Extremely slow file dialog to open Access .mdb

[jsteph]

Has anyone experienced extreme slowness when opening Access, then selecting "More files..." from the splash (or from the File|Open menu)?

It seems, while the filter is always for "Files Of Type .mdb", that Windows may be doing some exploring of the files themselves before displaying the results. It takes longer when I select a folder with many .mdbs.

Even though the folders I'm searching are on the local machine, I'm aware of an issue if there happen to be many mapped folders--but this is NOT the case here. The machine is a newer machine, and is very fast in all other aspects, and other programs' Dialog boxes are very quick--even when filtering on *.* All Files with thousands of files in the directory. It's an MS Access issue, I'm fairly sure of that.

Access is hanging for at least 60 seconds at the dialog, and my question is whether anyone else has seen this and can shed light on other areas in which I may look. Thanks...
--jsteph

 

[WayneRyan]

jsteph,

How many files are in the directory where the .MDB files
reside? Are the other (quicker) apps looking in the same
directory?

Wayne

 

[jsteph]

Wayne
Thanks for responding. My main development directory structure has a folder for each project, and there are probably 30 or so folders, each having only 2-3 .mdbs, the most is about 8, and a few other files.

But I can open Excel, and go to a directory with literally hundereds of .xls files and they pop up right away. The confusing thing is that the *severity* of the Access problem is intermittent--by that I mean it will get much worse for a week or two, then it seems to go back to it's 'normal' state of just being noticeabley--but not too painfully-slower than other dialogs.

I considered that it might be something in the 'advanced' button of the dialog--some setting there that is skewed wrong, but all settings in that advanced tab seem the same as on any other machine.

Which brings up another note--regardless of the machine or os (current one is win2k wksta.) I have noticed that this Access dialog is noticeably slower than others. Similarly, and possibly related--I've long noticed that Word's Find dialog takes a significant amount of time to come up. I recall reading something about how that dialog first caches a huge chunk of the doc so that the actual find seems faster--at the cost of the initial delay. My guess is that something similar is going on for Access.
--jsteph

 

[sbsmith]

I have a new IBM Notebook with Windows XL. When switching from one program, say Outlook to Access 2002 there is a 2 to 3 second delay for the form windows to open. Is this normal in XL? There is no delay when switching from or to other programs. Thanks for your assistance.

 

[jsteph]

Do you mean Windows XP? Anyway, the could be lack of memory--notebooks seem to come under-stocked with memory, ie 128 Meg. seems standard for notebooks, and with Windows XP, 256 Meg is what I consider the minimum requirement, 512 Meg is fine for most users.

What do you mean by 'no delay when switching from or to other programs'? Do you mean that the *only* time you see a delay is going from Outlook to Access 2002? Or is there some common-denominator, say from any program to Access 2002, for example?
--jstph

 

[sbsmith]

Sorry, yes XP. memory is over 700 Meg. When clicking on the task bar from any open program to Access, when Access opens it takes a few seconds for the data in the forms to appear. This does not occur with any other open programs when clicked on. Data appears immediately. Thanks.

 

[sbsmith]

Thanks for your assistance. I discovered that if I uncheck the Windows in Taskbar box under Tools, View there is no delay in opening an already open form. Take care.

Scott