Access - Max # of Db object open simultaneously

[Guest]

Users on our NT 4 network I keep having trouble with PC crash, application termination, slow mouse etc
I keep telling them that it’s coming from the number of Access 2000 objects they have open at the same time. They often have 15 – 20 Access windows open simultaneously.
Is there a way to know exactly how many Access objects can be open without causing trouble to a PC?
Anything I can do to improve the situation?
How many objects (forms/queries/tables) do you think is reasonable to open simultaneously?

Any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Kevin3NF]

Not sure about concurrent objects. Are your users using a local front-end,
or one from the server? I am assuming your database is split. Are all
users seeing the same behavior?

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Kevin3NF

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Users on our NT 4 network I keep having trouble with PC crash, application termination, slow mouse etc
I keep telling them that it's coming from the number of Access 2000

objects they have open at the same time. They often have 15 - 20 Access
windows open simultaneously.

 

[Tony Toews]

Users on our NT 4 network I keep having trouble with PC crash, application termination, slow mouse etc
I keep telling them that it’s coming from the number of Access 2000 objects they have open at the same time. They often have 15 – 20 Access windows open simultaneously.

That should be reasonable. I'd wonder if the system has enough RAM.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

 

[Brendan Reynolds \(MVP\)]

When you say 15-20 Access windows, do you mean multiple windows within one
instance of the Access application, or multiple instances of Access?

I wouldn't be surprised if 15-20 separate instances of Access soaked up
resources. Whether 15-20 windows within one instance of Access would be a
problem or not would probably depend on just what was in those windows.
15-20 complex forms with lots of subforms, combo boxes and list boxes might
well be a problem. 15-20 simpler forms, with few subforms, combo boxes or
list boxes, should not be a problem on adequate hardware.

--
Brendan Reynolds (MVP)
(e-mail address removed)

Users on our NT 4 network I keep having trouble with PC crash, application termination, slow mouse etc
I keep telling them that it's coming from the number of Access 2000

objects they have open at the same time. They often have 15 - 20 Access
windows open simultaneously.

 

[Guest]

First of all: Thank you for your help (Kevin, Tony and Bendan).

Our users use database directly from the server. Our databases are not split. Could that be a problem?

Are all users seeing the same behaviour? > Not at all, only some users seem to have the problem. Some more than other. In general in happen always in the same two teams.


When I say 15-20 Access windows, I refer to users that have 2 or 3 different Access application open with, in each of then, 5 or 6 Access objects.

Indeed we have relatively 'heavy' forms containing sub-forms, dropdown boxes, some with more than 80 pieces of information from different tables pulled on one single form. Do you thing we should reduce the amount of data displayed on the forms?

All our PCs have around 260RAM, that should be more than enough, shouldn't it?


Benoit

 

[Kevin3NF]

see my answers inline

--
Kevin3NF

Sick of all that junk filling up your mailbox?
http://spamarrest.com/affl?2967001

First of all: Thank you for your help (Kevin, Tony and Bendan).

Our users use database directly from the server. Our databases are not

split. Could that be a problem?
Yes. Lots of network traffic and fighting for the same file is a huge
problem Split them ASAP.

Are all users seeing the same behaviour? > Not at all, only some users

seem to have the problem. Some more than other. In general in happen always
in the same two teams.
Splitting should resolve this

When I say 15-20 Access windows, I refer to users that have 2 or 3

different Access application open with, in each of then, 5 or 6 Access
objects.
Lots of memory required for multiple Access apps open at once. Check the
memory usage with three open

Indeed we have relatively 'heavy' forms containing sub-forms, dropdown

boxes, some with more than 80 pieces of information from different tables
pulled on one single form. Do you thing we should reduce the amount of data
displayed on the forms?
Hard to tell.

All our PCs have around 260RAM, that should be more than enough, shouldn't

it?
Probably. Go one step at a time...and see what performance gains you get
from splitting. Please read up on multi-user databases.

Backup up everything before you do anything.

 

[Brendan Reynolds \(MVP\)]

Ditto on what Kevin said. Split the data from the app and put a copy of the
app on each user's PC first. It's possible that this may be all you need to
do to solve the problem.

If you still have problems with complex forms after splitting the app, one
useful technique you can use is to fill complex controls only when they're
actually needed. For example, if you have a tab control with subforms on
different tab pages, you may be able to leave the subform control empty
until that tab page is selected.

Careful indexing is important, too. You could try running the Analyzer
(Tools, Analyze, Performance.) Don't assume that the Analyzer is always
right, I certainly wouldn't put too much confidence in the suggestions the
Analyzer makes about relationships, for example, but it can provide some
useful hints about indexes.

--
Brendan Reynolds (MVP)
(e-mail address removed)

First of all: Thank you for your help (Kevin, Tony and Bendan).

Our users use database directly from the server. Our databases are not

split. Could that be a problem?

Are all users seeing the same behaviour? > Not at all, only some users

seem to have the problem. Some more than other. In general in happen always
in the same two teams.

When I say 15-20 Access windows, I refer to users that have 2 or 3

different Access application open with, in each of then, 5 or 6 Access
objects.

Indeed we have relatively 'heavy' forms containing sub-forms, dropdown

boxes, some with more than 80 pieces of information from different tables
pulled on one single form. Do you thing we should reduce the amount of data
displayed on the forms?