PRB: ERR "ADO Could Not Find The Specified Provider" (191271)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Data Access Components 1.5
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.0
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.1
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.6
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.8

This article was previously published under Q191271

SYMPTOMS

The following error message occurs when trying to connect to SQL Server using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO):

ADODB.Connection error '800a0e7a'
ADO could not find the specified provider.

CAUSE

The MSDASQL OLE DB provider is either unavailable or is not registered. This can be caused by an incomplete upgrade or a bad install of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) components.

RESOLUTION

Here are two ways to resolve this problem:

Register the Msdasql.dll using the following command:
REGSVR32 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ole db\MSDASQL.DLL"
Reinstall the Microsoft Data Access Components used. The newest version of MDAC can be downloaded from the following Web site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/dataaccess.asp

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Unregister "C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ole db\Msdasql.dll" using REGSVR32 from the Command line. Here is an example:
REGSVR32 -U "C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ole db\MSDASQL.DLL"
Try to connect to the PUBS database on SQL Server using ADO.

RESULTS: The error occurs.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	11/3/2003
Keywords:	kbDatabase kbprb KB191271