I am using VB4 Professional 16 bit on Windows 3.1. I am new to the Jet
Engine relational database system. Taking one step at a time I am
writing a small book library system similar to biblio.mdb that comes
with VB4.

I have the following menu options :-
        Create New Database
        Open Existing Database
        Close Database
        Repair Database

I can create a database named by a user, open a daatabase and close the
database and they seem to work. However, when I run RepairDatabase I get
:-

        Runtime error 3196
        Couldn't use 'C:\TempDB\ABC.MDB'; database already in use.

I purchased Sheridan Data Widgets v2.0 and am using the VB data control
in conjunction with the Sheridan enhanced data control on my form.

I am sure it is something very simple that I am missing. It seems as
though the database I created or opened is not closing properly and is
still in memory and in use after I have clicked menFileClose menu
option.

My work is therapeutic as I am slowly recovering from a muscle disease
and therefore I am at home nearly all of the time. So I have no one to
seek advice from. I have worked through VB 4 Prof manuals and purchased
several expensive books on database programming but to no avail.

I have spent many days and combinations of lines of code trying to
resolve my problem.

In the menFileClose_Click() I have the following :-

        Dyn.Close
        MyDb.Close
        Set Dyn1 = Nothing
        Set MyDb = Nothing
        frmDb.Data1.DatabaseName = ""
        frmDb.Data1.RecordSource = ""
        frmDb.SSDBData1.DataField = ""

I have tried to find a good example of creating, opening and closing a
database. Particularly where you create a new database and then leave it
in a state where you can start to add records.

I am blessed with patience but would be really glad of any guidance
anyone can be kind enough to give me.

Many thanks.

Gordon Smith

There are a number of general guidelines for VB apps - I am using a vb4 16
bit client/server environment and can get 3196/7.

Because Jet is not multithreaded/file server you will get problems like
this. try to use DBEngine.Idle dbFreeLocks thru your app to let Jet catchup.
also try to use transaction processing when performing adds and updates
(look at BeginTrans and CommitTrans in vb help).

To be honest there are a few articles on the ms support site which will
help.

Paul