Hi Jim

>**IF** you're using VFP8 withOUT the SP then it may be related to SET TABLEVALIDATE.
>I believe that SP1 tries to 'relieve' this issue by attempting a lock only once whereas VFP8 vanilla will want a lock before it proceeds.

This looked like most credible explanation. I duly downloaded and installed SP1. Made no difference at all! But at least I'm up to date now. Nigel's "Shared" suggestion did the trick for no good reason I can see.

Thanks