OWC10.dll missing/broken... but I don't believe so.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zen
  • Start date Start date
Z

Zen

Hey all,
I'm experiencing a frustrating problem with access on 2 out of 4 computers,
literally all of a sudden. Here's the scoop.

4 office computers with XP Pro and Office 2002. We just made a change to our
front end mdb so we could push some invoices to quickbooks.

I went ahead and opened the front end on two computers, everything appeared
to work normally it asked to find the backend db and did a little conversion
to add some new tables and then loaded our switchboard home screen.

The backend is shared on the network so actually I went ahead and just
copied the front end from the 2nd computer (since it had already changed the
path of the backend tables) to computers 3 and 4.

This is where it got interesting... and by interesting I mean completely
frustrating.

Basically when I opened the front end on computers 3 and 4 I would get an
error about OWC10.dll (ver 1.2) being missing/broken reference. After
clicking ok there was another warning window.
Compile error;
Can't find project or library.

When I click okay on that, the vb editor loads up with various modules etc.
and only one of the modules has any code highlighted in yellow, just one
line.
"Public Function GetBackEndPath() As String"

Anyway this happened on computers 3 and 4. Computer 4 recently had a new
version of quickbooks installed but computer 3 had nothing new installed in
a quite a while.

I tried using our old front end but then I got the same exact problem on the
old front end too!

In the past we used to use a runtime version of our front end so I made an
executable that would exctract the dll and run a batch script to copy the
dll to the proper locations and reg it.
http://www.buggyonpurpose.com/random/owc10batch.txt


So besides trying to rereg that DLL, I have also tried to repair install
access,

UNINSTALL/reboot and reinstall office completely

At this point I I no longer get the initial nag window about missing or
broken reference but I still get the
Compile error;
Can't find project or library.

So basically my front end file will not work at all.
I'm really stumped and frustrated here. Because to me there doesn't seem to
be any real reason why this would just start happening on two computers, and
one especially where nothing new had been installed etc.
 
Zen said:
Hey all,
I'm experiencing a frustrating problem with access on 2 out of 4
computers, literally all of a sudden. Here's the scoop.

4 office computers with XP Pro and Office 2002. We just made a change to
our front end mdb so we could push some invoices to quickbooks.

I went ahead and opened the front end on two computers, everything
appeared to work normally it asked to find the backend db and did a little
conversion to add some new tables and then loaded our switchboard home
screen.

The backend is shared on the network so actually I went ahead and just
copied the front end from the 2nd computer (since it had already changed
the path of the backend tables) to computers 3 and 4.

This is where it got interesting... and by interesting I mean completely
frustrating.

Basically when I opened the front end on computers 3 and 4 I would get an
error about OWC10.dll (ver 1.2) being missing/broken reference. After
clicking ok there was another warning window.
Compile error;
Can't find project or library.

When I click okay on that, the vb editor loads up with various modules
etc. and only one of the modules has any code highlighted in yellow, just
one line.
"Public Function GetBackEndPath() As String"

Anyway this happened on computers 3 and 4. Computer 4 recently had a new
version of quickbooks installed but computer 3 had nothing new installed
in a quite a while.

I tried using our old front end but then I got the same exact problem on
the old front end too!

In the past we used to use a runtime version of our front end so I made an
executable that would exctract the dll and run a batch script to copy the
dll to the proper locations and reg it.
http://www.buggyonpurpose.com/random/owc10batch.txt


So besides trying to rereg that DLL, I have also tried to repair install
access,

UNINSTALL/reboot and reinstall office completely

At this point I I no longer get the initial nag window about missing or
broken reference but I still get the
Compile error;
Can't find project or library.

So basically my front end file will not work at all.
I'm really stumped and frustrated here. Because to me there doesn't seem
to be any real reason why this would just start happening on two
computers, and one especially where nothing new had been installed etc.
Click to expand...
 
Zen said:
Basically when I opened the front end on computers 3 and 4 I would get an
error about OWC10.dll (ver 1.2) being missing/broken reference. After
clicking ok there was another warning window.
Compile error;
Can't find project or library.
Click to expand...

