anybody understand MS Jet 4.0 and MDAC?

[Russ Smith]

We're having major issues with our purchasing system the databases keep getting corrupt. The vendor insists we're the problem and that we appear to have one or more users whose computer is "damaged" and causing it. They insist the problem is with their MS Jet 4.0 and MDAC. Jet is apparently a DLL, not really sure what MDAC is.

Will System file checker find and repair such issues?

I found jet on my own system in fact it's there twice in the Sys64wow folder. There are 2 likely suspect computers based on process of elimination, one has it but I only found it once not twice like on mine. the other one not sure yet.

Basically the vendor says even if we know what system is the cause, they can't fix it because it's a windows problem not their software, reinstalling their product won't work, may have to do a fresh install of windows and he can't even guarantee that will fix it.

One of the 2 suspected problem computers the user is out today so I'm almost hoping the restored database breaks again today, that would mean the other one is probably it.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I would need to know more about what is going on. MDAC is used to complete external access to the database. This is a Windows component yes, but it is used to access the database. What version of MDAC are you using? They are always patching it for security updates, bugs, etc. Maybe you could just update that?

I would think that either a reinstall of MDAC/Jet would resolve the issue or even an OS/reinstall if you have already eliminated the software vendor as the cause.

 

[Russ Smith]

I would need to know more about what is going on. MDAC is used to complete external access to the database. This is a Windows component yes, but it is used to access the database. What version of MDAC are you using? They are always patching it for security updates, bugs, etc. Maybe you could just update that?

I would think that either a reinstall of MDAC/Jet would resolve the issue or even an OS/reinstall if you have already eliminated the software vendor as the cause.

We have Windows 7 Ultimate on all the machines using this. I have no idea what version of MDAC I'm not even sure how to tell that and they're all running Windows Updates so they should all be up to date on that if they patch it regularly.

Basically what happens is every couple of weeks the purchasing program stops being able to open one of our databases, we have them by account so we have about 15 of them now. The biggest one breaks the most but we've had at least 3 that break now. You start getting weird messages about missing files etc from the Purchasing program and eventually you just can't use the database it will open but you can't save new PO's etc.

We send it off to the vendor and they have this elaborate process that apparently uses Access and their own sofware to fix the database, sometimes we lose records but not always. Their support for our version expires soon, I just bought access and followed their 14 page instructions on how to restore the database but I had no luck. The instructions are for Access 2003, I'm using 2013. I eventually figured out the interface differences but there are tons of nuances that are just completely baffling to me because it's not my software like it is with them. They essentially merge the broken database with a "template" of their software database and that merger is compacted and becomes the repaired database.

But rather than learn how ot fix the databases we want to learn how to fix the offending computer(s).

I checked and I don't see any way you can manually update MDAC and Jet?

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I checked and I don't see any way you can manually update MDAC and Jet?

You can find the MDAC version here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301202

Pretty sure you can check the Jet version by C:\WINDOWS\system32
Find
msjet40.dll
Go to properities and look there

If they are not up to date, you can go to MSFT website and download what you need.

 

[Russ Smith]

You can find the MDAC version here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301202

Pretty sure you can check the Jet version by C:\WINDOWS\system32
Find
msjet40.dll
Go to properities and look there

If they are not up to date, you can go to MSFT website and download what you need.

yes we've done that it's in the syswow folder and the 2 computers we suspect the most have the same jet that I have for example.

I did find a way to check what MDAC you had, but I never found a way to update it if you wanted to on MS's site.

There's just a ton of issues. today I came in early to compact the databases using MS Jetcomp 4. There were 2 people in the office, neither of us using the program. When I went to compact the biggest database, it was locked. Jet creates a "lockfile" when someone is using it to prevent you from having multiple users writing to the same database concurrently. You click on the properties in the lock file and it tells you who the current "owner" is. the problem is the current owner not only wasn't in, her computer was turned off and had been since 5:30 last night. About 10 am today it suddenly updated, it still showed her as the owner but now said she had last modified it at 9:30 am, in reality she had never even opened the purchasing program since about 3 PM yesterday.

The company that makes Parts and Vendors says they don't control the lockfile, that's a Jet feature(MS) and if it's got it locked by a user not logged in it means something is causing "orphaned" connections between the database so it still shows someone in there when they're not. Then I looked and 5 of the databases were locked, and none of those 5 computers were turned on, I actually physically tested by hitting the power button just to make sure they weren't just asleep but still logged in to the P&V.

So now we're at 5 or 6 suspect computers eventually you start to wonder how can all these computers have problems with MDAC or Jet at a certain number you start to think the problem is either the part of the program on our server, or the program itself.