Classic ASP - Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers Error ‘80040e14’

Overview of the Issue

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the world of Classic ASP and explore a common error that developers often encounter when connecting to databases using the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers. The specific error message ‘80040e14’ can be frustrating to troubleshoot, but don’t worry – we’ll break down the issue step by step.

Understanding the Error

The ‘80040e14’ error code is a generic error returned by the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers when it encounters an unknown or unhandled exception. This error typically occurs during database operations such as opening connections, executing queries, or manipulating data.

To better understand this error, let’s take a look at the underlying causes and contributing factors that might lead to ‘80040e14’ being thrown:

The OLE DB provider is unable to establish a connection to the specified database server.
There are issues with the SQL Server configuration or its configuration.
There may be problems related to your credentials (user ID/Password).
The error might also result from incorrect data types, incorrect commands or syntax.

Reviewing the Classic ASP Code

In this section, we’ll examine the provided Classic ASP code snippet that might be causing the issue:

Dim myConn
Dim strCnn

Set myConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

strCnn = "Driver={SQL Server}; Server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS; Database=DATABASE; UID=USER; PWD=1234567890"

myConn.ConnectionTimeOut = 180
myConn.CommandTimeOut = 180

' Opening the database connection
myConn.Open strCnn

The following code block illustrates how to open a database connection using ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) in Classic ASP. It sets up an object variable named myConn and then sets up another string variable called strCnn, which represents the database configuration.

Database Connection Settings

When connecting to SQL Server, you need to specify several settings:

Driver: The driver is used by ADO to determine how to connect to the server. In this case, we’re using the OLE DB provider for ODBC drivers.
Server: This specifies the name of the SQL Server instance that you want to connect to.
Database: This indicates which database on the server to use.
UID (User ID): The username used by the application to authenticate with the SQL Server instance.
PWD (Password): The password associated with the user.

In this example, strCnn includes these settings. It also specifies a connection timeout of 180 seconds and a command timeout of 180 seconds. These timeouts are typically set to balance performance with responsiveness.

Troubleshooting Steps

Given that database connections seem successful (the error message does not explicitly state an issue related to the server), it’s time to narrow down potential causes for the ‘80040e14’ error code:

Check if your credentials are correct. Incorrect user ID/PWD combinations can cause issues.
Make sure SQL Server is correctly configured and running on (local)\SQLEXPRESS.
Verify that there are no syntax errors in stored procedures.

In this case, the answer lies with the configuration settings of SQL Server or ODBC Driver.

Error Handling

To troubleshoot this error, you need to handle exceptions thrown by the myConn.Open method. If an exception occurs during database operations, you can catch it and display a meaningful message to the user.

Here’s how you could do that:

Dim myConn
Dim strCnn

Set myConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

strCnn = "Driver={SQL Server}; Server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS; Database=DATABASE; UID=USER; PWD=1234567890"

myConn.ConnectionTimeOut = 180
myConn.CommandTimeOut = 180

On Error Resume Next

' Opening the database connection
myConn.Open strCnn

If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    Response.Write "An error occurred: " & Err.Description
Else
    ' Database operations code goes here...
End If

Err.Clear
Err.Delete

In this modified code block:

The On Error Resume Next statement enables error handling, so if an exception occurs, the script will continue running and try to resolve the issue.
After attempting to open the database connection, we check the Err.Number variable. If it’s not equal to 0 (which means there was no error), then everything went well, and we execute our database operations code.
To better handle potential errors, we clear any existing errors with Err.Clear and delete them with Err.Delete.

Conclusion

The ‘80040e14’ error message can sometimes be challenging to identify the root cause of, but by following these steps and troubleshooting methods outlined in this blog post, you should be able to get closer to resolving issues related to database connections.

When dealing with database operations using ADO in Classic ASP, it’s always a good idea to thoroughly test your code and ensure that all credentials, database settings, and query syntax are correct.

Last modified on 2023-09-20