So basically my front end file will not work at all.
I'm really stumped and frustrated here. Because to me there doesn't seem to
be any real reason why this would just start happening on two computers, and
one especially where nothing new had been installed etc.
Click to expand...

For unknown reasons converting Access from one version to a newer
version inserts this reference automatically. Hmm, probably A97 to
A2000 IIRC.

Remove the reference and compile your project. If it compiles you
didn't need the reference.

Also run the following code and report back. If there are any other
potential problems we'll warn you about them.

Sub ViewReferenceDetails()

Dim ref As Reference

For Each ref In Access.References
Debug.Print ref.Name & " - " & ref.Major & "." & ref.Minor & "
- " & ref.FullPath
Next ref

End Sub

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a free, convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/
 
Tony thanks for the reply.
First lemme add that the developer insists they used 2002 for the new
changes.

However, with that said. Even if they used a newer version, my OLD front
end should still work

So now bear with me because I don't understand what you mean when you say
compile my project. The front end is not an executable runtime, outside of
that what is there to compile?
 
Also, how do I run that code you provided?

I launched the front end using Shift Enter so it wouldn't give me any of
those errors. Then I pressed f11 and created a new modele by copy and
pasting the code

But double clicking the module just loads the editor. If I click the run/sub
user form button on the vb editor nothing seems to happen, same if I to to
Run>Run Sub/User Form or hitting F5

Sub ViewReferenceDetails()

Dim ref As Reference

For Each ref In Access.References
Debug.Print ref.Name & " - " & ref.Major & "." & ref.Minor &
"spaceMINUSspace" & ref.FullPath
Next ref

End Sub
 
Also, I have tried a system restore point to one day prior to the incident
with no luck.
 
Zen,

I can only see parts of this thread so not sure if this has been tried
but...

1. Open the database by holding down the shift key
2. Go to any module (code window)
3. Select Tools then select References
4. When that window opens FIRST uncheck anything that says MISSING before
it's name then...
5. Write down all the ones you see with any check marks next to them, they
should all be at the top, and post them here...

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm
 
Gina,

The ONLY missing one is Microsoft Office Web Components.
As I mentioned previously I have this dll and a script to register it.
However I just downloaded the installer from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...59-0a86-4fb2-a7ee-5f3a499515dd&displaylang=en

First I tried reinstall (at the end it said it was installed/repaired
successfully) but I still got the missing reference in my database.
So I uninstalled and rebooted and then tried a reinstall.
Even after reinstalling it still shows missing reference.

For testing sake I unchecked the missing reference closed and relaunched the
front end, everything appeared to work fine. So I have to contact my
original developer to see if there is going to be a problem by removing the
reference...
 
Zen,

As I said, I can only see parts of this thread in my newsreader so not sure
what has been mentioned before. Sorry, if I repeat some on the questions
asked and answered. Now, on to your issue... I do not believe you need
that reference as you have found out. It should also be noted that going
forward you will not be able to use it Access 2007.
--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm
 
Thanks Gina, I will go forward trying to use it without that reference
hopefully I don't run into problems. RE not being able to use it in Access
2007. This is on older app we've been using and it is on its last leg. We're
in the process of phasing it out and the recent changes we made were part of
that.

Thanks again.
 
Zen said:
First lemme add that the developer insists they used 2002 for the new
changes.
Click to expand...

Sure, who knows how this reference got in there.
So now bear with me because I don't understand what you mean when you say
compile my project. The front end is not an executable runtime, outside of
that what is there to compile?
Click to expand...

Once you've removed the reference you can compile the project by going
into the VBA code editor >> Debug >> Compile.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a free, convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/
 
Zen said:
But double clicking the module just loads the editor. If I click the run/sub
user form button on the vb editor nothing seems to happen, same if I to to
Run>Run Sub/User Form or hitting F5

Sub ViewReferenceDetails()

Dim ref As Reference

For Each ref In Access.References
Debug.Print ref.Name & " - " & ref.Major & "." & ref.Minor &
"spaceMINUSspace" & ref.FullPath
Next ref

End Sub
Click to expand...

