Sum(or Group By) in Query causing weird characters

[Petulant]

Hello~
Help Please~
I am new to Access, so am a little behind the learning curve. I have a query that I have been running for a while that has worked fine and now (with no changes) is throwing up weird characters(like little blocks) in the Item Note field.
(Note : don't know if this infomation is important the only other thing I can think of that has changed in the last month is the size of the database which is 456M and links to 3 other databases smaller in size.)
This is in Access 2000, Windows XP

The query groups items together for each property and if they are the same item sums the number of items. The query works fine if I turn off the Group by(of course it lists all items and no sum)
Here is the SQL view (with out sum on):

SELECT [Property Charges Monthly].[Property Number], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Note], [Property Charges Monthly].[Number Of Items], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Charge], [Property Charges Monthly].[Price for Misc Items], [SumOfNumber Of Items]*(IIf([Price for Misc Items]=0,[Property Charges Monthly]![Item Charge],[Property Charges Monthly]![Price for Misc Items])) AS Expr2, ItemLookUp.[Maintenance Charge], ItemLookUp.[Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.[Specialty Charge], ItemLookUp.[Supplies Charge], ItemLookUp.[Spring Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.ADJU STMENTS, [Statement Month] AS Expr3
FROM ItemLookUp INNER JOIN [Property Charges Monthly] ON ItemLookUp.[Item Title] = [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title]
WHERE ((([Property Charges Monthly].[Number Of Items])<>0))
ORDER BY [Property Charges Monthly].[Property Number], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title];

and here is the SQL View with sum turned on:

SELECT [Property Charges Monthly].[Property Number], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Note], Sum([Property Charges Monthly].[Number Of Items]) AS [SumOfNumber Of Items], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Charge], [Property Charges Monthly].[Price for Misc Items], [SumOfNumber Of Items]*(IIf([Price for Misc Items]=0,[Property Charges Monthly]![Item Charge],[Property Charges Monthly]![Price for Misc Items])) AS Expr2, ItemLookUp.[Maintenance Charge], ItemLookUp.[Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.[Specialty Charge], ItemLookUp.[Supplies Charge], ItemLookUp.[Spring Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.ADJU STMENTS, [Statement Month] AS Expr3
FROM ItemLookUp INNER JOIN [Property Charges Monthly] ON ItemLookUp.[Item Title] = [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title]
GROUP BY [Property Charges Monthly].[Property Number], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Note], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Charge], [Property Charges Monthly].[Price for Misc Items], ItemLookUp.[Maintenance Charge], ItemLookUp.[Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.[Specialty Charge], ItemLookUp.[Supplies Charge], ItemLookUp.[Spring Cleaning Charge], ItemLookUp.ADJU STMENTS
HAVING (((Sum([Property Charges Monthly].[Number Of Items]))<>0))
ORDER BY [Property Charges Monthly].[Property Number], [Property Charges Monthly].[Item Title];

[Petulant]

I think I fixed it!!! I put in "is Null or Like *" as the criteria for Item Note and they all came back!!
WHOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!
Doing the happy dance! (okay I was a little stress because we have been using this database for over 4 years and never had this happen!)

Thanks again for all your help and I hope the solution will help someone else too!

[NeoPa]

What did you have in the criteria before for the memo field?
What you've got is like having no criteria at all.