"Could not find installable ISAM" (0x80004005) error message when you try to set session-level Jet properties (318161)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to set custom, provider-specific properties for the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet in the ADO OLE DB connection string, you receive the following error message:

Could not find installable ISAM
Error Code: 0x80004005 (or -2147467259)

CAUSE

The Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet includes many custom properties that you can set only after you establish a connection to the database. These provider-specific properties are custom OLE DB session properties. You cannot set these properties in the ADO OLE DB connection string; you must set these properties after the connection is opened.

This error occurs when you specify the following Jet-specific properties in the connection string:

Jet OLEDB:ODBC Command Time Out
Jet OLEDB:Max Locks Per File
Jet OLEDB:Implicit Commit Sync
Jet OLEDB:Flush Transaction Timeout
Jet OLEDB:Lock Delay
Jet OLEDB:Max Buffer Size
Jet OLEDB:User Commit Sync
Jet OLEDB:Lock Retry
Jet OLEDB:Exclusive Async Delay
Jet OLEDB:Shared Async Delay
Jet OLEDB:Page Timeout
Jet OLEDB:Recycle Long-Valued Pages
Jet OLEDB:Reset ISAM Stats
Jet OLEDB:Connection Control
Jet OLEDB:ODBC Parsing
Jet OLEDB:Page Locks to Table Lock
Jet OLEDB:Sandbox Mode
Jet OLEDB:Transaction Commit Mode

RESOLUTION

In ADO 2.7 or earlier, you can set the provider-specific properties after you establish a connection to the database. For example:

Dim cnn As New ADODB.Connection
cnn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;"
cnn.Properties("Jet OLEDB:Max Buffer Size") = 256

In ADO.NET, you cannot set OLE DB session-level, provider-specific properties. Because ADO.NET is a disconnected model, you do not typically have to set these properties unless you have a live connection to the database.

MORE INFORMATION

Reproduce the behavior in ADO 2.7 or earlier

The following ADO code reproduces the "Could not find installable ISAM" error:

Dim cnn As New ADODB.Connection
cnn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\db1.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Max Buffer Size=256;"

Reproduce the behavior in ADO.NET

The following ADO.NET C# code reproduces the "Could not find installable ISAM" error:

try
{
    OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\\DB1.MDB;Jet OLEDB:Max Buffer Size=256;"); 
    conn.Open();
}
catch(OleDbException e)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Error code= "+ e.ErrorCode.ToString("X")+"\nError Description="+e.Message);
}

REFERENCES

For more information about provider-specific properties for the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet, see the following Microsoft Web site:

Microsoft Jet Provider custom properties
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ado270/htm/mdrefjetprovspec.asp