Simple Visual Basic application crashes Excel with VBA7.1\vbe7.dll faulting module

Question

When using a VISA-COM library 5.13 of from Keysight IO Libraries Suite in a VBA program, Excel crashes and closes.

The crash seems to occur with only a certain version of Excel released recently.

September 14: Version 2108 (Build 14326.20404) crash does not occur

September 28: Version 2109 (Build 14430.20234) crash occurs

In 1 out of 4 cases, the event improved with the version upgrade of Excel on October 12th.

October 12: Version 2109 (Build 14430.20298)

Checked the VISA-COM library and there are no errors in that library.

The VBA version should be 7.1.

Windows Event Viewer - Application.evtx shows an Excel application error:

Faulting application name: EXCEL.EXE, version: 16.0.14527.20226, time stamp: 0x617358db

Faulting module name: VBE7.DLL, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x612d1ff0

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000xxx

Faulting process id: 0x5e0

Faulting application start time: 0x01d7cebcxxxx

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA7.1\VBE7.DLL

Report Id: 5bece173-xxxx-4675-b0d3-3eexxxxxxxx

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Name: APPCRASH

Response: 使用不可

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: EXCEL.EXE

P2: 16.0.14527.20226

P3: 617358db

P4: VBE7.DLL

P5: 0.0.0.0

P6: 612d1ff0

P7: c0000005

P8: 000caa4a

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

\?\D:\Users\Morio\Documents\tmp\20211101-VisaComExcel\FMIO-01.xlsm

\?\C:\Users\Morio\AppData\Local\Temp{5F0FB6B6-1BA5-437E-A82F-3FC60771800E} - OProcSessId.dat

\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERxxx.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERxxx8.tmp.xml

\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERxxx8.tmp.csv

\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WERxxx7.tmp.txt

These files may be available here:

\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_EXCEL.EXE_66b6ff9f3bexxxxxxxxxxxx_00000000_39xxxxx81-4f0f-bb09-fxxxxxx

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 5bece173-d178-4675-b0d3-xxxxxxxxx

Report Status: 268435456

Hashed bucket: a316a20440dfe77axxxxxxxx

Cab Guid: 0

1. These crashes seem to be occurring in Excel with possibly Japanese regional language settings. Have others seen these vbe7.dll related crashes?
2. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot further?
3. I find it difficult to get these exact Excel version installers, do you have any suggestions on how to get these so that I can replicate the crash on the same version of Excel?
4. I found a thread suggesting to turn off the Compile on Demand and I'm trying to track down the bit-ness of these Excel's to see if they are all 32-bit or 64-bit?

Answer 1

I am having the same problem. Reinstalling Office also didn't work.

Answer 2

Some other Keysight engineers managed to get some feedback from a Microsoft engineer. The following was the root cause of the crash so updating your MS Office version to the one release on January 27, 2022 and beyond should fix the issue.

About this problem, we had investigated the root cause with a Microsoft engineer and found the followings.

1) Excel uses the VBE7.dll to exeucte VBA program and the VBE7.dll, which file verstion is greater than or equal to 7.1.11.13 and less than or equal to 7.1.11.17, has a defect.
2) The defect is that the VBE7.dll cannot execute COMs without IDispatch interface.
3) VISA COM has an IUnknown interface, but it does not have the IDispatch interface, then VBE7.dll with the defect cannot executes the VISA COM.
4) The latest Office version, which was published at January 27 as the "Current Channel", has VBE7.dll file version 7.1.11.18 and the VBE7.dll can execute COMs without IDispatch interface.

Then the latest Excel can execute VISA COM.