Access starts and loads database - but can't open anything!

[PeteM]

Note: No other issues exist with either PC mentioned in the following scenario.
Both PCs run Windows XP SP3 and MS Access 2000.



Database used to work fine.
Then had error saying "Cannot Open - Another User has access" (or something like that).
Tried the following:

1) Deleting .ldb file - still get error

2) Copy database to different directory (and even different computer) - still get error

3) Create new database on original PC :
3a - Create Table in Design View
3b - Save and Close Table
3c - Attempt re-open Table - Nothing! No errors, just nothing happens! (program starts and loads database but Table won't open)!


4) Uninstalled / Re-installed MS Access 2000 - still nothing happens when try re-open Table.

5) Ran 'Free Windows Registry Checker 2.5' - Still nothing!


Any ideas what to try next please?
Thank you.

[ssanfu]

This MDB has just one table? Have you done a "Compact and Repair" on the MDB?

Maybe zip it, then post as an attachment so we can look at it?

[PeteM]

Hi :-) Thanx for reply.

Yeah did try the Compact and Repair option on original database, but no change to the errors.

However the original database did eventually 'open' on the another PC, but showed corruption and eventually hung the PC!
So need to throw that database away and start again.

This still leaves the issue that creating a new database, creating a simple Table, saving and closing - Then re-opening database, and double click on Table, still absolutely nothing happens!

My thoughts are that the registry is corrupted somewhere maybe?

[rpeare]

There are other products (free) out there that can fix (or attempt to fix) bad database files. I'd look for those as well before you just throw out your existing database.

Deleting the .ldb file will do nothing for you when sharing a database. If you are going to have more than 1 concurrent user it's best to split your database into a front end/back end and give each user their own copy of the front end of the database. This avoids all kinds of headaches with exclusivity when opening a database.

I guess my question would be what did you do on your network recently that started making your database fail? Did you install a new service pack? Some other windows update? new security software? something?

It seems odd to me that it would just start failing. I've never encountered the error of not being able to open a table at all.

[PeteM]

Hi :-) Thanx for reply. I've been ill for last week or so and unable to respond.

I am not actually trying to use the two PCs on a network, or allow multi-user access what-so-ever.
I merely used a second PC to troubleshoot, by trying to open the faulty database, and to create a new one.
The second PC runs access quite happily and will create and re-open a new database. So no problem there.

The main problem is that the first PC runs completely independently and needs to be able to create and re-open a new database, as it actually lives in a different physical location to me, and will not be used by me, once it works ok.

I am quite happy to throw the original database away and start again, since it is, at present, a simple single table and doesn't have a vast amount of data, so will be straight-forward to recreate once I can get the first PC to allow creation of a new database and actually re-open it afterwards!

So the issue really now is that creating a new database, creating a simple Table, saving and closing - Then re-opening database, and double click on Table, still absolutely nothing happens!

I have Uninstalled / Re-installed MS Access 2000 - still nothing happens when try re-open Table.

I ran 'Free Windows Registry Checker 2.5 - still no joy.

As mentioned, my thoughts are that the registry is corrupted somewhere maybe?

Thanks again for any help and ideas.

[rpeare]

Try uninstalling/re-installing access on that machine. I really don't know what else to tell you as I've never encountered this problem.

[PeteM]

Hi again
Thanks but I have tried the reinstall MS Access option - no change at all!
Maybe will have to re-install XP !!!
Seems a bit harsh though as everything else works ok on the PC!
Cheers

[rpeare]

Reinstalling XP won't do anything for you.