Multiple OLE DB Errors

Hi all,

I have a problem I was hoping someone has been able to solve, since I haven't been able to. We have an application that uses a local instance of a database that we would like to update incrementally so we are switching to SQL CE from SQLExpress to take advantage of the sync functions. I've been able to recreate the database from a SQL Server 2000 .mdf file to a SQL Server CE 3.5 .sdf file and now I am trying to connect to it from my VS2008 .NET application. I have all the absolute latest patches, downloads, frameworks, etc. The problem comes when I try to open the recordset. I decided to keep the old code instead of going through this very large application and change over to a dataset or the other CE data handlers. I've read, and it makes sense to me that since it is still an SQL Server database, it should support ADO still.

Anyway, here is a snapshot of the code that tries to connect but fails:

(I use a module to abstract my calls to the database so that I can re-use the process in other places in the code. It used to work fine until I tried to switch to SQL CE)

'--at the top of the module:

Imports System.Data.SqlServerCe
Imports ADODB
Imports System.Xml

Module Module1

Public Const SQLConnString = "Provider=Microsoft.SQLSERVER.CE.OLEDB.3.5; Data Source=C:DATATOOLS.sdf; Max Database Size=2047"
'used to be "SERVER=.SQLEXPRESS; DRIVER={SQL Server}; DATABASE=TOOLS;"

Public stSQL As String
Private _Conn As ADODB.Connection
Public myRS As ADODB.Recordset
Const adCmdText = &H1
Const adOpenForwardOnly = 0
Const adLockReadOnly = 1
Const adStateOpen = 1

Public Sub GetSQLData(ByVal stSQL As String)
Try
_Conn = New ADODB.Connection
myRS = New ADODB.Recordset
_Conn.ConnectionString = SQLConnString
_Conn.Open() '***blows up here
myRS.Open(stSQL, _Conn, adOpenForwardOnly, adLockReadOnly, adCmdText)
Catch ex As Exception
CloseConn()
End Try

End Sub

'******************************************
error message is as follows:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException was caught
ErrorCode=-2147217887
Message="Multiple-step OLE DB operation generated errors. Check each OLE DB status value, if available. No work was done."
Source="Microsoft OLE DB Service Components"
StackTrace:
at ADODB.ConnectionClass.Open(String ConnectionString, String UserID, String Password, Int32 Options) at CAD.Module1.GetSQLData(String stSQL) in C:ProjectsCADCADModule1.vb:line 83
InnerException:

I also had a weird exception earlier that said my data source location string was too long - very strange - fixed it though by moving the DB to a folder closer to C.

Anyway, I hope some can decipher the "multiple OLE" errors - not sure what it is looking for.
Thanks,
Brian