Hi,
I'm having a very strange problem creating reports in access 2003. It started on a clean install of office 2003 without any SPs or patches. I'm having this problem on a laptop with WinXP Pro SP2, all other workstations are fine.

The problem is simple but very frustrating. I CAN'T create a new report, modify or execute any report what so ever. When I use the wizard it allows me to select the table or query, the fields ect... and at the end it give me a message that creating the report has been cancelled. It does this on existing DBs, new DBs all DBs.

I've checked the HD for errors, checked for viruses, compacted the DBs, checked the references in access, upgraded to office 2003 sp1, uninstall and reinstall office and I still have the problem.

Any suggestions.

Thank you in advance.

Andy

By the way, I don't have any problems with the tables, forms, or any thing else.

What printers have you got installed? If none, then you will need to do something about this... reports use the print preview and without a printer, you cant do this... might be the answer, but might be totally off-track...

Hi,

Several printer are installed on the system. One local, HP laserjet 2300 and two network printers as well as the default windows fax. I will check to see which one is the default printer.

Andy

I have had exactly the same problem. If you read Knowledge Base article 145576 this gives a hint to the solution. The problem arises when some Network printers are set as the default. There is a conflict between Access reports and the Network printer drivers. The 'techie' solution can probably be found in the black arts of network support, but we found that if you connect a small printer directly to your LPT1 port and set that as your default, everything works fine. You can then even print your reports on the same network printer that gave the original error - weird!

The default printer as present is the local printer. I will change the default printer and see if that works. If it doesn't, I will install a virtual printer and set it as default.

Will post soon with results.

Andy

Well I don't believe it but it's true. I set my default printer to a network printer and (I still can't believe it) it works. My local printer, which was my default printer, is connected to the USB which is the only reasonable explanation. I can now, create, modify and execute a report and print to my local USB printer, which was the cause of my problem.

Thank you so much, I don't believe I would have thought it was the printer without your help.


Andy

Glad you sorted it... must have been something to do with this, given that it was a laptop and elsewhere all was fine, just very glad I didnt make myself look like a complete plank with a bizarro suggestion ;)

thank you again.

I'll fire up a nasty little comment to M$ office for not supporting USBs printers.

Andy

I have this same problem, i changed the default printer to the document image writer and all works fine, but whats the solution if all the printers are network printers?