>>The programmer is renaming an existing file. Here are the steps she is taking:
>>1. Renames Control.dbf to Control1.dbf
>>2. Creates an empty table named Control.dbf
>>3. Appends records from Control1.dbf into Control.dbf
>>4. When a program tries to use Control.dbf, the error message occurs.
>
>After you append the records, you have to close the table then reopen it for shared access. The CREATE TABLE automatically opens the new table as EXCLUSIVE.

Sorry, lost sight of original problem. Is the problem really intermitent and not constant? If the problem is not persistent, then I suggest going with my first suggestion of testing the existence of the table after creating it, and maybe adding an error trap for that error number.