Runtime error '1004' General ODBC error

I'm getting this error when i run a Excel macro which connects to oracle and reads data from a table

Runtime error '1004' General ODBC error

this marco used to work fine, until i installed a Win 2000 patch.

i'm using oracle version 8.1.6

i chked the path and classpath they look good and im able to connect to the same oracle instance using the Oracle ODBC Test and able to run queries.

i use microsoft Excel 2000.

One of the issues that I encountered with using Excel to build a report from a database was due to driver versioning differences. I developed a spreadsheet with multiple worksheets. Each worksheet had its own attached MS Query which connected to an Oracle database view. However, the driver for the ODBC connection that I utilized when attaching the query to each worksheet was the native Oracle driver for the client version installed onto my machine (10.2.0.3). So, if anyone else tried to run the queries to refresh the data in each report, they would receive the same ODBC error as you, unless they had the exact same Oracle Home as me. This was due to the fact that MS Query saves not only the Datasource Name for the ODBC connection that you used to build the query, but also the driver location itself!

So, it is necessary for you to utlize the Microsoft ODBC Driver for Oracle whenever you are attaching Oracle database queries to a worksheet. This enables all users utilizing the document to refresh the data successfully irregardless of the version of the database client software installed onto their machine.

Also, be sure that the table/view owner is fully qualified within your query. There are documented instances of people experienceing ODBC issues whenever they execute database queries without fully qualifying the table or view owner(s) that they are selecting data from.