Some Vista PCs run mdb others don't

[JohnB]

Hi.

A group previously running one of my Access 2000 mdbs on Access 2002 within
XP have recently all been given 'identical' Vista machines. Each has both
Access XP (ie Access 2002) and Access 2007. All machines are networked and
the mdb is not Secured or split (yes, there's a good reason why).

After installation I was called and told that two of the machines work
perfectly as before but three others fail to load and crash.

When I went over, I saw that the working PCs were loading the mdb using
Access 2002 and the ones failing were trying to load using Access 2007. I was
able to force the failing machines to use Access 2002 as default but problem
is, when I try to open the mdb on these three machines, I get an error
message about an 'On Open Event' and when I click on the messages OK button,
the mdb doesn't load.

Any ideas why two PCs can load and run the mdb OK but the other three can't?
I don't believe that the message about the 'On Load' Event is pointing to a
real mdb problem, otherwise all machines would be getting it.

Also, if it helps, the mdb grew from around 45Mb to over 88Mb during the
upgrade - I plan to compact and repair it next week.

Thanks for any help

JohnB

 

[Roger Carlson]

Check the References in Access 2002 for the database on the machines that
failed. More than likely, they will have a reference to Access 14 rather
than Access 11. This is a known issue with running Access 2007 with another
version on a Vista machine. You'll probably need to reinstall (or repair)
Office 2002. (At least I did.)

See this link for further explanation and some workarounds:
http://allenbrowne.com/bug-17.html

--
--Roger Carlson
MS Access MVP
Access Database Samples: www.rogersaccesslibrary.com
Want answers to your Access questions in your Email?
Free subscription:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ACCESS-L

 

[Roger Carlson]

DANG IT! I meant Access 12 and Access 9 rather than Access 14 and 11.

 

[JohnB]

Thanks Roger.

I've read the link you gave.

Would it suffice for me to remove the reference to 12 in Access 2002 on the
faulty machines? I'm not sure if you meant something additional when you said
'repair'.

I believe that, unless they go out of their way to do otherwise, the users
will always open the mdb using Access 2002 from now on. That's why the
'good' machines have always worked - for some reason they chose to open using
2002 after the upgrade, whereas the others chose to open using 2007.

Thanks again, JohnB

 

[Roger Carlson]

There should be a "Repair" option in the Office XP setup program, which
returns the programs to their originally installed state.

--
--Roger Carlson
MS Access MVP
Access Database Samples: www.rogersaccesslibrary.com
Want answers to your Access questions in your Email?
Free subscription:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=ACCESS-L

 

[JohnB]

Thanks Roger, I'll look into that, although I'm not sure what options are
open to me to do that in a 'networked' setup ( I don't have permission, or
the require knowledge, to mess around with multi user applications).

I'll have further look at things next week and repost if I'm still stuck.

Many thanks for the help.

John B

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi John,

...or the require knowledge, to mess around with multi user applications).

Perhaps you will find this paper useful for multiuser Access applications:

Implementing a Successful Multiuser Access/JET Application
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/multiuser_applications.html


Good luck with trying to run 2007 and an earlier version, such as 2000, 2002
or 2003 on the same partition in Vista. One workaround for the references
problem is to install Virtual PC, but there may be licensing issues that you
need to work out for the Operating System that you choose to install for the
virtual machine.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[JohnB]

Hello again Tom.

I haven't been needed for database work for a few months, now this Vista
problem crops up.

Thanks for the advice and the link - I'll have a good look at that. I'm keen
to see if I can redo the references and 'Repair' Access 2002 and see if the
users can all work with Access 2002 as the default and not bother at all with
2007.

One thing that has surprised me is the relationship between references and
individual PCs. In my simple mind, I thought that PCs in a multi user
environment all made use of the same version of Access (say, 2002) or a
temporary copy of it, just as they do the mdb itself and that if one user
inadvertantly did something (like load up the mdb using Access 2007) then
Access 2002 would be 'screwed up' for all users. Of course that would be a
very silly thing to allow to happen, so I suppose I can see why it doesn't
work that way.

Thanks again, JohnB

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi John,

One thing that has surprised me is the relationship between references and
individual PCs. In my simple mind, I thought that PCs in a multi user
environment all made use of the same version of Access (say, 2002) or a
temporary copy of it, ....

This does not happen. You've just hit upon one of the reasons that splitting
a database, and loading a copy of the front-end (FE) on each user's local
hard drive is so important. When a user opens a database, Access "fixes up"
the references, especially including version specific references such as the
required reference to the Access Object Library (2nd from top in the list):

Microsoft Access {version} Object Library

If everyone is sharing a single copy, and they are not using the same
version of Access, the version of Access being used by the first person in
will have "fixed" this reference for their version of Access. Anyone else,
with a different version of Access, will be out of luck at least until
everyone closes the database. When each person is running their own copy of
the FE, then this automatic fixup of references is only happening to their
copy.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[JohnB]

Thanks, Tom.

I understand now. Thanks for the excellent explanation.

Cheers, JohnB

 

[Guest]

I'd reccomend moving to DreamWeaver and a LAMP server

Microsoft can't force feed you bloatware then!

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

All machines are networked and
the mdb is not Secured or split (yes, there's a good reason why).

And what is that good reason why the databases aren't split?

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/

 

[JohnB]

Hi Tony.

Sorry for this late reply.

Well, the mdb I've produced sits on a server some miles away and is accessed
via a restricted bandwidth microwave link. The mdb runs a bit slow at the
best of times but when I took a backup copy and split that using advice found
via this site, it ran ridiculously slow - e.g. some reports took 14 minutes
to appear.

At that point I gave up on the idea.

However, our network does take daily backups and in any case our site will
be closing in a years time and whoever takes the mdb over can split it then.

Cheers, JohnB

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Sorry for this late reply.

Not a prolem.

Well, the mdb I've produced sits on a server some miles away and is accessed
via a restricted bandwidth microwave link. The mdb runs a bit slow at the
best of times but when I took a backup copy and split that using advice found
via this site, it ran ridiculously slow - e.g. some reports took 14 minutes
to appear.

Yes, a slow link can cause a significant performance loss on a split MDB.. However
there are some things you can do to help out. Visit my Access Performance FAQ page
at http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/performancefaq.htm

As well as the first three or four items pay particular attention to shortening your
path to the BE MDB

Another atlternative would be Terminal Server or SQL Server.

I'm quite surpised you're not having wierd problems or corruption but if it's working
well, we can't argue with success. <smile>

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/

 

[JohnB]

Thanks for the info Tony. I'll spend some time studying that.

Yes, the database does seem to run pretty well (touch wood). I only had one
corruption problem, in the early days of development and was given some great
help by Tom Wickerath (I hope I've spelt his name correctly). He showed me
how to set up a new blank database with 'Track name autocorrect' turned off,
all the proper References and then copy accross all the Tables, Forms etc
which seemed to leave the corruption behind. Since then it's behaved
perfectly, if a little slowly at times.

Thanks again. JohnB