Inconsistently Occurring Parameter Dialog when there should be Nothing

[jaegertw2]

Hey guys, I have a weird one. My database has about 25 users, and today one of the users came to me and informed me she was getting an error message, which turned out to be query parameter dialog box. When she hit the exit button of a search form, this dialog box would come up sometimes. There doesnt appear to be any consistency in the search criteria or actions taken on the form that cause this message to come up, and I cant get it to come up at all on my computer. To be sure, I had her demonstrate the problem to me, and it occurred three times out of about a dozen.

The parameter the query is looking for is normally filled by referencing information on the form. I think the form is being deactivated by the exit button (so the query cant pull the information as a parameter) but for some reason its also trying to requery after the button is pressed. The only code in the function is docmd.close.

I realize that random errors are tech support's worse nightmare, but does anyone have any ideas? I havnt seen anything like this before.

Thanks for any and all help~

Thomas

[Sicelo]

i dont know whats going on but a think the computer of that person is having a problem or it has a virus /bug coz this thing heppens to one person yet it is the same database to all the other.i am not an expect i just started access two years ago try to scan the computer coz some of virus are trought macros....

[jaegertw2]

I don’t know what’s going on but a think the computer of that person is having a problem or it has a virus /bug coz this thing happens to one person yet it is the same database to all the other. I am not an expect; I just started access two years ago try to scan the computer coz some of virus are through macros....

Thanks for the response.

I don’t think it’s a virus, because the database is working perfectly from a functional standpoint. It’s just an operational blip, but the action taking place is kind of reasonable.

This is not a computer I have access to or permission to scan, and getting IT to do it would require justification and time, and I’m not sure how much it would accomplish.

I do think it is a specific computer issue, but if it can happen on one machine it can happen again on another. My reaction was to try to catch this event the way errors are caught, but I don’t know how to do that with internal Access commands, or if it worth pursuing, or even possible.

Any thoughts? (all are appreciated)

Thomas

[jaegertw2]

To All,

This issue was never resolved, so if anyone else has any input I would greatly appreciate it.

Thomas

[Scott Price]

Thomas, apologies first of all, it appears your post got lost in the cracks.

You're right! Random errors are a nightmare to track down...

If you are not the original developer of the database, have a look around to find if the developer left a blue-print of the database design, as this can give you a significant head-start in troubleshooting. If they didn't, contact them to see if they can provide one.

First of all you can try to determine if it is machine specific or user specific. Just having a 'watch' session to view the user's habits of data entry, other programs running in the background, etc etc, could be all you need to eliminate this possibility.

If you can eliminate the user specific element, then you are left with eliminating the machine specific element. This will include checking references, security features (access 2003 sandbox mode comes to mind), access version installed, service packs installed, hotfixes installed, etc. If you are able to, have a look at the event viewer (Right-click My Computer>l-click Manage>Event Viewer). This will help to see if there is an application error being caught by windows or not.

If you can eliminate the machine specific element, then you're into the hard work part of it... Probably the next place I would look is the code that is running the query itself, particularly looking at places in the code where error messages have been turned off.

Some general suggestions, especially if you are the administrator of the database:
On your version of the db you should probably have some sort of error trapping and recording. There are several ways to do this, but probably the best way is through a table that you have code that traps and writes each error # and message to.

It wouldn't be a bad idea either to track changes made by the user, I've got a sample History database that I downloaded from somewhere (can't remember where at the moment, sorry :-( ) that does just this for a simple sample ;-) It would take a bit of reworking to implement it in your multi-user setting, though.

Not much specific help at this point, just a few general observations! If you do find the problem, please post back here letting us all know what it was!

Regards,
Scott