80004005 error

Question:	I am using Access and getting a 80004005 error (or a [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file '(unknown)' error) when trying to open a connection! How can I fix this problem? [Print this FAQ]
Answer:	The answer to this FAQ comes from an ASPMessageboard post by Ron: I have had the dreaded 80004005 Error for quite sometime now. We were trying to connect a very simple ASP page to an Access Database and kept getting the: Microsoft JET Database Engine Error ' 80004005' Unspecified error I have seen many people struggling with this on many message boards. My company bit the bullet and had me call Microsoft. They solved it! I figured I would pass this along to you. The funny thing is that nowhere was this solution presented on any message board/forum or MS techweb. I cut and paste this from a Word doc I put together, sorry about the formatting. If you have this same problem and this fixes it, let me know! Procedures for fixing the dreaded 8004005 Error when using ASP to connect to an Access Database (on NT only, this has not been tested on Win 2000): Steps to do this: Part I ?Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. ?Select the Environment tab, and then click on any of the existing variables in the System section. Both the variable name and value appear in the text boxes of the System Properties dialog box (at the bottom of the dialog box). ?Delete the variable name in the Variable text box and type in TEMP. ?Delete the text in the Value text box and type C:/TEMP. ?Click the SET button, and the variable is added to the System section. Part II ?Again, select any of the existing variables in the System section. ?Delete the value in the Variable text box and replace it with the word TMP ?Delete the value in the Value text box and replace it with C:/TEMP ?Click the SET button, and the variable is added to the System section Part III ?Go to the C:/TEMP directory. Right click and choose properties. Select permissions. Ensure that your IUSR account has Read, Write, and Change access. If the IUSR is not listed, add it. (The IUSR account is the anonymous Web account: IUSR_machinename, where machinename is the name of your Web server.) Part IV ?You will need to REBOOT the server for these changes to take affect. As a precaution, make sure IUSR has Read/Write permissions on the database you are using as well. (Alert reader Victoria P. informed me that there is also a knowledgebase article at Microsoft worth checking out: PRB: 80004005 "Couldn't Use '(unknown)'; File Already in Use") #################################################################### Another source of the problem... If you get the 80004005 error when you open a recordset object, then there may be another cause. User "jperkins007" reported that his Open would work fine if he used a DSN, but he would receive the dreaded 80004005 error if here tried to use a DSN-less connection. Alert user "vivek" noticed that "jperkins007" had a field named Open in the table he was querying, but "Open" is a keyword in Access SQL. Normally, one would expect the misuse of a keyword as a field name to cause a SQL syntax error, but in this case... Yes, "jperkins007" reported that changing the field name fixed the problem! There seems no logical connection between a DSN-less connection and a SQL syntax error, but... There you have it.
FAQ posted by Scott Mitchell at 1/17/2001 11:38:49 PM to the Databases, Errors category. This FAQ has been viewed 127,973 times. Share this FAQ