BUG: Message Box with Question Marks Appears When You Use ODBC for Oracle Driver to Create a New Data Source (304537)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Data Access Components 2.6, when used with:
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP1
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2
  • Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7, when used with:
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP1
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2
This article was previously published under Q304537

SYMPTOMS

Under Windows 2000 with Multilanguage User Interface installed, when you use the Microsoft ODBC for Oracle Driver to create an ODBC data source in the ODBC Administration application, a message box appears that contains only question marks.

CAUSE

The actual error message being that should be displayed is:
The Oracle(tm) client and networking components were not found. These components are supplied by Oracle Corporation and are part of the Oracle Version 7.3 (or greater) client software installation.

You will be unable to use this driver until these components have been installed.
The Multilanguage User Interface functionality in Windows 2000 requires that strings (such as error messages,) be Unicode. When different code pages are in use, the conversion of these strings internally between ANSI and Unicode results in non-sensible text or, in this case, a string of question marks.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, install the Oracle client version 7.3 or later, which installs the components that are needed to create an ODBC Data Source.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/8/2003
Keywords:kbbug kbnofix kbOracle KB304537
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