Record fills with foreign characters and garbage-can't delete-can't repair

[DigitalVinyl]

I've been having problems with a DB. On recommendations that a WIN98
server with WINXP clients causes corruptions, I moved the backend to a
WINXP machine.

Well the problem occurred again.

When the user is entering data and moving about in the form, suddenly
the data in their form will change to foreign character and garbage.
The Access front starts spitting out errors galore as fields have
invalid data. It will sometimes just crash.

The interesting thing is that the USER was on the WINXP serving as a
file server for the backend. SO network wasn't involved or any WIn98
PCs. Just the front end accessing a local backend file. The user was
tabbing around as she typed in data and boom... corrupted data. I
think the data is actually converting... I mean fields with four
characters had four strange characters in it. $amount fields had
astronimically huge numbers instead of $0.00

ANyone know of what would cause local corruption? WHat would make all
the field convert like that? There may have been other users with the
DB open this time. However, the last time the DB corrupted thre was
only one user actively doing anything. Another user was logged in,
viewing a different record, but had walked away from the PC a hour
before. The lone user entering data blew up and their record became
garbage. Because of this I'm no longer convinced that this is a
multi-user, networked problem. I'm thinking there is a problem in the
forms or code from the conversion.

Damaged record undeletable
==========================

Now I looked, and as always the big CLIENTS table has the garage
filled record. It won't let me delete the record. Says "Record key
cannot be found". Normally I compact/repair and then I can get rid of
the record. In addition, if I try to scroll to the right I get to a
group of four fields and Access crashes just trying to display the
table. Something in those four fields is so bad that it makes Access
2003 GPF.

Compact/Repair gets about 480Kb into it and GPF's crashing Access.
JETCOMP wouldn't repair at all-no explanation of why it doesn't do
anything. I'm reading up on other methods, like expoerting the table,
deleting it, and reconstructing it, etc & scanning the newsgroup. Any
advice always appreciated.


DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Tony Toews has a very comprehensive article with lots of
links to other related documents. See:

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

HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)

 

[DigitalVinyl]

Tony Toews has a very comprehensive article with lots of
links to other related documents. See:

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

HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)

Thanks, I've been going through that reference the past few weeks.

I'm having a lot of trouble because the primary key to the table with
the corrupt record is an autonumber. Reconstructing in a new table is
a problem because the existing records have skipped numbers from
deleted records over the past few years. They aren't appending with
the correct numbers. I'm going to try and append all new records into
a good copy from good backup instead.


DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Create a new Table exactly the same as the existing Table except using Long
instead of AutoNumber for the PK. Append all *good* Records from the
existing Table including the (AutoNumber) PK Field values. Re-create the
bad Records using exactly the same old AutoNumber values.

Once, you recover / re-create all Records, go into the new Table and change
the Field from Long to AutoNumber.

 

[Tony Toews]

Create a new Table exactly the same as the existing Table except using Long
instead of AutoNumber for the PK. Append all *good* Records from the
existing Table including the (AutoNumber) PK Field values. Re-create the
bad Records using exactly the same old AutoNumber values.

Once, you recover / re-create all Records, go into the new Table and change
the Field from Long to AutoNumber.

And recreate the relationships.

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

 

[DigitalVinyl]

Create a new Table exactly the same as the existing Table except using Long
instead of AutoNumber for the PK. Append all *good* Records from the
existing Table including the (AutoNumber) PK Field values. Re-create the
bad Records using exactly the same old AutoNumber values.

Once, you recover / re-create all Records, go into the new Table and change
the Field from Long to AutoNumber.

I tried this. Access refused, saying that once records have been added
to a table you cannot change to/create an Autonumber field. It was the
first way I tried. I was able to reconstruct the last three days
entries manually using a previous good db backup.

We still don't have a solution for why the data suddenly
changes/corrupts in the form. I've removed the Win98 server from the
network, I've replaced the old hub with a 10/100/1000 switch and with
the exception of one cable run everything is clean. However three
times that I have been present corruptions occurred when the computer
on the problematic run was not on the network. I don't believe the
source of these errors has anything to do with the network or OpLocks.
I'm even wondering if it is even a multi-user access thing.



DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Sorry, I was thinking of SEED Number in MS-SQL Server.

Has the problem machine been patched with all OS & Office Service Releases /
Service Patches?

Have you scanned the problem machine for virus?

I have also seen one case where a faulty SIM card did weird things to the
database which I didn't work out until I replace the SIM card and the
problem disappeared.

 

[DigitalVinyl]

Sorry, I was thinking of SEED Number in MS-SQL Server.

Has the problem machine been patched with all OS & Office Service Releases /
Service Patches?

Yes, all PCs are XP SP1 & Office 2003-all patches apllied up to today.

Have you scanned the problem machine for virus?

Yes. The whole office was just rebuilt from scratch so everything is
very uniform.

I have also seen one case where a faulty SIM card did weird things to the
database which I didn't work out until I replace the SIM card and the
problem disappeared.

There isn't a single machine. It has corrupted repeatedly. Different
people have been doing different things on at least 5 different
machines when the first "corruption" showed up. The backend database
was on an old WIn98 PC, now on a brand new WIn XP Pro PC.

TOday it crashed first thing in the morning. The user that was working
on a record Printed a document. The printout came out fine. However
when she closed the report screen and returned to the main form, the
characters had all turned to a foreign codeset. THE DATABASE WAS NOT
CORRUPT-I could open it without error! I could not delete the
trash-filled record though. Once I performed a repair/conpact I was
able to delete the record. The data looks converted... for example
"MR" became two foreign language symbols.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)