Power,
An ailas is the na,me of a work area in which a table or view is open. In the RecordSource of a grid the Table option will cause the gird to open the table regardless of whether it is open or not. Alias will cause the grid to use the work area whose name matches (meaning the work must exist and have something open in it before the grid is created).
You have tried using Table when the table was already open, now try using Alias and Table in your grid when the table is not in the DataEnvironment of the form. The Table option will work because the grid will open the table itself, but the Alias option will fail because the table is not already open for the grid.