SQL 2.10.03 problem: cannot UPDATE table

A user wants to delete a row from a table. The query: delete from ft where entry_name = "P90589"; dies with: 263: Could not lock row for UPDATE. There is no possibility the table or row is being used by anyone else. A number of other rows have been deleted from the same table without incident. We've tried emptying the lock file. No luck. Just for kicks, I created a new table, ft_new (using ft's dbschema output) and got this when I tried to fill it: insert into ft_new select * from ft; 534: Could not insert new row into the table, table is locked. 107: C-ISAM error: record is locked. (BTW, the manual says to "see C-ISAM error", but there's no explanation of C-ISAM error messages. Do we need to buy a C-ISAM manual?) I can select * from ft with no problem. Now it gets fun. I run bcheck by doing a CHECK TABLE: (bcheck -n) BCHECK C-ISAM B-tree Checker version 1.07 Copyright (C) 1981-1988 Informix Software, Inc. Software Serial Number RDS#R537699 C-ISAM File: /eng/db/ifxdb/derwent.dbs/ft_____110 Checking dictionary and file sizes. Index file node size = 1024 Current C-ISAM index file node size = 1024 Checking data file records. Checking indexes and key descriptions. Index 1 = unique key 0 index node(s) used -- 1 index b-tree level(s) used Index 2 = duplicates (0,10,0) 1392 index node(s) used -- 3 index b-tree level(s) used Checking data record and index node free lists. ERROR: 8362 missing data record pointer(s) Fix data record free list ? no 1399 index node(s) used, 1 free -- 133161 data record(s) used, 9448 free Now, I'm no bcheck expert, but those 8362 missing data record pointers sure look like a big clue to me. So I try to run REPAIR TABLE: (bcheck -y) <banner deleted> C-ISAM File: /eng/db/ifxdb/derwent.dbs/ft_____110 ERROR: cannot open C-ISAM file bcheck without any options gets the same results. I'm stumped. I did get an ASCII dump from the table and I have the schema, so I can recreate the table using dbload and judicious editing and substitute it for the original ft, but I would really like to fix the source table. Any hints? Thanks for reading this far. Charleen