Changing data links turns combo boxes into images
 

I've created a specifications workbook with many combo boxes which are linked
to a seperate workbook to populate them.
Both of these workbooks were created using Excel 2003 and saved on a mapped
drive.
Our employees connect to the server via a vpn connection using a dsl
internet provider. The workbooks would take over 5 minutes to open, I'm
guessing because of the size of each.
To solve this, I moved the database workbook to a local C drive and tried to
edit the link. After editing the link, the combo boxes change into picture
images.

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance