Hi Longlimb,
just went through major issues with our Lithotel setup on Tuesday and can feel your pain. Here's a couple things to try....
Our error was a runtime (-6) overflow which I thought pointed to the database as well. Seeing as we had issues back in 2008 I was familiar with where to find the DB and what apps can open it. I found a better APP and it worked well on Tuesday - "MDB Viewer Plus". With that I started to delete jobs and rows from the very large tables (DB was 475 Mb) and wasted an hour clicking one at at time....
** Quick tip - the "Audit" table is the largest and keeps track of the make-ready vs OK vs production data that is user by the report software. With MDB Viewer just click on the Audit tab and then use "Empty Table" to remove all entries at once. Only do that to the "Audit Table" and on a copy of your db.
Rename the original DB at the press as -OLD and be sure to put your now very small DB back under the original title of "ColorLinx 72.mdb" <-- 72 is our version of the software, yours may differ.
^^^ I spend a day working out this issue, trying different installs (I had a CPU not being used from the sale of a press) so I tried it's HD in the current CPU and still had the same error with a totally different XP OS and Lithotel Install. This pointed to hard ware for my issue so we swapped the scanner (again, left overs). Still no joy.
I then swapped in the old CPU (after a rebuild as it was scavenged for parts over the past few years) and used the existing HD. I was able to get the system to load and the colorlinx to run without the run time error. My next issue was press communication. After fiddling around with the USB ports (and other CP Cards and cables) it was determined that the "COM Port" had changed to 7 from 5. To change this you need to use the ColorLinx Maintenance.exe and the password is "265675469". To see which port the system is using you need to right-click on the "My Computer" in the windows menu, go to Properties, then Hardware, Device Manager. Click the plus on Ports (COM & LPT) and you should see a USB COM port at the bottom of this list. This is the connection that the Lithotel software will use.
I can only hope my day of pain and unfinished work in Pre-Press can help some poor soul in the future.
Cheers from the Icy Cold of SW Ontario.