The database is down and people can’t work. That’s all you need to tell us to get started.
You don’t need to know what’s wrong. Describe what’s on the screen and what people were doing when it stopped, and we’ll work out the rest. That’s usually the first ten minutes of the call. You’ll be talking to a Microsoft Access specialist at CDE Systems from the start, because we don’t have a call centre or a ticket queue.
Ring now, and while the phone is ringing do the three things below.

Three things to do first
- Get everyone out of the database.
- Take a copy of the data file and leave the copy alone.
- Don’t run Compact and Repair on your only copy.
What happens when you ring
- You get straight through to an Access specialist.
- We tell you early whether this is a ten-minute fix or a longer one.
- If it will help, we connect by remote support during the call and start looking. It’s one download, nothing gets installed, and you can watch.
- We get people working again first. Tidying up comes second.
- Afterwards we tell you why it happened and what will stop it happening again.
Helpful to have, if you can
- The exact wording of the error, or a photo of the screen
- Someone who can authorise us to go into the system. We need that in writing before we touch a live database, and an email during the call is enough
- A purchase order, if your organisation needs one. That can follow later and shouldn’t hold up the fix
Don’t let any of these stop you ringing.
It can almost always be repaired
A failure doesn’t mean you need a replacement. Corrupt files, broken forms and reports, missing references, VBA errors, linked tables and network faults can usually be put right. It makes no difference who built the database or how long ago.
Is this an emergency?
- Need help now?Ring now if people can’t work, the database won’t open, or data has gone missing.Call 0114 249 1036
- Something less urgent?It can probably wait until tomorrow if it’s one user, one form or one report. That’s Access support and development, and you get the same people.
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Problems with your Access database?
If the file is corrupt or data is missing, find out how we can help with Access repair and recovery.
