I recently encountered the following error in Microsoft Access 2000:

Apparently this is a catch-all error for any condition where the database engine (or presumably one thread of the engine) is busy completing a task and something else (such as a VBA macro) attempts to perform a function which requires the engine to perform some task. It is horribly difficult to track down, due to the lack of internal debugging interfaces in Access, but check for macros which may be updating visual elements in a form and getting into a loop (for example, OnCurrent actions cascading in a loop or likewise). In my particular case, the error was only triggered when a filter was applied in a form which contained a subform with a field whose default value depended on a field in the parent form. Once I removed the default value from the field in the subform, the error disappeared. (Note also that this only occurred in Access 2000, not Access 2003)

Good luck in tracking down the source of this error if you encounter it.