strange error messages when trying to create reports in Access

[intl04]

I am getting strange print-related error messages when trying to
create (not print!) reports. For example, when I click 'new' to create
a report then choose 'design view', I get an error message that says:

'There was a problem retrieving printer information for this object.
The object may have been sent to a printer that was unavailable.'

When I choose 'report wizard', I can go through all of the steps but
then I get an error message at the end that says:

'The wizard is unable to create your report.'

Up to this point, I have been able to create (and print) numerous
reports in this database (around 20) with no problems at all. These
error messages just started occurring since our office move a few days
ago.

At first, there were also printing problems: I would try to print a
report, didn't get an error message, but nothing happened at the
printer. I was told by Help Desk reps that was just a printer memory
issue (even though these are very short reports, usually just one page
long), and that I would need to switch the printer offline then online
again. That seemed to work, but now that printer is defunct (and so
I'm printing to other printers now). Anyway, could those printer
problems somehow have corrupted the database? Is it possible to fix
this somehow? (I was told that I shouldn't do a 'database repair'
procedure using the 'tools' option because it would damage the
database - I'd lose my ID, or something like that.)

The Help Desk people re-imaged my PC and installed all new office
software (while saving all my office files, such as the database with
the glitches I just described), but the error messages are still
occurring.

So far, the only way I have been able to create a new report is by
going back to an old one and modifying it. But, so far as I know, that
won't work when I need to create reports with various grouping levels
(grouping data by status category, for example).

Can the database still store data effectively if it has some
(hopefully minor) corruptions like the ones mentioned above?

Part of the problem is that the database is being shared on a network
drive; both the database designer (me) and the end users have access
to it. Anyway, I try to make new queries and reports in previous
versions copied to the C drive, and then import these features into
the version on the S drive (to minimize the time I'm spending doing
any database modifications while end users might be inputting data
into the database).

Also, I have been backing up the network drive version onto my hard
drive - but as it turns out, the network drive and the local drive
have been trying all along to 'synchronize' with each other and there
have been various synchronization issues because of this. After the
re-imaging, the database was put on a directory on the hard drive that
synchronizes with the network drive. I didn't know that this
synchronization process was occurring, but anyway, that is one
possible reason for the apparent database corruption.

There are "clean copies" stored on disk for this database, but if use
those, the end users (or I) would have to input their project status
data all over again.

By the way, I was told a while back in this usergroup that the best
approach would be to have a split database, with the front end
installed on each user's local drive and the back end installed on the
server. But the response I got from the Help Desk people here was that
since we don't have a database administrator on staff, they could not
support this function (of installing the back end of a split database
on the server). So, we had to stick with just sharing the database on
a network drive - even though someone already mentioned in this
newsgroup that this approach coud lead to eventual database
corruption.

The Help Desk people don't know what can be done about these error
messages, so I thought I would post to this group. Hope to hear from
someone soon about this. Thanks in advance for any help that you can
provide!

[Steve Jorgensen]

It sounds like your default printer in Windows is set to a printer that's
off-line. Try chaning it to one of the printers that's on-line. If the
printer juggling is really bad, you can create a local "printer" that outputs
to FILE:, and select that as your default.

On 23 Jan 2004 08:10:36 -0800, kr***@hotmail.c om (intl04) wrote:

I am getting strange print-related error messages when trying to
create (not print!) reports. For example, when I click 'new' to create
a report then choose 'design view', I get an error message that says:

'There was a problem retrieving printer information for this object.
The object may have been sent to a printer that was unavailable.'

When I choose 'report wizard', I can go through all of the steps but
then I get an error message at the end that says:

'The wizard is unable to create your report.'

Up to this point, I have been able to create (and print) numerous
reports in this database (around 20) with no problems at all. These
error messages just started occurring since our office move a few days
ago.

At first, there were also printing problems: I would try to print a
report, didn't get an error message, but nothing happened at the
printer. I was told by Help Desk reps that was just a printer memory
issue (even though these are very short reports, usually just one page
long), and that I would need to switch the printer offline then online
again. That seemed to work, but now that printer is defunct (and so
I'm printing to other printers now). Anyway, could those printer
problems somehow have corrupted the database? Is it possible to fix
this somehow? (I was told that I shouldn't do a 'database repair'
procedure using the 'tools' option because it would damage the
database - I'd lose my ID, or something like that.)

The Help Desk people re-imaged my PC and installed all new office
software (while saving all my office files, such as the database with
the glitches I just described), but the error messages are still
occurring.

So far, the only way I have been able to create a new report is by
going back to an old one and modifying it. But, so far as I know, that
won't work when I need to create reports with various grouping levels
(grouping data by status category, for example).

Can the database still store data effectively if it has some
(hopefully minor) corruptions like the ones mentioned above?

Part of the problem is that the database is being shared on a network
drive; both the database designer (me) and the end users have access
to it. Anyway, I try to make new queries and reports in previous
versions copied to the C drive, and then import these features into
the version on the S drive (to minimize the time I'm spending doing
any database modifications while end users might be inputting data
into the database).

Also, I have been backing up the network drive version onto my hard
drive - but as it turns out, the network drive and the local drive
have been trying all along to 'synchronize' with each other and there
have been various synchronization issues because of this. After the
re-imaging, the database was put on a directory on the hard drive that
synchronizes with the network drive. I didn't know that this
synchronizatio n process was occurring, but anyway, that is one
possible reason for the apparent database corruption.

There are "clean copies" stored on disk for this database, but if use
those, the end users (or I) would have to input their project status
data all over again.

By the way, I was told a while back in this usergroup that the best
approach would be to have a split database, with the front end
installed on each user's local drive and the back end installed on the
server. But the response I got from the Help Desk people here was that
since we don't have a database administrator on staff, they could not
support this function (of installing the back end of a split database
on the server). So, we had to stick with just sharing the database on
a network drive - even though someone already mentioned in this
newsgroup that this approach coud lead to eventual database
corruption.

The Help Desk people don't know what can be done about these error
messages, so I thought I would post to this group. Hope to hear from
someone soon about this. Thanks in advance for any help that you can
provide!