Installing the Microsoft Jet 3.51 OLE DB Provider

[jbradley]

I have a VB6 front end for an Access database that is used to store configuration settings for another program. The VB program uses a UDL file to define its connection to the Access database. One of the tables in this configuration database is called USER. If the Microsoft JET 4.0 OLE DB Provider is used in the UDL the front end program crashes when accessing the USER table. If the Microsoft JET 3.51 OLE DB Provider is used, everything works fine.

I have three workstations that have had MDAC 2.5 installed on them and when I try to configure the UDL on these machines the 3.51 Jet provider isn't listed as an option. I've tried removing MDAC using the MDAC Component Checker and installing 2.1 instead, I've tried installing MS Office to get an old set of drivers and I've tried adding a reference to the Microsoft DAO 3.51 Object Library to the the front-end program project to try to get this provider installed.

Is there any way to get this to install?

 

[pmanivas]

Can't u change the UDL file to point to the latest oledb driver on those machine?

 

[jbradley]

That was actually my first choice. The problem is that the latest Jet OLEDB driver (4.0) chokes on the table named USER.

 

[pmanivas]

are u working on windows 2000

 

[jbradley]

NT 4 workstation.

 

[pmanivas]

In ur driver list on ODBC administrator, u got OLEDB 4.0 even after you remove the driver?

 

[jbradley]

That's correct. And in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Dao I have the Jet 3.51 DLL, Dao3.50.dll.

 

[pmanivas]

Even I had this problem.
There might be some other DSNs which are still pointing to the 4.0 version.
The solution might be a risky one.
What I did was using regedit replace the New driver with the old one.
I am not sure whether u want to do this.
IMPORTANT
If u are going to do this u better backup your registry and all the work on the machine and go forward.

 

[pmanivas]

Some additional info on backing up registry in MSDN


Q132332 How to Back Up the Registry

Q139437 Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility
Q131431 How to Troubleshoot Registry Errors

 

[petermeachem]

can you rename the user file to something else? Peter Meachem
peter@accuflight.com

 

[jbradley]

Unfortunately the configuration file is for a program from an outside vendor and I can't change its internal references to the table.

As a side note, I don't think that I can do what I want through normal means. I tried installing MS Access from Office 97 on a clean box and it didn't install the components I need. Installing MDAC 2.1 jumped me right to the Jet 4.0 drivers.

I own a basic VB book that came with the Working Edition of VB6. I loaned the book out and I'm trying to get it back to see if installing the VB Working Edition adds the Jet 3.51 drivers.

In the mean time I'm mapped to the workstations running this app and doing any setup changes from my development box.

 

[jbradley]

Well, I got my book and disk back and confirmed that that was where I got the Jet 3.51 OLE DB driver from. Since installing VB on these workstations isn't an option (even if I immediately uninstall it) I guess I'll just rewrite my configuration program to use a data control.

As a side note, I came across an article in my search for an answer that says the 3.51 Jet driver has a pretty serious security flaw, which is probably why I can't find any way to install it on purpose.