Reserved error (-1517)

[Judd]

Hi,

For years we have been running a large Access program that has the forms in
one mdb file and the tables in another mdb file. In one of those form
screens (Purchase Order), everytime I move to a new record, I get the
message "Reserved error (-1517), There is no message for this error," so
pressing Help doesn't help, but I can still change the products but not the
customer's name ( I wouldn't want to change the customer's name on processed
orders, but before this happened, I could). And when I try to create a new
record, I am unable to pull up the customer's name to start entering
products. When I click on the customer-name box, the customers are no longer
listed. The fields are just blank. It's as if I've lost the link from the
box on the form to the customer's name in a table.

I ran Database Utilities/Compact & Repair Databases, but the error still
persists. In looking directly into the database and linked databases, all of
the columns and rows look clean all the way to the last record.

I need to enter customer orders, and I'm stuck. What do I need to do to
correct the problem? (Our outside programmer quit working on Access two
years ago, and I know little about the program.)

Thank you very much for your time and assistance,

Judd

 

[Allen Browne]

First, we need to pinpoint where the problem lies.

Firstly, make a copy of the database while it is not open. Work on the copy
in case something goes wrong.

pen the Purchase Order table directly. Are you able to add a new record
directly to the table? Can you alter the customer here for existing orders?

No: the data structure has become corrupt. Make a new (blank) database, and
import all the objects (tables, queries, forms, ...)

Yes: If the form is bound to a query, open the query and see if you can
alter the data there. No: try the new database approach. Yes: The problem
now looks like it's with the form: delete the form; compact the database;
and create the form again.


The fact that you cannot change existing customers suggests that the problem
may be there. You could try opening the relationship window (Tools |
Relationships) and deleting the relation between Purchase Order and
Customer. Also open the Purchase Order table, and remove any index on the
CustomerID field. Then compact the database, and test. If it now works,
recreate the relationship (with the Referential Integrity box checked).

If none of that works, the next suspect would be any memo fields. You could
try deleting the memo field, and compacting. If that solves the problem, it
may be possible to then recreate the memo field, attach the original table,
an import some/most of the memo data from your broken copy of the database.

Hopefully that provides a useful direction.

 

[Judd Knight]

When I have received a Reserved error (-1517) I perform a
relink of my Front end to the back end of the database.
This refreshes the links then resolves the reserved error.

 

[Judd]

Thank you Allen and Judd,

I couldn't work on it yesterday because everyone was using the program, so I
decided to wait until today. Then, at about 6:00 last night, the owner of
the company calls me at home and says ithe program is now working okay.
Sure enough, today it works just fine. I'm going to keep your notes for
future reference, because if the problem happened once, it'll probably
happen again. Thank you again for your time and information. (I would have
responded sooner, but my ISP provider went down this morning, and I'm just
now back on line.)

Have a fine day,

Judd (for me, it's short for Judson)

 

[Tony Toews]

For years we have been running a large Access program that has the forms in
one mdb file and the tables in another mdb file. In one of those form
screens (Purchase Order), everytime I move to a new record, I get the
message "Reserved error (-1517), There is no message for this error,"

I've noticed this problem several times when I've added a foreign key
to a table in the backend which was inserted into the middle of a
table. Everything would work fine for days or weeks until the backend
was compacted. Then the FE would puke with the -1517 error you
mentioned whenever that particular table was accessed. But deleting
the link and recreating the link made it work again.

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/reservederror1517.htm

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

 

[Judd]

Thank you, Tony, for that info. I don't know how the problem corrected
itself, but the program is running just fine again. I did run Compact and
Repair Databases a few times for both the data file (16 megs) and the forms
file. (The forms file is over 8 megs, and I don't know why it's that large.
There aren't that many forms.) When I checked afterwards, the program still
wasn't running right. Whatever--it's running right now.

Thanks again and have a fine day.

Judd

 

[Tony Toews]

Thank you, Tony, for that info. I don't know how the problem corrected
itself, but the program is running just fine again. I did run Compact and
Repair Databases a few times for both the data file (16 megs) and the forms
file.

Yup, that would've fixed it.

(The forms file is over 8 megs, and I don't know why it's that large.
There aren't that many forms.)

Do you have lots of embedded graphics on the forms? Such as corporate
logos? They could easily take 100Kb to 1 Mb for each occurance on a
form.

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