Access 97 crash

[loosegroove]

I am using Access 97 (I know, I know - company software) and I have databases
setup to automatically pull data from Oracle databases and generate reports.
Some of the databases pull large datasets from Oracle so it's not unusual for
these processes to run for a while.

Sometimes these databases will crash but when they do, they don't crash with
an error message or anything like that. Instead, the whole screen (not just
the Access 97 window) will start flickering really fast. The flickering only
happens when Access is the active window though. If I open another window
(like Explorer) the fickering stops. If I go back to Access the flickering
begins again.

I have tried letting the database finish but it never does, it's hung. This
does not happen everytime and it does not happen with the same database but
when it happens, it's only in Access 97. This problem even occurs on
different machines so it's probably not a bad install.

My machines are 2.26 GHz P4 with 1GB RAM and plenty of available disk space.
I have Windows XP SP2 installed with current patches.

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this crash to happen and how to
prevent it? Would a current version of Access fix the problem? I just need
to get this fixed because these processes run company sales reports and
everyone is relying on these reports for day-to-day operations. Having to
re-run these processes because of a crash is getting old.

Thanks!

 

[Bill Mosca, MS Access MVP]

Sudden flickering could mean a procedure is stuck in a loop. Have you tried
debugging of any kind?

And by the bye, there is nothing wrong with running Access 97. It's probably
the most reliable version MS ever made. Not every company is keen on
upgrading just for the sake of upgrading.

 

[loosegroove]

Thanks Bill. It seems logical that it could be stuck in a loop but I can
force close the database and re-run the same process and it works just fine.

It's very hit and miss and again, it doesn't happen everytime nor on the
same db. Of course, this makes troubleshooting near impossible. And I can
not reproduce the problem on command so I don't know exactly where it's
getting stuck.

Thanks!

Bronson