John, I had nothing but trouble connecting to my Access and MySql dbs until I started using mxODBC. Search on it in this group, and you'll find the links that were given to me and that I've shared with others. It works like a charm.
If you come up short, I'll send you the links. I can't dig them up right now. Back in an hour or so. rick -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list