Quite honestly, Mike, when I hear people opening "so many workbooks" and
having "so many links", I begin to think you'd be better off using Access.
It's just designed to handle relationships like this better than Excel, tho
I've never claimed to be any good at relationships, LOL. Anyway, to get you
beyond your current dilemma... it sounds to me like SOME of the links could
be updating and, due to lag or resources on your PC, others are not updating
or are just getting lost somehow. I can only tell you what I would do if I
were you and converting to a *real* DB isn't an option:
1. Clean up my hard drive:
http://www.officearticles.com/misc/h...hard_drive.htm so
you know you've got all the resources you possibly can (I realize this might
apply to other PCs too).
2. Clean up the workbooks/worksheets as good as you possibly can:
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
I only include the 2nd article in case any of these workbooks seem bloated.
3. Create a macro (you can record this one, I think) that opens all the
other files, or at least those necessary for efficiency when working with
your workbook, when you open your main file. Put that macro in the Workbook
open by right-clicking any sheet tab and hit View Code. Then on the left,
double-click This Workbook. Then from the dropdowns on the right, choose
Workbook. Then paste your recorded code over on the right. It should end up
looking something like this:
_______________________________
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Workbooks.Open Filename:= _
"C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Desktop\RestaurantRetriever FastFood.xls"
Workbooks.Open Filename:= _
"C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Book1.xls"
Workbooks.Open Filename:= _
"C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Desktop\RestaurantRetriever .xls"
End Sub
__________________________________
Save and close your file, then reopen to test. (I'm sure the code could be
more efficient, but it's not lengthy code anyway).

Hopefully, others will also have suggestions.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"mike" wrote in message
...
Ok, I guess I should give you more info -- This will probably baffle you.
All the files are located on the server. There are about 4 users who
regularly access the files but I'm assuming I'm the only one who makes
changes to critical info (not all files are password protected). The links
are identical to the pre-problem links (first thing i checked).
For example: I have a main inventory file with item codes and item
descriptions (and a whole bunch of other stuff but its not relevant). My
MRP
file has item codes and vlookups to the item descriptions (descriptions
change so i only wanted one source for the descriptions). When I open the
MRP
and click update it will retrieve some of the descriptions but not all
(less
than 50%)--(actually that was yesterday, today I get an "unable to open
file"
error when it tries to link and nothing gets updated).
However, I can easily go to the location indicated in the link, open the
file that it needs to link to and everything works peachy (except my
computer
lags from having all the large files open simultaneously). The odd thing
is
also that this is affecting more than one file--someone would have had to
do
the search and replace on multiple files (although possible) that are not
even related.
My final thought is: Can this be something other than Excel? (server
problem, network problem, windows problem etc?)


"Anne Troy" wrote:

Well, the only thing I could think is that someone did a find and
replace,
not realizing it could affect such a thing. I'd have to have specific
examples of what the old link was and the new link--the more examples the
better, of course.
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"mike" wrote in message
...
If you mean did somebody make changes that may make the links not work,
the
answer is no. The links will work if I open all relevant files. If you
mean
that using a find and replace in general will cause problems -- This is
possible.
If you read this Anne can you elaborate?

"Anne Troy" wrote:

Somebody did a find and replace in your file?
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"mike" wrote in message
...
The first thing you will ask is . . did you move the file? The
answer
is
no.
Here's my problem: I have developed fully functional MES and MRP
system
with
excel. I may have pushed the envelope of what excel can be expected
to
do
as
the MRP workbook itself is about 15 MB and contains several hundred
links.
I
was very impressed that excel was able to handle this . . . until
today
(the
system worked quite well for about 6 mos). Now, when I open any of
my
main
files and update, I only get returns of info on apparently random
links.
The
majority of them don't work. I am not aware of any changes done that
may
account for this -- and why do some links work and some don't (same
type
of
info from same file - even same column but randomly only a few work)
Please,
I need to know of as many possible reasons this may have happened so
I
can
work on a solution. If I find it, I will post as I see others have
had
similar problems.Thanks