Failure to open workbook via automation
 

Hello,
I have a VB6/Excel/Word VBA app. The VB6 frontend opens the main EXcel VBA
app via automation and it has normally worked before including my development
bed of Win XP Pro and Office 2003 as well as earlier generations of the app.
However, recently running the app under Virtual PC 2004 as Win 98 and Office
97, the vb front end won't open the Excel app and gives the unhelpful error
"<Executable name executed an invalid instruction in module <unknown at
0000:00000017."
It does the same thing on another Excel workbook.
Since I have developed the app on my host Win xp system, I am trying to
avoid having to install VB6 on the Virtual PC guest machine unless necessary.
But does anyone have any ideas what could be the issue and how to resolve?
Thanks, God bless
Van