Access 2003: all mdbs crash when running "Compact and Repair"

[figaro]

Hi:

My problem is that when I try to compact any database using
Tools/Database Utilities/Company and Repair Database, Access crashes.

I'm running Access 2003 SP3 on Vista SP1. I'm up-to-date with all
patches posted to Microsoft Update.

I've seen some posts about similar problems and what is usually
recommended is to copy all objects into a new database. This hasn't
helped me. In fact Access crashes when attempting to compact a brand
new, empty mdb.

These steps in Access 2003 produce a crash every time:

File
New
Blank Database
(name database and then click) Create
Tools
Database Utilities
Compact and Repair Database

This brings up a Vista error dialog "Microsoft Office Access has
stopped working. Windows is checking for a solution to the problem"
(but of course never finds one). The error report contains:

Problem: Stopped working
Problem Signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: MSACCESS.EXE
Application Version: 11.0.8166.0
Application Timestamp: 46437912
Fault Module Name: StackHash_babb
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000b015d
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: babb
Additional Information 2: bc9a90e7ae14ed823839ded297bea405
Additional Information 3: 3e51
Additional Information 4: e7f67da3e64ed25d804c7407b5a9d1f5

Does anyone have knowledge about this type of problem? Any info will
be much appreciated. TIA

John

 

[Pete D.]

Make sure you have the lates office SP updates and Vista, make sure personal
have access to the directories it is in and make sure there isn't a file
with same name and the extension of bak that they cannot delete. Also
review where you can store files in vista from the MS web site, if it isn't
in the user directories Vista won't allow them to work with it.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Thanks for reducing the problem down to running it from a clean, just
created MDB. Now we know it's nothing you did inside an MDB.

Fault Module Name: StackHash_babb

Congratulations. You're one of three people on the Internet who have
had this problem. Don't you feel special. <wry grin>

One possible solution mentioned was to run Access as an administrator.
Create a desktop shortcut pointing to msaccess.exe, right click and
change the settings to run as administrator and see if that helps.

Another possible solution is to uninstall Access and reinstall it.

Lastly I'd try calling Microsoft Technical Support. The trouble is
they might want to whack you a few hundred $$$s for a support call.
I'm not quite sure how to get around that request other than to
suggest you talk to the initial person nicely. Hopefully they will
recognize that this isn't your problem but a setup/install type of
problem.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Also if nothing else works email me directly at tony at granite dot ab
dot ca and I'll forward your email address off to Microsoft. I should
be able to get them to support you in some way.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[figaro]

Thanks for reducing the problem down to running it from a clean, just
created MDB. Now we know it's nothing you did inside an MDB.


Congratulations. You're one of three people on the Internet who have
had this problem. Don't you feel special. <wry grin>

One possible solution mentioned was to run Access as an administrator.
Create a desktop shortcut pointing to msaccess.exe, right click and
change the settings to run as administrator and see if that helps.

Another possible solution is to uninstall Access and reinstall it.

Lastly I'd try calling Microsoft Technical Support. The trouble is
they might want to whack you a few hundred $$$s for a support call.
I'm not quite sure how to get around that request other than to
suggest you talk to the initial person nicely. Hopefully they will
recognize that this isn't your problem but a setup/install type of
problem.

Tony

Tony:

Thanks for your reply. Here are a few more bits of info:

- Running as administrator doesn't affect the problem. (Actually that
was the first thing I tried -- having lived with Vista for a while now
that's part of every troubleshooting task.)

- As you suggested I uninstalled Access and reinstalled. No relief.

- I can't afford to call Microsoft. I'm disabled and on social
security.

- This may or may not be relevant: I upgraded Windows XP to Vista
Home Premium, and then bought the upgrade to Ultimate a few months
later. After the Ultimate upgrade I had some rights-related problems,
primarily Windows Update failing. I opened a support incident with
MS. They sent me a utility "subinacl.msi" with instructions to run it
as follows:

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=system=f

This fixed Windows Update. I cannot be sure however that the Access
compact and repair failure is related to the Ultimate upgrade. I have
my databases set to compact on close, which seems to allow compact to
work and doesn't generate an error. It was only when I happened to
compact an MDB manually a few weeks ago that I discovered the problem.

Thanks again for replying and for any additional suggestions you may
have.

John