FIX: GeoFacts Sample Causes Automation Error on NT

ID: Q178167

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
on the following platforms: NT
Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0
on the following platforms: NT

SYMPTOMS

The GeoFacts.vbp sample project fails with the following run-time error when run on a Windows NT machine:

Run-time error '-2147467259 (80004005)':
Automation error

This error does not occur on a Windows 95 or Windows 98 machine.

CAUSE

The run-time error occurs on the following line of code:


   Set shtWorld = GetObject("world.xls")

The GetObject function fails because the full path to world.xls is not specified in the argument.

RESOLUTION

When using the GetObject function, make sure that the full path to the file name is specified. To correct the code in the GeoFacts.vbp sample, change the following line of code (located in the Setup procedure in Module1):


   Set shtWorld = GetObject("world.xls")

to:


   Set shtWorld = GetObject(app.path & "\world.xls")

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Basic 6.0.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q143461 XL97: CreateObject and GetObject Work Differently

Q178166 PRB: GeoFacts Sample Causes Type Mismatch Error with Excel 97

Additional query words: 'world.xls'

Keywords : kbAutomation kbVBp kbVBp400bug kbVBp500bug kbVBp600fix kbGrpVB
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug