Access 2002 vs. 2003 stability

[Nick Mirro]

This may be my own problem, but in Access 2002, I find the program
frequently crashes. Its not limited to any particular db. Additionally, I
get out of memory errors, and "Access must shut down" at least 10 times a
week.

Access 2000 rarely did this. I would happily upgrade to 2003 if there were
some indication of an increase in stability. No mention of stability at the
products page at MS.

Does anyone else end up with copies of "database_backup2 ...
database_backup23.mdb" when using 2002, or is this just me?

Are there issues I'm unaware of that have been addressed in the new version?
(someone PLEASE say yes!)

Nick

 

[Cheryl Fischer]

My personal experience only ... I have found Access 2002 to be much more
stable than 2000. Running it on Win XP Pro.

 

[Paul Overway]

2002 has been very stable for me. I've never had a crash.

IMO, they created more issues than they resolved for 2003. Not worth the
upgrade.

 

[Nick Mirro]

I'm using WindowsXPpro and have been getting this error in the event viewer.
The link to the MS site brings up nothing. Any idea where to start
troubleshooting this?


Faulting application msaccess.exe, version 10.0.4302.0, faulting module
msaccess.exe,
version 10.0.4302.0, fault address 0x001a14c4.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

This may be my own problem, but in Access 2002, I find the program
frequently crashes. Its not limited to any particular db.
Additionally, I get out of memory errors, and "Access must shut down"
at least 10 times a week.

Access 2000 rarely did this. I would happily upgrade to 2003 if
there were some indication of an increase in stability. No mention
of stability at the products page at MS.

Does anyone else end up with copies of "database_backup2 ...
database_backup23.mdb" when using 2002, or is this just me?

Are there issues I'm unaware of that have been addressed in the new
version? (someone PLEASE say yes!)

I don't have any personal knowledge of A2003 yet, so I'll leave that to
others to comment on. But if you are having those kinds of errorswith
Access 2002, at that volume, something is wrong. It is not normal. If
I were you, I'd try to figure out what's wrong before deciding whether
or not to upgrade to 2003.

Here are some things you can check, any of which might have something to
do with your problems:

Flaky hardware
----------------
+ Run a memory test and make sure all your RAM is in good condition.

+ If you're networked, make sure your network cards are good, and make
sure your network is configured properly. Beware the dread "OpLocks"
problem with networked databases.

Flaky device drivers
--------------------
+ Access has been known t be sensitive to bad video drivers. If you
don't have the latest video driver for your graphics hardware and OS,
get the latest one and see if installing it helps. Be sure you can
reinstall the old one if the new driver doesn't work properly.

Unapplied Service Packs
-------------------------
+ Make sure you've applied the latest service packs for Access and
Jet -- except I'm not sure about Jet 4.0 SP8 yet. It's new, and there
may be a few "issues" to do with it. I'd google the Access newsgroups
for more information about it, just in case.

Damaged installation of Access/Office
--------------------------------------
+ Try a Detect and Repair on your installation of Access/Office XP. You
could even try uninstalling and reinstalling, but of course then you'd
have to apply those #$%^&* service packs all over again.

Unsafe Development Practices
-------------------------------
+ It seems to be a dangerous business to edit the code behind a form or
report while that form or report is open in other than design view. I
don't know if this caveat applies to A2K2 as must as A2K, but if you do
this a lot you're probably running a severe risk of corrupting your code
project. Open objects in design view if you want to modify their code.


I don't know if any of these fault points applies to you, but that's all
I can think of offhand. If you're experiencing frequent database
corruption, see Tony Toews' Corrupt MDBs FAQ page for more things to
look at:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/corruptmdbs.htm

The problems you are experiencing are not common with Access 2002, and
you shouldn't expect to have to tolerate them. Good luck!

 

[Fritz Anton]

Nick,

I've just upgraded from Office XP to Office 2003. WinWord, Excel, FrontPage
appear to work flawlessly. Access 2003 had a few nasty surprises up its
sleeve:
- a (general) error message forced me to confirm 3 (three!) times that yes,
I did want to open my own database and yes, I did want to use the macros I
have written myself. Installing Jet 4.0 SP8 AND lowering the safety level
for my own macros solved this problem.
- Access 2003 displayed a number of (specific) errors: I was told that I did
not have the necessary licence to use an ActiveX-item (the funny part is
that it was a standard tickbox from the toolbox from MS Access) and that I
should contact the supplier of the ActiveX element (that's almost funnier
still!). For no apparent reason, the program denied execution of rather
simple routines like setting the property "visible" of a control element in
a form, telling me that this element (an ordinary textbox from MS's toolbox,
needless to say) did not (no longer?) have such a property as "visible"
applicable to it.
- A contribution by a MS expert somewhere in this newsgroup indicates that
the latter errors (denial of execution of hitherto smooth macros) has to do
with the new Jet sandbox mode. Now we have a sandbox where we can play with
the toolbox ...

I managed to overcome all of these and other problems by creating a new
database in Access 2003 and importing all elements from the sick database,
by rewriting some of the macros / code and by miracle - where things
suddenly worked again as they used to.
My general and not very professional observation is that Access 2003 has
become much more time-critical in running code and macros and that little
"tricks", which 2000 and XP tolerated are treated more rigorously.

Fritz

 

[Brendan Reynolds \(MVP\)]

I did have some initial teething problems with Access 2002, but once I had
installed all the service releases and patches, both for Office and for
Windows, and updated some of my device drivers, the problems were resolved,
and I found Access 2002 considerably more stable than Access 2000.

If you haven't already done so, check the Windows Update and Office Update
sites, and also check for new versions of your device drivers - one of my
most persistent problems, where Access 2002 used to crash when I previewed
reports, was fixed by installing a newer version of the printer driver.

 

[Rolls]

I've found crashes in Office97 and later to be extremely rare running NT-4
or XP OSs and applying SP's and fixes. 128 or 256 MB ram. Skipped Win-2K.
Skipped Office 2002. Usually an operator malfunction <ggg> causes crashes.
Sometimes network problems contribute.

More problems with Web Apps, but few if any with desktop apps.