Access hidden activities

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hans Kemper
  • Start date Start date
H

Hans Kemper

I have an application with several forms and subforms running under Access
2003.
A client from me want to use it now with Access2000.
The strange thing is that, though the application runs perfectly with Access
2003, it doesn't with Access2000.
Every time I add a record in a popup form once, the second time I want to
change, delete or add a record, the software doesn't stop when opening the
popup form. It seems that code is still running. With a code break I can
interrupt executing but I don't see any code stop (yellow line)
After this happening, a lot of things are rather strange in Access. I cannot
open some of the tables. I cannot close some of the forms that are in design
mode. I cannot run any Docmd command because the system says that it is busy
with calculations or other activitities. I cannot start the autoexec macro
because of the same reason. When I close the Access window, the VB window
stays open and I have to end execution of Access and VB with the
taskmanager.
I have this problem since a few months, so I did spent quite some time to
solve this. Here is what I did among other things.

Decompile the application (no result),
Copy all objects in a new database (name correction disabled) (no result)
Check all software for 'object close' and 'set to nothing' (no result)
Build a tracer to check subroutine call levels. All opened functions and
subs are left normaly. (no result)
Tested all queries that are executed form software. They all execute and end
normaly. (no result)
Did execute all software step by step to find out where things go wrong. No
errors, no unexpected calls or events (no result)
Disabled all error handling. I got no error messages. All software runs
without exceptions occuring.

Access still gives me a message that it is busy with calculations or other
activities and doesn't work properly. I cannot find out what these
activities are, who or what did initiate them, and how to stop them.

Is there anyone who can help me with this problem?
Is there anyone who had the same problems?
How can I find out what calculation Access is performing?
How can I stop these activities?
Is there a workaround for this problem?

Many thanks for your responses

Hans Kemper
The Netherlands
 
Hi Hans

The significant clue amongst all this is that the Status Bar (I presume)
constantly says, "Calculating..." and so Access is busy doing something. If
you can prevent that, you may be able to solve the problem. You are
therefore looking to break this issue down until you have pinpointed the
culprit.

If you have any conditional formatting on this form, try removing it. There
were known issues with this in A2000, and I think some of them have been
addressed in A2003, so that could account for the difference. More info:
http://allenbrowne.com/bug-05.html

If that does not solve the problem, start removing other things from the
form, until it behaves correctly. For example, remove subforms and
calculated controls. These could also contribute to the issue. Ensuring Name
AutoCorrect is still off, compact to really get rid of what you removed, and
see if you can pin down the point at which the error ceases. Use the
"divide-and-conquor" approach, i.e. remove half the stuff, then halve that,
and halve that, until you have identified the culprit.

The things you have tried make perfect sense, and you must be quite
frustrated with this. Hopefully that gives you a useful pointer.
 
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