Losing my references ... or my mind?

[tcace]

I have an app built in Access 97 with references to Word 97 and Excel 97. For some XP users, some random piece will suddenly stop working that has worked fine for many months (about 18).

The only common link we can see is Windows XP. It has not happened with users running Office XP in Windows 2000 or any other combination of earlied versions.

I found the “fix” – resetting the references. Open a module, uncheck a reference (doesn’t matter which) then recheck that reference. This is turning out to be the penicillin of fixes but it can’t be done on machines that have Access Runtime and makes a distributed application very unprofessional.

I would like to know if anybody can shed some light on the CAUSE of this problem, as I would rather fix the cause then continue to fix the symptoms.



Here's the detailed description:

I have an app built in Access 97 with references to Word 97 and Excel 97. This is because the network where it is used had all manner of software versions ranging from 97 to 03 (Office versions 8 through 11) and Windows NT 3.5 through XP. The only thing they all have in common is Access 97 and the latest sp’s for Jet and DAO. This is primarily for reasons of cost as it is expensive to update ALL of your software every couple of years and hard to justify that cost when the software you have meets your needs.

What Microsoft claims is “backwards compatibility” – what they don’t tell you is that if the PC running the software is newer by 2 versions, it reassigns the references to the newer version. In other words, a user with Office 2000 (version 9) can open the MDB and it’s fine. A user with Office XP (version 10) opens the MDB and it reassigns Word and Excel references to version 10, which is fine for XP users, but now it won’t run for those with 97 and 2K.

To cope with the variety of front-end software versions, I devised a “front gate” in VB that will copy the FE to the user’s temp directory (this was also a nice improvement to performance and made the FE real easy to update – update the network version and have all users exit and reopen).

The problem is with the Windows XP users. From time to time, something will suddenly stop working right – a function will fail in a query, a control reference will suddenly not be found in a collection, and similar “quirks” where something that has worked fine for many months (about 18) suddenly fails. It occurs sporadically, and on certain XP machines but not others. The only common link we can see is that so far, it’s only happening in Windows XP. It has not happened with users running Office XP in Windows 2000 or any other combination.

As near as we can tell, the setup is identical on every XP machine – right down to software patches and service packs, user profiles and setup, etc.

After some late nights and a little more grey hair, I found the “fix” – resetting the references. Open a module, uncheck a reference (doesn’t matter which) then recheck that reference. This is turning out to be the penicillin of fixes but it can’t be done on machines that have Access Runtime.

I would like to know if anybody can shed some light on the CAUSE of this problem, as I would rather fix the cause then continue to fix the symptoms.

Any ideas?

 

[PHV]

No automatic Windows Update on the WinXp boxes ?

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[Hap007]

Dear Tcace,

You can set your references using VBA Code

That way, the runtime version will work.

Here is a sample from mvps.org that shows how to do this:

http://www.mvps.org/access/modules/mdl0022.htm

Good Luck,
Hap


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