Help! MDB 97 App. locking when a specific user logs on 2

[DreewToo]

Hi All,

I've got a strange problem I'm trying to trouble-shoot, and it's making me nuts.

We are working on a shared A97 database, and associated pivot-table, and I have a user who can only access the app. and pt when all others are off it. When I sign onto her machine, I can share logging onto the apps with others and they act normally. When I try to open the apps from another computer after she's opened them, they are not accessible.

The settings for her A97 are to default open mode shared, default record locking, no locks, and enable dde refresh checked. It also links to ODBC to mainframe data.

Currently I'm considering asking her to log onto a different machine and testing if the problem is machine specific, but I thought someone might have struggled with a difficulty like this before and might be able to point me in the right direction.

Thank you for reading,
Drew

 

[RickSpr]

Just a thought, not likely to help.

Could this user be starting Access from a shortcut with a command line /excl option specified in it? That would override the defaults.

Did you find out if it was machine specific?

 

[DreewToo]

Thank you for responding RicpSpr,

I haven't tested if the problem is machine specific yet, but I suspect it's centered around the user's logon. After I test for it this week I'll write back.

Drew

 

[Arcadi]

It sounds like she is trying to log on exclusively. If she is using the frequent files to select which database to open, and the last time she opened it using the File/Open option, she had put the check in open exclusively option, it would retain that property when she was trying to open it from the frequently used files. Have her open Access, and cancel the initial dialog box, then go to file-open, and open the file from there, navigating to where the file is saved.

Hope that helps,

Arcadi

 

[DreewToo]

Hi again,

I worked with the user today, and had her log onto a different machine, and the same behavior was demonstrated. She seems to be opening the office files exclusively no matter where she logs on, making me suspect there's a switch in her novell profile that's causing this behavior. I'll forward any new news, but for now, call me stumpyd.

Drew

 

[hennep]

Did you reset the open exclusive permission for object type "database" in:
Tools\Security\User and Group Permissions ?

When this checkbox is unchecked she not able to open the database exclusive anymore.

I assume there is msaccess security on this database, if not you might consider using the guest or user account to remove the excl. permission. To make her log in the right way add this to the command line.

/user <username> /pwd <password>

 

[DreewToo]

Thank you for responding.

There is no security on the database, so her local system.mdw is being used. If this file have been opening exclusive, it would have done the same when I logged on also, which it didn't.

hmmm....

 

[RickSpr]

When other users are logged on and the problem user tries to open the database, what error indication are you getting? If we can identify the source of the error, that would tell us where the lock is occurring (Access/Jet or network software or ?).

Also, is this user opening the database by double-clicking the database, a shortcut to the database, a shortcut to Access, or msaccess.exe? If a shortcut, what is the exact command line in the Target: box? These questions will determine which set of registry entries Access and Jet end using. Rick Sprague

 

[DreewToo]

Thank you for your questions.

The error she is getting is &quot;Cannot access i&quot;. This is not a drive letter, application name, ODBC name or otherwise, so I'm confused what its source is.

When she is logged into the application, and I try to get in, I get the error &quot;Cannot access file, locked by another user&quot;.

The user is double-clicking the database icon to access it, with no switches on. Other's click and share the same icon and have for a few months now.

 

[DreewToo]

In addition, I just tested her ability to share other Access applications with other users, and was successful. I'm starting to get the impression that the ODBC settings are the culprit, but still unsure on how, since I reviewed them compared to how others were behaving.

 

[RickSpr]

You're right, it's a stumper!

What message do others get when she is logged into the database?

Maybe this will help identify the failing component. Go into the database and check this user account's permissions. If she has Open Exclusive on the database, remove it and let her try again. Also, remove her from any group accounts that have Open Exclusive permission. If the message changes, at least we know she is getting to Access and is opening the database exclusively.

If she doesn't have Open Exclusive, remove all her permissions, then remove her user account. Have everybody else log out, then let her try to open. Verify that she gets &quot;You don't have permission to open this database.&quot; (I'm assuming the User account has no permissions.) If she does, leave the message on her machine and see if others are blocked at this point.

I'm assuming the database is on a network share and is accessed via a network drive letter; is that right? And ODBC is not being used, right?

You mentioned an &quot;associated pivot-table&quot;. Is that in an Excel spreadsheet linked as a table in the database? How is it involved?

Is there startup code in the database? If so, what external files is it accessing, if any? Does it do any DAO functions? Maybe it's responding to this user differently for some reason, and that's locking the database.

I went through all the Access and Jet registry settings the other day, and didn't see anything that would cause an exclusive open. Besides, you had her try on a different machine, and the registry should have been different there. Still, I won't rule that out completely just yet, partly because I was looking at A2000 documentation.

Rick Sprague

 

[DreewToo]

Thank you for your thoughts on this problem. Today I learned that the problem was a rights issue in the Netware we are using, and she only had Write permissions on the directory. When she was given all rights, the problem disappeared.

 

[DreewToo]

As a secodnary follow-up, it turns out one of the things which was a problem was her network user.dat file got corrupted somehow. Deleting the file made that problem disappear...Ford knows why...

Drew