Access Startup Speed Degradation

[Ray]

Access 2000
WinXP-sp2
3ghz processor
Ample Drive Space
1 gig ram

After the inital install - Access will start in 3-5 seconds....
A specific application is started, run, and closed multiple times by
multiple people each day as part of a production environment on a
specific machine (Yes - there are multiple users - but not
simultaneous multi user and Access is installed locally on this
machine.)

After a couple of months, the application was noticeably slower -
taking 20 seconds or longer to start. The database was repaired and
compacted, the machine defragged, most of the normal stuff you would
do for a slow application/machine. It was then discovered that if you
opened Access alone (no database) it still took 20+ seconds to open.
So we uninstalled and reinstalled Access. No Change!

We discovered that any other user (using a different profile on the
same machine) would run fast. So we backed up the desktop and
documents folders, deleted the profile, recreated it, and restored
the desktop items and documents. Voila! Back to 3 seconds to start.

We have been having to do this roughly every 2-3 months to keep
startup time quick. Does anyone have a clue what would cause this?

Thanks in advance for any information, and a second thanks for
bothering to read all of this....

Ray

Not wanting to cross post everywhere - I am putting this in
GettingStarted and SetupConfig. If you think there might be another
group that would be better suited to answer this type of question -
I'd appreciate a heads up...

Thanks again!

 

[Jerry Whittle]

Do you reboot the computer(s) frequently? Back in the day, opening and
closing the same app over and over ate up memory. A reboot regained the lost
memory. Check Task Manager to make sure that you aren't low on memory when
things slow down.

Speaking of memory leaks and "back in the day", make sure that you are
closing any recordsets opened in code with something like below:
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
db.Close
Set db = Nothing

Also while in Task Manager make sure that there aren't multiple versions of
the same app running. It might not be closing cleanly.

Do all users of the database must have at least read, write, and modify
privileges to the folder holding the database file. Not just the database
..mdb file, but the entire folder.

Try turning off the virus checker for testing purposes. If things speed up,
exclude scanning of .md* files.

 

[Ray]

Great Ideas! Most of which we have checked at one point or another.

I realized I didn't make this real clear the first time. The when the
machine is booted, the operators log in as a "Genric User" - let's
just say "Bob"... This is a community workstation, so even though
there are multiple people - as far as the computer is concerned -
there is only 1 user - Bob.

There are other profiles - and if you log out as Bob and in as any of
them - you immediately go back to the 5 second startup time. Log out
of that probile and back in as Bob, and you're right back to 20
seconds... All with no reboots...

We have tried to reboot and immediately start Access, and the startup
speed has not noticably improved.

We should try the virus checker - I'm not sure we've done that yet. I
know I haven't.

The puzzling thing to us is that the same Access.exe and same mdb file
will improve from 20 sec to 5 sec just by deleting the profile and
adding it back... Even without rebooting. Then after 3 months, it
will have slowed back to 20 sec. So something is changing.. and it
seems logical to think that it's changing somewhere within that
profile... we just haven't figured it out.

We're getting ready to run FileMon as see if there is something being
accessed that we weren't aware of. I've delt with various pesky
problems before - and usually the biggest issue with them is that they
aren't consistant. This one is completely consistant - and
predictable. Hence the frustration!!

Thanks
Ray

 

[Jerry Whittle]

"Bob" might be running different or more programs than the other users.

"Bob" might be running some spyware if "Bob" also surfs the web. Do you have
a good spyware checker like Ad Aware or SpyBot?

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I realized I didn't make this real clear the first time. The when the
machine is booted, the operators log in as a "Genric User" - let's
just say "Bob"... This is a community workstation, so even though
there are multiple people - as far as the computer is concerned -
there is only 1 user - Bob.

Any idea how big the profile gets?

Does any other program, such as say Word or Excel, also slow down on
startup when Access starts up?

This is an interesting 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/

 

[Ray]

Hmmm...
I don't really have an answer for this... With the way this computer
is being utilized, I don't think Word or Excel is being used. As far
as profile size goes.. no... I don't know - but I really didn't
realize I needed to watch it. The first time this happened, the
profile was deleted as an act of despiration. The next time, it was
almost the same - if it worked the previous time - why not. This last
time, it was the first thing tried ... now we're hunting the real
source of the problem ... we're just going to have to wait a couple of
months for it to happen again.


On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:05:35 -0600, "Tony Toews [MVP]"

Any idea how big the profile gets?

Does any other program, such as say Word or Excel, also slow down on
startup when Access starts up?

This is an interesting 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/