All DB's Crashing on One Computer

[J. Trucking]

Hello,

I am having a slight problem. Every DB I have on one computer keeps
crashing. I open it up and they will stay opened up until code has to
run and then I get the standard "Microsoft has encountered a problem
and must now shut down.....would you like to send a message to them"
box and then access quits. I can force this to happen if I click on
the "Code" icon along the top of the toolbar on the access main
screen. Does anyone know why this would happen to ALL db's opened
(including the Northwind DB). Here is the story on the computer:

I have a dell laptop to which the video card failed. I ordered a used
one off the net and installed it on my computer. Everything now works
great. I also re-installed the OS and Microsoft Office (Office XP).
This is a networked computer. Some of the things I have done are:

1. Reinstall Office
2. Get the latest Video Drivers
3. Get the latest office updates.
4. Put the DB's on the local drive and try and open them
5. Put the DB's on the server and try and open them

All of these things have failed to work. I have heard this could be a
"video card" issue but I'm not even sure about how I would run a check
on the video card. Anyone have this problem before? I also heard
that it could be a permissions issue on the network but I have checked
the permissions (as much as I know to look for) and everything seems
fine. Am I missing some critical update? Should I try throwing the
laptop against the wall ?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

A bad video card is a distinct possibility. The easiest way to check is to
switch it out with one from a similar computer. Often modern video cards are
integrated into the motherboard, and those cannot be checked except by a
well-equipped service center. A decent video card is about $50 and a really
good one is about a $100, so I'd just replace it.

 

[SusanV]

If the video is integral to the board, you can disable it in the bios and
add a PCI or AGP card.

 

[Guest]

Should I try throwing the laptop against the wall

That might be the easiest choice. After trashing the laptop, buy a new one.

Uninstalling Office can be very difficult and if what doesn't unistall the
problem, you wind up with the same problem. In fact you might be able to find
a tool on MS's web site that does a better job of uninstalling Office.

 

[Keith Willcocks]

Not necessarily that easy on a laptop.

 

[SusanV]

Doh! Ya think? I totally missed that this was a laptop.
<crawls under rock>

 

[J. Trucking]

Thanks for the responses.

I know this probably isnt the right forum to do this in, but here's
what I did with the video card. Dell wanted more money for a new
video card than a new laptop so I bought one used from EBay. I put
the laptop back together and everything looked fine (picture wise)
when I booted up. In terms of software, all I did was check for the
latest video driver from Dell's site, and installed it. Is there
anything else I can do???

John

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

If you are sure that you have the exact same card as the one that came with
the computer, try using the driver that came with the original machine.

One might also try reseating the video card and cleaning all the contacts
(gently) with a pencil eraser. Be sure to blow out any dust or eraser
residue. The eBay card may unfortunately be going bad also.

One other thing, if you have more than 1 stick of RAM, try reversing them,
also gently cleaning contacts with an eraser. Laptops undergo more heat and
frequently things fail quicker than well cooled desktop machines.

 

[J. Trucking]

Thanks for the response. Interesting about the RAM. I wouldn't even
think to check that. I guess I am still wondering....my display on my
screen looks great still. Does the "crashing" of access come as an
early sign of failure? In response to your question, the new video
card is exactly the same as the old one. Thanks again for the help.

John

 

[David W. Fenton]

A bad video card is a distinct possibility. The easiest way to
check is to switch it out with one from a similar computer.

Or bad video driver. You can switch to a generic driver and see if
it makes a difference.

 

[J. Trucking]

A generic driver? Where would I find that (you'll have to excuse
me... I usually dont reinstall a lot of drivers)? Thanks for the help
everyone. Would it be a bad video card even though I can see
everything on the screen just fine? Even windows media player plays
videos pretty good.

Thanks,

John

 

[David W. Fenton]

A generic driver? Where would I find that (you'll have to excuse
me... I usually dont reinstall a lot of drivers)? Thanks for the
help everyone. Would it be a bad video card even though I can see
everything on the screen just fine? Even windows media player
plays videos pretty good.

I guess I haven't done too much video troubleshooting lately,
because it's not really possible to do this on NT-based Windows, it
seems. There used to be generic VGA drivers, but I don't see them
anywhere on my system to install.

If you know your video cards base chipset, you might try installing
a compatible driver, but that's as likely to cause problems as solve
them!

 

[J. Trucking]

Well I think I may have found the problem (or at least the start of
it). When I right click on the desktop go to Properties-Settings,
under the display drop down menu, there are two video cards listed but
are the same thing: "Multiple Monitors on Mobility Radeon 7500". One
of them has resolutions of 800x600 and 1024x768. This is the one that
I am forced to choose (even if I click on the other one and hit okay,
nothing will change). The other video card listing has resolutions of
640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200. I am not sure
how I got two video cards listed and why I cant choose the one. I
remember that before I switched the video card that the max resolution
that I could use was 1024x768. I know that this is getting off topic
from Access, so if I should not be posting this here, please let me
know what would be a good group to post to. Thanks again for
everyones help.

John

 

[David W. Fenton]

Well I think I may have found the problem (or at least the start
of it). When I right click on the desktop go to
Properties-Settings, under the display drop down menu, there are
two video cards listed but are the same thing: "Multiple Monitors
on Mobility Radeon 7500". One of them has resolutions of 800x600
and 1024x768. This is the one that I am forced to choose (even if
I click on the other one and hit okay, nothing will change). The
other video card listing has resolutions of 640x480, 800x600,
1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200. I am not sure how I got two
video cards listed and why I cant choose the one. I remember that
before I switched the video card that the max resolution that I
could use was 1024x768. I know that this is getting off topic
from Access, so if I should not be posting this here, please let
me know what would be a good group to post to.

If you have two video controllers and the capability for dual
monitors (say, on a laptop), it's very common to see just that.