Q181894: PRB: "The Remote Procedure Call Failed" During OLE Automation

Article: Q181894
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): 4.0,5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kberrmsg kbole kbAutomation kbCOMt kbMFC kbThread kbVC400 kbVC500 kbVC600 kbGrpDSMFCATL
Last Modified: 13-JUN-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual C++, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Learning Edition, version 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++.NET (2002) 
- Microsoft Office 97 for Windows 
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SYMPTOMS
========

You are performing intensive OLE Automation, most likely in a loop without user
intervention, and receive the following error:

  The remote procedure call failed.

CAUSE
=====

Every thread that uses COM or OLE must call CoInitialize() or OleInitialize(),
respectively. When this call is made, the OS creates a hidden top-level window,
owned by your thread, for implementation purposes. Because the OS relies on
Windows messaging behind-the-scenes, your thread should, and in some cases MUST,
pump messages. Failure to do so can result in automation errors, and sometimes
in a deadlock situation when another application broadcasts a message to all
top-level windows (for example, an application might broadcast a WM_WININICHANGE
or WM_SETTINGCHANGE message to notify other applications the default printer has
changed).

RESOLUTION
==========

If you are using OLE Automation in a loop (for example, writing out 10,000 rows
of data to Microsoft Excel), you need a PeekMessage() loop inside your loop so
that messages will get processed.

STATUS
======

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Here is an example of a PeekMessage() loop you can use in your code.

     MSG msg;
     while(PeekMessage(&msg, NULL, NULL, NULL, PM_REMOVE)) {
        TranslateMessage(&msg);
        DispatchMessage(&msg);
     }

REFERENCES
==========

Microsoft Visual C++ online for PeekMessage().

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q136885 INFO: OLE Threads Must Dispatch Messages

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Joe Crump, Microsoft Corporation


Additional query words: excel office rpc -2147418095 800706BE 0x800706BE 1726

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Keywords          : kberrmsg kbole kbAutomation kbCOMt kbMFC kbThread kbVC400 kbVC500 kbVC600 kbGrpDSMFCATL 
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbVC400 kbOfficeSearch kbAudDeveloper kbOffice97Search kbOffice97 kbVC500 kbVC600 kbVC32bitSearch kbVCNET kbVC500Search
Version           : :4.0,5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbprb

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