Need some help diagnosing SEHException External component has thrown an exception - vb.net

Question

Windows Forms application using VB.Net and VS2012. