Tables locked in Access 2000

In Access, there is a lock file that's created when a user accesses the data. When multiple users try to access the same file, the same lock file is used. When all the users close Access, the lock file is supposed to disappear. However, sometimes Access doesn't close properly and the lock file doesn't go away. This creates a problem when users try to log back in. Try doing the following:

1) Shut down every PC that is using Access
2) Reboot the Server with the data file
3) On the Server, delete any data file with a .ldb extention. DON'T DELETE THE MDB FILE. (The reboot may have caused the file to disappear in which case you won't have to delete it.)
4) Turn the PCs back on that have Access.
5) Try logging in again.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

We ran into this very same problem and found it was our anti-virus mucking with the Access database. You might want to try and disable any anti-virus solutions you have and see if that helps.

In our environment we had to ditch ms access. We needed a bigger and better database software so we researced MSSQL server and MYSQL. MYSQL was free so our boss went that route and so far everything has worked well for us.

Not sure about you environment, looks like you guys are pretty heavy into the MS stuff, so MSSQL might be better - that is only if the anti-virus stuff is mucking around with you access database.

Chuck

Access is prone to those sorts of issues. One of the big problems is the queries happen in the client memory space which isn't good for network traffic etc. I suspect what is happening is queries aren't completing somewhere (maybe an error or something)which is causing the locking to stay in place even after the user has closed access. Also remember that queries that access tables can place locks on the tables in the same way opening the table can.

One possible solution is migrating to MSDE (free version of MS SQL server for up to 5 concurrent users) the bonus of this is that there is a migration utility to help migrate the appilcation which saves redeveloping it.
Check it out in the Access documentation.

The exact same situation happened to us, small Access2000 DB, handful of people in it at a time, occasionally everyone would be completely locked out.

We also had problems with the tables in the DB becoming corrupted with invalid data, making the entire file unusable. We had to delete the entire file and restore a backup.

We found out the source was actually a machine with a bad hard drive. The machine would put these characters into the table, lock everyone out, and basically ruin the entire DB. Once we replaced the machine, all the problems with Access stopped.

Check for any patterns, i.e. who first reports the error. I noticed on ours that it was always the same person who had (or started) the problems, and that person had the bad machine.