Access 2003 question

Factual Questions
1

I have an access db that has been working fine for me… untill now.

When I try to search one field for records that match that field, I get an “Invalid Argument” question. This just started happening a couple of days ago.

I’m not really versed in access, but I can usually stumble my way around enough to figure things out, however, in this case the “help” doesn’t help me at all and I can’t find any documentation to assist me either.

The thing that’s throwing me off is that this wasn’t happening before and we haven’t made any changes to the db (other than adding records) in probably 3 months!

Any ideas?

2

Try doing a compact & repair.

3

That’s actually the first thing I tried. (and the second and third too!).

I pulled a copy of the db off of our shared drives, so I’m not working with a live one now. That way if I end up messing it up, they’re no worse off than they are now.

4

Okay, after playing around with it a little bit, I’ve got some more detail. If there are no matches to my search, THEN I get the “invalid argument”.

If there are matches, it will take me to each record and after getting to the last one, then gives me the invalid argument error.

I’ve googled around a little and don’t see anything that applies to this… .it’s strange.

5

Are you searching in a table, a query or a form?

If it’s a query or a form, what is the underlying record source?

Does it happen in all fields? Or just, for example, a date field.

6

I’m searching in a form, let’s call it “Main Service Input”

It happens in any field that I would search. Only some of the fields are fomatted in any way, most are freeform fields.

And not to sound stooopid, but I’m not sure what you mean by underlying record source. As I said, I’m not too familiar with Access… which is why I’m wondering right now how this became my resp. Honestly, we’re a decent size company, how about hiring a contractor to fix this.

7

I was thinking that if it’s a form, then somebody might have originally built in some programming, and for whatever reason the code is running off the rails. If so, we should be able to figure out what’s going on. So - does the error message that pops up give options to End and Debug? It would look something like this

If it’s a built-in Access error then I’m stumped. You might attempt re-installing MS Office.

8

I know the guy who built it (a very good friend who left for a different institution, and I’ll probably be following in a few weeks) and there’s no programming built in as far as I know. No end and debug feature with the error, and the search actually still works, we just get the “Invalid Argument.” error after we’ve looked at all the records that match our search.

As for re-installing Access… Other .mdb we use don’t have this problem, and in fact, we’re all running the db off of a shared drive, so we’re all running our own local copies of Access. That’s what made me believe something else had happened.

Oh well, I appreciate the help, but I’m going to tell them I haven’t got the slightest and to call in someone else who knows. It’s not my job anyway.