What is crashing Access 97 (SR-2)?

[Jack MacDonald]

This is very strange and disturbing. Last night I opened the FE of my
development version of an A97 database and immediately received a
Windows-level error message titled "msaccess.exe Application Error".
The message body was along the lines of "... instruction 0x6517daaa
referenced memory at 0x00000075" etc. The dialog box has an OK and
Cancel button. OK terminates the Access environment entirely. Cancel
launches a dialog box titled "Just-In-Time Debugging" with a listbox
that has one item: "New Instance of Visual Studio .NET 2003".
Selecting that item and folowing the prompts thru the debugging
process eventually leads to it trying to debug the Common Language
Runtime and msaccess.exe.

YIKES!!!

Repeated this several times with my application FE. Opened the BE
successully as well as opening other A97 databases so I concluded that
A97 itself was still functional, and the problem lay with my FE. Took
a deep breath to stay calm, and shut the machine down for the night.

Tried the same thing again tonight with the same results. Tried some
additional troubleshooting:
- able to open the database successfully when holding the Shift key.
- Repaired the database -- message was "successful", but still crashes
upon startup
- compacted the database -- no change.

- tried to open the startup form manually - crash
- opened some other forms manually -- success
- open the startup form in design view -- success. Save the form
without making any changes - crash
- create a new database and import all the database objects. Crash
- import everything except the startup form - success
- import the startup form - crash.

I installed Visual Basic .NET Standard onto this machine within the
last six weeks, but have opened the A97 database many times
successfully since the installation.

I **think** that I installed and deleted a new software within the
last few days (dumb: can't remember exactly) that purported to use the
..NET framework. But I also think that I opened the A97 database
successfully since that install/uninstall cycle. I only mention this
because the debugger seems to want to do something with the Common
Language Runtime. What the heck has it got to do with Access 97????

I have managed to delete the offending startup form from the FE, and
imported a backup version from another database, so I **think** that I
am OK again, but this behaviour is really puzzling and disturbing. Has
anybody seen anything similar? Any idea of the underlying cause? The
FE is fairly substantial: 13 MB compacted, 230 forms, 225 queries, 150
reports so it's not something that I would like to lose any time soon.
Any insight and advice would be welcome. Computer is WinXP Pro w/ 1GB
of memory.

**********************
ja**************@telusTELUS.net
remove uppercase letters for true email
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonmacd/ for info on MS Access security

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 04:23:43 GMT, Jack MacDonald
<ja**************@telus.net> wrote:

If you have a corrupt form - which seems likely - exporting it to a
new db may not help. Exporting it to text and importing it, may work
better. Search google groups for the undocumented SaveAsText method.

The reason the .NET debugger popped up, is because it can debug the
situation you encountered. That is, if you can overcome the Yikes -
and only some 50 people working for MSFT can. BillG should fix that:
ordinary programmers have no business with the disassembly of
msaccess.exe without any further debug info.

-Tom.

This is very strange and disturbing. Last night I opened the FE of my
development version of an A97 database and immediately received a
Windows-level error message titled "msaccess.exe Application Error".
The message body was along the lines of "... instruction 0x6517daaa
referenced memory at 0x00000075" etc. The dialog box has an OK and
Cancel button. OK terminates the Access environment entirely. Cancel
launches a dialog box titled "Just-In-Time Debugging" with a listbox
that has one item: "New Instance of Visual Studio .NET 2003".
Selecting that item and folowing the prompts thru the debugging
process eventually leads to it trying to debug the Common Language
Runtime and msaccess.exe.

YIKES!!!

Repeated this several times with my application FE. Opened the BE
successully as well as opening other A97 databases so I concluded that
A97 itself was still functional, and the problem lay with my FE. Took
a deep breath to stay calm, and shut the machine down for the night.

Tried the same thing again tonight with the same results. Tried some
additional troubleshooting:
- able to open the database successfully when holding the Shift key.
- Repaired the database -- message was "successful", but still crashes
upon startup
- compacted the database -- no change.

- tried to open the startup form manually - crash
- opened some other forms manually -- success
- open the startup form in design view -- success. Save the form
without making any changes - crash
- create a new database and import all the database objects. Crash
- import everything except the startup form - success
- import the startup form - crash.

I installed Visual Basic .NET Standard onto this machine within the
last six weeks, but have opened the A97 database many times
successfully since the installation.

I **think** that I installed and deleted a new software within the
last few days (dumb: can't remember exactly) that purported to use the
.NET framework. But I also think that I opened the A97 database
successfully since that install/uninstall cycle. I only mention this
because the debugger seems to want to do something with the Common
Language Runtime. What the heck has it got to do with Access 97????

I have managed to delete the offending startup form from the FE, and
imported a backup version from another database, so I **think** that I
am OK again, but this behaviour is really puzzling and disturbing. Has
anybody seen anything similar? Any idea of the underlying cause? The
FE is fairly substantial: 13 MB compacted, 230 forms, 225 queries, 150
reports so it's not something that I would like to lose any time soon.
Any insight and advice would be welcome. Computer is WinXP Pro w/ 1GB
of memory.

