Problem with Access form

[dixie]

I have an Access 2000 form which has been running OK for a long time.
Lately, it is playing up and doing things like causing Access to close
suddenly when the form is opened or when saving the form in design view
after a change. Today, I got the following message from the form when using
a combo box.

"The expression After Update you entered as the event property setting
produced the following error: A problem occurred while Microsoft Access was
communicating with the OLE server or ActiveX Control."

It seems like the form is somehow corrupted. I have tried creating a new
database container and importing a new version of the form. I have gone
back about 2 months of development and redeveloped the form up to its
current state, yet the problem persists.

There is no such thing as an Access virus is there? Something is wrong and
it is driving me around the twist.

dixie

[jimfortune]

dixie wrote:

I have an Access 2000 form which has been running OK for a long time. Lately, it is playing up and doing things like causing Access to close suddenly when the form is opened or when saving the form in design view after a change. Today, I got the following message from the form when using a combo box.

"The expression After Update you entered as the event property setting produced the following error: A problem occurred while Microsoft Access was communicating with the OLE server or ActiveX Control."

It seems like the form is somehow corrupted. I have tried creating a new database container and importing a new version of the form. I have gone back about 2 months of development and redeveloped the form up to its current state, yet the problem persists.

There is no such thing as an Access virus is there? Something is wrong and it is driving me around the twist.

dixie

Hi Dixie,

I certainly sympathize with your frustrating problem. I had a similar
problem when Access somehow embedded a control character into my form
code. Perhaps try copying all the code behind your form into a .txt
file and running it through a filter that strips out all unprintable
characters. Make sure the filter counts how many unprintable
characters were omitted. If you catch any you've found the problem.
Also try Decompile (after compacting a backup) before doing all that.

James A. Fortune

[dixie]

James, I did not have a filter to do that, so I used NotePad Lite and
converted the text to ASCII which I think would achieve the same thing. I
have now tried both your suggestions, and unfortunately, Access is still
randomly closing when I open the form. I thought I may have had too many
controls in the form and have just removed about 7 controls that were left
overs from early development, but alas, still the same problem. I forgot to
mention that I have used Total Access Analyser on this form and it reports
no errors. I am afraid that I might have to build this form from scratch
and that would be a very large task as it is quite a complex form. The
worry is that if I invest the time to do that, it might still have a
problem, as every thing I have tried so far has failed to fixed it. I have
also tried repairing the Access installation and running it on another
computer, so at least I can eliminate any worries that it is either my copy
of A2k or something computer specific.

Oh, well, back to the drawing board.

dixie

<ji********@compumarc.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@l41g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com...

dixie wrote:

I have an Access 2000 form which has been running OK for a long time.

Lately, it is playing up and doing things like causing Access to

close

suddenly when the form is opened or when saving the form in design

view

after a change. Today, I got the following message from the form

when using

a combo box.

"The expression After Update you entered as the event property

setting

produced the following error: A problem occurred while Microsoft

Access was

communicating with the OLE server or ActiveX Control."

It seems like the form is somehow corrupted. I have tried creating a

new

database container and importing a new version of the form. I have

gone

back about 2 months of development and redeveloped the form up to its

current state, yet the problem persists.

There is no such thing as an Access virus is there? Something is

wrong and

it is driving me around the twist.

dixie

Hi Dixie,

I certainly sympathize with your frustrating problem. I had a similar
problem when Access somehow embedded a control character into my form
code. Perhaps try copying all the code behind your form into a .txt
file and running it through a filter that strips out all unprintable
characters. Make sure the filter counts how many unprintable
characters were omitted. If you catch any you've found the problem.
Also try Decompile (after compacting a backup) before doing all that.

James A. Fortune

[jimfortune]

dixie wrote:

James, I did not have a filter to do that, so I used NotePad Lite and converted the text to ASCII which I think would achieve the same thing. I have now tried both your suggestions, and unfortunately, Access is still randomly closing when I open the form. I thought I may have had too many controls in the form and have just removed about 7 controls that were left overs from early development, but alas, still the same problem. I forgot to mention that I have used Total Access Analyser on this form and it reports no errors. I am afraid that I might have to build this form from scratch and that would be a very large task as it is quite a complex form. The worry is that if I invest the time to do that, it might still have a
problem, as every thing I have tried so far has failed to fixed it. I have also tried repairing the Access installation and running it on another computer, so at least I can eliminate any worries that it is either my copy of A2k or something computer specific.

Oh, well, back to the drawing board.

dixie

The next thing I'd be most suspicious of is an API call. They are
notorious for causing page faults, crashes, mysterious behavior, etc.
I think the book:

Win32 API Programming with Visual Basic
Steven Roman, Ph. D.
O'Reilly And Associates
January 2000
ISBN: 1-56592-631-5

has some code in it to identify the last API error (LastDLLError
actually). His replacement for the default error handler to head off
GPFs in Chapter 8 can also provide lots of information about what has
gone wrong. Your description reminded me of their sometimes mysterious
behavior. The fact that it was working for awhile and then stopped
working correctly doesn't really point to an API function call error
since they work well when the correct datatypes are supplied (except
that mixed up ByVal and ByRef declaration parameters can hose the call
as well), but they're still good candidates for causing Access to whack
out. So, in summary, check for API calls. If you are not calling any
API functions at least try to keep Access from closing using Steven's
techniques long enough to get some information about the LastDLLError
or information about what's causing a GPF. This approach may help
solve your problem whether it's caused by API calls or by something
else.

James A. Fortune