That's cool dg. My interpretation of the situation is that the app behaves like if AccessDatabaseEngine.exe isn't on the machine or the communication with the exe has been severed. One of my custom messagebox's is being displayed in try catch block that doesn't give much useful info. I'll add something else to the block to see if that helps. I think there may be more useful info that I can added to ex.? anyone have a pet routine that helps nail down these kinds of problems?