Access 97 closing with error

[nashcom]

I’ve inherited a critical Access 97 database/application, and it’s starting to play up. The main database sits on an NT4 server, and there are two client PCs which access it. They run Windows XP Pro, and have Access97 installed (alongside Office 2002). On the PCs there is a MDB file and an MDE file. I’m not exactly sure how it links together, but obviously there’s a client front-end which pulls data from the main database on the server.

On the front-end there’s a button which allows the user to produce a preview of a report. This works fine, and the report is displayed on the screen. On the report viewer menu bar there’s an icon which says, ‘OfficeLinks’ which has a ‘W’ (for Microsoft Word). Normally the user will click on this and the report gets exported into Word where it can be edited etc. Now, when the users click on this icon, it often displays an error message along the lines of, “Microsoft Access has encountered a problem and needs to close”, and then it bombs out. It doesn’t do this all the time, but it’s pretty frequent, and as you imagine, it must be pretty frustrating for the users.

I’ve tried restoring an old copy of the client MDE and MDB files, but that doesn’t seem to make any long term difference. I also downloaded a Microsoft Jet Compact utility and ran that against the client and server databases, but apart from reducing the client database from 43MB to 3MB it didn’t seem to make any difference.

The error message is so vague that I have no idea what might be causing it. I don’t really know enough about Access either, so I’m not sure if it’s a database corruption (how to tell if it is, and then recover from it).

One of the client PCs is relatively new, but I did reconnect that user’s old computer, and that seems to be suffering from the same problem.

I’d really appreciate some help with identifying and fixing this problem.

Thanks

David

 

[alvechurchdata]

Is there any reason why you can't update the database to Access 2002? I always have problems running components of different versions of Office together. They can be overcome but then some user will install another mismatched program like Visio 2002 or FrontPage 2002 and the problems start again.

If it's an MDE file then you're going to have to rebuild that in 2002. Do you have the original Access 97 mdb file or is it something that was bought in?

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[nashcom]

I've found an old book which describes upgrading to 2002. However, it says it's not possible to upgrade Access 97 MDE files. I'm not sure how the MDE is created. I have an MDB file on the client computers, and also the main one on the server. Is the MDE effectively a 'compiled' version of the client MDB file, or would it have been created some other way?

 

[alvechurchdata]

Is the MDE effectively a 'compiled' version of the client MDB file, or would it have been created some other way?

It's not quite "compiled" but that's the general idea. There's a "Make MDE file..." option under "Database Utilities" on the "Tools" menu. Users can run an MDE file but they can't get in to modify the design of forms or code.

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[nashcom]

Thanks, Geoff. Is there a way to 'uncompile' an MDE file? I'm not sure where to look for the original file which it sounds like I'd need in order to remake the MDE in 2002 format.

 

[lameid]

Two thoughts... First to find the mdb...

If your file is named Database.Mde, look for Datbase.mdb.

Only cruel people actually change the root file name although most will put it in a secure directory where the average user can't find it. Start by searching for it on your server as admin... If that is a bust try looking for all mdb's and seeing if any match. Both especially the latter can be dubious in the event there were updates not saved to the server for some reason... If you know WHO was the developer and WHEN he had a particular machine, you might check that too.

Secondly, the actual error itself reminds me of a problem I once had...

I could not get an access report to export for some datasets... So when I hit the error, I started deleting controls of the report to identify the field. In that particular report there was some sort of status code that was particularly wide. I think M vs say some other letter that is narrower in truetype fonts.

The solution was to make the control slightly wider and it would export. I'm not sure that was the error but it seems about right.

 

[lameid]

Another thought, even if you can't find the MDB file, you may be able to modify the report within the MDE. Especially since you are not an accomplished Access developer, make backups before you do anything.

You may be able to design the report and make changes. MDE's only hide the VBA code. If you can't make changes, this is Access security. The developer used and MDW or workgroup file that is a little like the NT SAM database... You still need to authenticate against it and it gives you access to credentials (but the SAM is a lot more secure).

The default mdw file is the System.MDW. That is not to say your developer didn't add accounts to it or name his that, just that you should expect to find them on local machines. Check the file size if you are suspicious it may be useful against other versions... if it is the same to the byte, probably not your suspect.