Ctrl+g then type in

Call ViewReferenceDetails

in the immediate window.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a free, convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/
 
Call ViewReferenceDetails
VBA - 4.0 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6.DLL
Access - 9.0 - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\msacc.olb
VBIDE - 5.3 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6EXT.OLB
DAO - 5.0 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO\dao360.dll
stdole - 2.0 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\stdole2.tlb
MSComDlg - 1.2 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Comdlg32.ocx
MSXML2 - 6.0 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\msxml6.dll

ERROR WINDOW
Run-time error '-2147319779 (8002801d)':
Your contacts database or project contains a missing or broken reference to
the file 'OWC10.dll' version 1.2

Also, if I remove the reference and then try to compile the window flashes
briefly and nothing happens.

Let me add, that this is a really old project that has been updated and
revised since 1999 originaly with access 97 or 98 then upgraded to 2000 and
then we've been using XP (2002) ever since.

Our core developer last used ver 2003 if I remember and it's likely he put
this reference, not the guys who made these most recent changes.

But I haven't been able to get a hold of him about it.
 
Your contacts database or project contains a missing or broken reference to
the file 'OWC10.dll' version 1.2

Also, if I remove the reference and then try to compile the window flashes
briefly and nothing happens.
Click to expand...

That's just what it should do. If there were code calling the DLL you would
get an error. The fact that you don't get an error popup suggests that there
is noplace in your code that actually uses OWC10.dll, so you should be fine to
just uncheck it.
 
Thanks for clarrifying that john.

Tony thanks for the suggestion.

Will post back if I find out more.
 
Zen said:
this is a really old project that has been updated and
revised since 1999 originaly with access 97 or 98
Click to expand...

There was no such thing as Access 98.
 
Zen said:
Will post back if I find out more.


Thanks for clarrifying that john.

Tony thanks for the suggestion.
Click to expand...

Let me say one thing here at the end, now that things have been
resolved:

As the user of the app, you shouldn't have to mess around with this.
The developer should have taken better care with the references.

I would say that the list of references indicates a developer who is
barely competent, as several of the references are problematic for a
number of reasons. Competent Access developers endeavor to keep
references to a minimum precisely because there are so many
circumstances that can break them. Any app with more than the three
base references (Access, VBA, DAO) is an app that I'm suspicious of,
as it indicates a developer who isn't planning ahead, or is just not
at a level of competence that is appropriate for someone being paid
as an Access developer.

Harsh, but it's the way I see it.
 
Zen said:
Call ViewReferenceDetails
VBA - 4.0 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6.DLL
Access - 9.0 - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\msacc.olb
VBIDE - 5.3 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\VBA\VBA6\VBE6EXT.OLB
DAO - 5.0 - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO\dao360.dll
stdole - 2.0 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\stdole2.tlb
MSComDlg - 1.2 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\Comdlg32.ocx
MSXML2 - 6.0 - C:\WINDOWS\system32\msxml6.dll

ERROR WINDOW
Run-time error '-2147319779 (8002801d)':
Your contacts database or project contains a missing or broken reference to
the file 'OWC10.dll' version 1.2

Also, if I remove the reference and then try to compile the window flashes
briefly and nothing happens.
Click to expand...

Excellent. OWC10 isn't required. But then what about the other
references also possibly not required? VBIDE, stdole, MSComDlg and
MSXML2. Remove those one at a time and compile. If the compile
fails then put the reference back and try the next one.

Also the code I supplied would've failed when it got to the OWC
reference. There may very well be a useless reference after that. So
once you're done cleaning up these references run the code again and
lets see what else needs to be worked on.
Let me add, that this is a really old project that has been updated and
revised since 1999 originaly with access 97 or 98 then upgraded to 2000 and
then we've been using XP (2002) ever since.

Our core developer last used ver 2003 if I remember and it's likely he put
this reference, not the guys who made these most recent changes.
Click to expand...

Actually the OWC reference likely got in there when doing a conversion
from A97 to a newer version of Access and has been left in there
untouched.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a free, convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/
 
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