catastrophic error in excel with rtd link in a conditional format

[Rich Wood]

I have an excel spreadsheet that links to an RTD server. I hide some of the
RTD arguments using a VBA function. One of the cells has a conditional
formatting statement that uses a link to the RTD server via the function. It
works fine on client machines (right now), but on the development machine
when I open the spreadsheet and enable macros, it gives me a message box that
says "Catastrophic Error Automation Error" and then brings up the debugger.
If I enter "Err" in the immediate window it says that there was a compiler
error.

The function that makes the RTD call looks like this:

Function PCQ(symbol As String, field As String)

PCQ = Excel.Application.WorksheetFunction.RTD("PCQ.Preferred", "",
symbol, field)

End Function

The conditional formatting statement looks like this:

=PCQ($A11, B$1)="NA"

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi

This is very general error in COM. It is hard to guess what is the problem.
So far to isolate the problem, I think you may try the following steps.
1. Try to call the RTD function directly in the worksheet and in the VBA
Macro, did the problem persists?
2. Where did you install the RTD server, is it the same one with the one
used by clients which works fine?
If they are on the different, have you tried to use other RTD server?
If other RTD server works, I suggest you reinstall the RTD server.
If other RTD server did not work either, I suggest you reinstall excel.

Please perform the test and let me know the result.
If I have any misunderstanding, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Rich Wood]

Peter,

Thanks for your response.

In following the steps you suggested, I removed the conditional format
statements and was able to open the spreadsheet without the crash. I then
added them back in to try to reproduce the error. However, after adding them
back in, saving and re-opening the spreadsheet, I did not get the error. I've
tried everything I can think of to reproduce the error but can't do it. I did
not change the RTD server dll from the time I was getting the error to now.
The only thing I did was remove the conditional format statements and then
add them back in.

To answer your other questions, each machine runs its own RTD server and
while I was trying to fix the problem, the RTD server calls worked fine,
except when called from a conditional format statement.

Best,
Rich Wood

 

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi

Thanks for your response.
I think there maybe something flaw in the excel sheet, sometime a delete
and redo operation may fix the problem.
If you still have any concern, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Rich Wood]

I eventually did reproduce the error by opening the spreadsheet, selecting
"Disable" when it asked about macros , saving the spreadsheet and re-opening
it.

Best,
Rich Wood

 

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi

Thanks for your update.
I think that is the problem, because if we disable the macro then the code
in the function will not work to call the PCQ macro.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]]

Hi Rich,

I am reviewing the issue thread. Do you have any more concerns on this
issue? If you feel there is any we can do, please feel free to reply here
and we will follow up.

Thanks very much.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

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