Problem using access 97 db through linked tables after downgrade from Access 2013 to Access 2010

Question

We have a legacy application developed in VB, storing data in Access 97 MDB files. 

Please, save me all the hints about upgrading to a new technology because I already spoke with the software vendor and they are not willing to do that, and the fact is that we need to keep running that legacy application.

As we need to upgrade to a new desktop, we received a Windows 7 Prof SP1 with MS Office 2013 preinstalled.  For reporting purposes, we need to use the data stored in Access 97 from another office application through linked tables(by the way, importing and exporting data is not an option for us). When we tried to configure the linked tables with the the linked tables manager, Access 2013 complained that it couldn't open that version.

Then I made a short research to discover that Access 97 files were no longer supported in Access 2013. As the older machine was running Access 2010, and it supported gracefully linked tables with Access 97, I asked our IT staff to downgrade the new Access 2013 to Access 2010 to replicate a known running environment.

Now we have Access 2010 installed in the new desktop and to my dismay, when I open the linked tables manager and try to connect our Access application with the ancient Access 97 datafile, it keeps complaining and saying that it can not open a database created with a previous version of the application.

As Access 2010 supports Access 97 datafiles, I guess there must be some Access 2013 dll messing around after the downgrade to Access 2010. Can you please give some advice about how to solve the problem? I wouldn't like to make a fresh resintall from the factory image.

Best regards

Answer 1

I have no doubt Dirk is right. The question is WHAT needs to be removed/replaced. AFAIK there is not even a complete list of what gets installed with an installation of Office. Perhaps that is to be expected with such a complex system.

I am reminded that one time long ago I used a registry monitoring program to record what happened to the registry when I installed MsAccess on a virgin machine. There were THOUSANDS of changes. Good luck rolling that back. Wipe clean, install OS, install O2010 seems the best course of action if the KB article I indicated does not help.

Answer 2

This is just speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me if the downgrade didn't replace the DLL files related to the ACE database engine.  It's possible you could determine what DLL files need to be replaced, and manually delete them before doing a repair install of Access 2010.

You are right Dirk, this is the reason why I opened this question, just to know if somebody else had a clue of what dll is causing the problem.

Thank you.

Answer 3

Thank you for  your answer. The question is that if we reinstall everything from scratch, our starting point would be a pre-installed office 2013 version. Unless we know how to avoid the problem in the downgrade process we will be running into the same problema again.

We will try your suggestion.

Bes regards.

Answer 4

This is just speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me if the downgrade didn't replace the DLL files related to the ACE database engine.  It's possible you could determine what DLL files need to be replaced, and manually delete them before doing a repair install of Access 2010.

Answer 5

>  I wouldn't like to make a fresh reinstall from the factory image.

I see that in your future though. At least it takes a known amount of time. Trying to figure out why it's not working takes an unknown amount of time.

Before that, I would try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501/en-us