Field Calculation seems to run forever and clicking the Cancel button does not stop the process

Description

When performing a field calculation in ArcMap on a dBASE table or a shapefile attribute table, the progress bar stays up and the calculation doesn't complete. Clicking cancel does not stop the calculation.

Cause

This is a known issue. The .dbf file has read only permissions.

Solution or Workaround

1. Use the Windows Task Manager to end the ArcMap session.
2. Make sure you have write permission to the table before attempting to calculate the values again.
3. Restart ArcMap and calculate the values again.