Unrecognized Format (A2K)

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Edited by HansV to replace Word doc with the picture it contained (unfortunately very low quality) – saves those who read the thread a few clicks

Could someone please provide me with insight as to what might cause the error msg upon entering a database.

The database in question is 2000. Many users within the company, according to IT, still have the ability to open a 97 version db, but shouldn’t be (doesn’t mean anything though).

This database is 13 meg in size and has approx. 30 users.

Example of problem:

User opens db and continues to work, next user attempts to enter the db and gets the error msg. However, this doesn’t impact any users that are already/currently working in the db. It only impacts users attempting to enter. Once the last user is out, the db is compacted and repaired and everything continues on until the next time.

The db is a fe/be design with vba security applied. Within the db, depending on rights (assigned via vba), certain folks have certain abilities as well as certain controls/objects are enabled/disabled, visible/invisible to certain users. A .dll “mousehook” is also included.

The msg doesn’t indicate this is a structure (coding) problem rather a cross version problem. IT says it’s very possible it’s the outstanding ’97 application that is causing this. However, these same people use 7 other db’s and they never have this problem. Also, she says the .dll could be causing the problem. She tested .dll and discovered, for some folks, the .dll was still connected but the user was no longer in the db.

Lastly, this issue is increasing in occurrences as the days move on. In Jan. everything was fine. A couple of weeks the first occurrence began and only happened about 1x a week. By late Feb. it was happening on the avereage of 8 x’s a month. Then silence for a couple of weeks only to start happening about 3 x’s a day.

I need to resolve this issue as this db is used by about 30 people all day long not to mention, the data it houses is critical.

I as well as the IT folks here are at a loss…..any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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(Edited by Jezza on 02-May-07 21:40. to insert step 4)

Hi There

1) Try moving the database file to a another (temorary) folder,
2) Delete the lock (ldb) file
3) Rename the database
4) Copy back from temporary folder
5) Re-open and test with the multi-users

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Is there a pattern to which users get the error message? Do some always get it, or more often than others?

Has IT made sure that all installations of Access have the latest version of Jet 4.0?

(Even if some users still open Access 97 format databases occasionally, I don’t think that would have any impact on an Access 2000 format database)

Were the replies to post 645,951 helpful?

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Thanks you guys for the suggestions.

When I get to work in the a.m., I will try Jezz’s suggestion.

As to Hans, yes, it does appear to ONLY happen to certain people. As I stated earlier, someone can enter the db and the next one who enters gets the msg and can’t enter….2 people seem to constantly get the error but It’s hard to determine who entered the db prior to the msg. The reason being, is we can’t, or I don’t know of a way to determine WHO actually opened the db prior to the error.

With that said, in the beginning, I thought it was 1 of the 2, or both, that were inciting the offense, however, I’ve asked the team lead in that department to monitor what exactly they (the 2 people) are doing to get the message and from what I can tell….NOTHING.

As I said, I will try what Jezz suggested and hopefully that works. My concern is, if I’m make modifications, I do it in an exact copy of the db which is located in another folder. Once I’m done with the modifications, I zip the original, delete it and copy the revised over to the working location. That’s in effect what he suggested. The only difference is, I don’t rename it or assign a new shortcut to it. I’m not sure either renaming or new shortcut would make any difference, but at this point, anything is worth a try.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

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I would check whether the “problem” users have the same version of Jet 4.0 as the others. And have IT check their network connections. Years ago and in a previous job, some users had persistent problems with Access databases – it turned out that their section of the network was flaky.

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Hans,

As to my previous post….yes and no. Parts of the suggestion worked. I worked it out applying parts of the suggestion and trial and error. It was a one time thing I needed for a workaround to an ODBC linked table that wasn’t working.

I needed to create a make table from the ODBC table 1 record at a time rather than the entire recordsource. The process I came up with worked, it returned the 38K records, but they were all blank. Our corporate office where the table resides fixed the table and all is well. With that said, in the future I have the code that works but unlikely I will need to use it.

Because it is a very slow process, I didn’t post the working code.

That issue doesn’t apply to the db that I refenece in this posting.

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