Windows Update 2019-08 Cumulative Update has broken VBA code use case

Anonymous
2019-08-14T10:33:56+00:00

An issue with VBA code has started to be seen by some of my users and also by me this morning. I have tracked it down to have been caused by the latest 2019-08 Cumulative Update (e.g. KB4511553) and it is affecting all combinations of Windows and Office that I have seen so far- from Windows Server 2008 to Windows 10 & Office 2003(!) to Office 2016. 

The test code below demonstrates the problem. The method "Test" executes with no errors before the 2019-08 cumulative update is installed (or after it is uninstalled). However, after the update, the scenario of passing an empty ParamArray parameter to another method as a Variant parameter causes an error to be thrown on the declaration line of the second method. (Error 5: Invalid procedure call or argument).

Sub Test()

    Test1 "A", "B"   'Works OK with and without Windows Update

    Test1            'Fails after Windows Update

End Sub

Sub Test1(ParamArray P() As Variant)

    Test2 P

End Sub

Sub Test2(ByVal P As Variant)    'Error occurs on this line

End Sub

This is causing errors in my Microsoft Access application, but I have also tried this code in Word 2016 and the same issue occurs there too.

Can somebody validate this, please? I'm not really sure what the correct way of reporting this problem is.

Thanks

Chris

Microsoft 365 and Office | Access | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T18:09:45+00:00

    NigelO,

    OK, let's be more specific.  The bug that affected many VBA, VB6, and other types of apps was actually a bug introduced in the oleaut32.dll. It was very specific to copying an empty safearray to a variant. The bug introduced an error return that would indicate that a parameter was invalid because it wasn't expecting the array to be empty, even though that was actually allowed. This sometimes manifested as an error when calling a procedure if the procedure expected a ParamArray, but the calling function would leave that empty. It could also appear as a similar error if assigning an empty array to a variable.

    Does this resemble the problem you're having?  If not, then you're facing a different issue, and we should start a new thread to discuss it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T16:53:35+00:00

    edit - I've just manually applied the latest build - 18362.388 - no change - my VBA still fails

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T15:43:26+00:00

    Hi ScotBren - I disagree - the issue that hit me after the release of KB4511553 is still happening

    I can prove this - a small (but critical) part of the VBA in my workbook fails under all builds since KB4511553 and it still works on any Win10 build prior to that

    Is my Win 10 build current? I have Automatic Windows upates turned on, but the build info is 1903 18362.356 - is there a more up to date version?

    I've also applied an Office update this morning, but it didn't make any difference

    I'm half-decent with a PC, but I'm really struggling on this - any help would be appreciated

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T14:43:43+00:00

    The bug that was discussed in this thread has been fixed, and all supported builds of Windows have gotten an update that fixes it. If you are current on all your Windows updates, then the problems you are experiencing now are different than the one we've discussed. So that your persistent issues don't get confused with the bug in this thread, perhaps you should start a new thread to discuss what problems you're still facing.

    Scot

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-10-04T14:35:49+00:00

    Has this issue been resolved yet? I've seen various Windows and Office updates during September, but the hefty VBA-laden workbook I run is still having problems.

    It's definitely nothing to do with the workbook, as I have a VM with an earlier build of Win10 and it works fine on that

    Can anyone point me to a fix please?

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