**********************
ja**************@telusTELUS.net
remove uppercase letters for true email
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonmacd/ for info on MS Access security

[Allen Browne]

Jack, just an off-the-wall chance, but are you running any add-ins such as
mztools?

We saw something similar in a later version of Access after installing
VS.NET, and it traced to the add-in.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"Jack MacDonald" <ja**************@telus.net> wrote in message
news:fs********************************@4ax.com...

This is very strange and disturbing. Last night I opened the FE of my
development version of an A97 database and immediately received a
Windows-level error message titled "msaccess.exe Application Error".
The message body was along the lines of "... instruction 0x6517daaa
referenced memory at 0x00000075" etc. The dialog box has an OK and
Cancel button. OK terminates the Access environment entirely. Cancel
launches a dialog box titled "Just-In-Time Debugging" with a listbox
that has one item: "New Instance of Visual Studio .NET 2003".
Selecting that item and folowing the prompts thru the debugging
process eventually leads to it trying to debug the Common Language
Runtime and msaccess.exe.

YIKES!!!

Repeated this several times with my application FE. Opened the BE
successully as well as opening other A97 databases so I concluded that
A97 itself was still functional, and the problem lay with my FE. Took
a deep breath to stay calm, and shut the machine down for the night.

Tried the same thing again tonight with the same results. Tried some
additional troubleshooting:
- able to open the database successfully when holding the Shift key.
- Repaired the database -- message was "successful", but still crashes
upon startup
- compacted the database -- no change.

- tried to open the startup form manually - crash
- opened some other forms manually -- success
- open the startup form in design view -- success. Save the form
without making any changes - crash
- create a new database and import all the database objects. Crash
- import everything except the startup form - success
- import the startup form - crash.

I installed Visual Basic .NET Standard onto this machine within the
last six weeks, but have opened the A97 database many times
successfully since the installation.

I **think** that I installed and deleted a new software within the
last few days (dumb: can't remember exactly) that purported to use the
.NET framework. But I also think that I opened the A97 database
successfully since that install/uninstall cycle. I only mention this
because the debugger seems to want to do something with the Common
Language Runtime. What the heck has it got to do with Access 97????

I have managed to delete the offending startup form from the FE, and
imported a backup version from another database, so I **think** that I
am OK again, but this behaviour is really puzzling and disturbing. Has
anybody seen anything similar? Any idea of the underlying cause? The
FE is fairly substantial: 13 MB compacted, 230 forms, 225 queries, 150
reports so it's not something that I would like to lose any time soon.
Any insight and advice would be welcome. Computer is WinXP Pro w/ 1GB
of memory.

[Keith Wilby]

Jack MacDonald <ja**************@telus.net> wrote:

This is very strange and disturbing. Last night I opened the FE of my
development version of an A97 database and immediately received a
Windows-level error message titled "msaccess.exe Application Error".
The message body was along the lines of "... instruction 0x6517daaa
referenced memory at 0x00000075" etc. The dialog box has an OK and
Cancel button. OK terminates the Access environment entirely.

Is this a "Dr Watson" error? I sometimes get these and it's *always*
because the same form has become corrupted, but I've no idea why.

Try creating a new db and importing your objects one-by-one until the crash
happens again. Tedious, I know, but effective.

HTH - Keith.
www.keithwilby.org.uk

[Jack MacDonald]

Allan
Bingo! Yes -- I installed mztools very recently. Of course, it does
not work in the A97 environment, but from what you said, it sounds
like it could affect the way that it handles corrupt forms.

At least now I have *something* to blame for the wierd and unexpected
behaviour ;-)

Thanks

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004 13:55:36 +0800, "Allen Browne"
<Al*********@SeeSig.Invalid> wrote:

Jack, just an off-the-wall chance, but are you running any add-ins such as
mztools?

We saw something similar in a later version of Access after installing
VS.NET, and it traced to the add-in.

**********************
ja**************@telusTELUS.net
remove uppercase letters for true email
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonmacd/ for info on MS Access security

[Jack MacDonald]

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 12:47:35 GMT, Jack MacDonald
<ja**************@telus.net> wrote:

Allan
Bingo! Yes -- I installed mztools very recently. Of course, it does
not work in the A97 environment, but from what you said, it sounds
like it could affect the way that it handles corrupt forms.

At least now I have *something* to blame for the wierd and unexpected
behaviour ;-)

I have now un-installed MZTools. Found a couple corrupt forms, and
replaced them from a backup. Did the command-line /decompile routine,
and compacted and repaired the database.

Then I opened a standard module and moved the cursor to the end of the
file. Pressed <Enter> and.... crash. But at least Windows did not try
to launch the .NET debugger.

So it looks like you solved the mystery of what launched the.NET
debugger. Now I just have to track down if there are any more hidden
corruptions in the database.

Thanks for your insight.

BTW - I vacationed in Perth earlier this year. Met face-to-face with
another Access programmer that I had met via Usenet. There are a few
pics of your fair city on the site in my signature.
**********************
ja**************@telusTELUS.net
remove uppercase letters for true email
http://www.geocities.com/jacksonmacd/ for info on MS Access security