be related to the report that had a problem. I highly suspect that your Db is either partially, or fully, corrupt. I would import all objects, except that first report that was having a problem, into a blank Db.

 

[webmeister]

Boblarson,

Thanks for your latest reply..... I'll give your suggestion a shot tomorrow, since it's now time for me to call it a day. I'll give you a heads up and let you know what happens as soon as I can tomorrow.

Thanks for your suggestions and help. I appreciate it!

 

[webmeister]

Hi again to Doc Man, jklo and boblarson!!

I am still having the same #$$#@ problem as I encountered yesterday. I've tried switching from Access 2000 to Access 2003, I tried restoring my database from week-old backups, but still.... DOA.

One thing I noticed.... when I get kicked out of Access, my application also leaves behind an .ldb file, which isn't the normal way of things.

In any case, I've got a zip of my database, which is too large to attach here; if anyone would be willing to take a look at it, PM me with your e-mail address or other mechanism and I'll forward the @#$% database to you.

Thanks at least a million!! I look forward to what you have to say

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you have a .LDB file then Access aborted. There is something toxic about that specific report - particularly if it doesn't matter where it runs. While it seems that you have been grasping at straws here, there is some positive information flow.

1. Not specific to one machine.
2. Not changed by local/network venue
3. Ac2k and Ac2k3 both see the problem.
4. References appear good
5. LDB gets left behind.
6. Unable to edit the report, much less open it.

This smells to high heaven of a corrupted file. Some folks have a file verification utility that tests whether every block of the file is readable. Not everyone has one of these, though. If YOU have one, use it on the MDB to see if the file is corrupted.

Try to do a repair on the MDB file. But not from the inside. Do it from the outside. Take a copy of the DB to a local directory. Open Access without specifying a file. Using the Tools menu, choose to repair a database. DO NOT open the database first. Make the repair code be the thing that opens the database. See if it repairs the problem or barfs.

 

[webmeister]

To all,

It was the printers!! When I brought a copy of the application home and tried it, it squawked about not having its assigned printer, so I changed it to my at home printer and all worked! I then brought it back to work, removed my network printers, installed a totally different printer and it again worked.

At that point, I re-installed my regualr network printers (which had been upgraded a week ago) and again tried the application and lo and behold, it again worked!!

What a pain in the a-- !!! Wouldn't you think Microsoft would have been able to head off something like this after all the years that Access has been on the market?!?!?!?!?!

Thanks for all of your ideas, help and suggestions! You don't know how much I appreciate it.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Printers get you quite frequently. It tells me that the printer that was chosen as the default for the machines exhibiting the problem was no longer connected or was otherwise malfunctioning.

The problem is that anything that is printable (and what, in Access, isn't?) must be defined / generated for a specific printer. What Access wanted was the conversion factor that would allow it to convert TWIPS (an Access size unit) to printer dots (a physical size unit). Without a proper connection to the device - particularly if it is a remote printer - you are stuck.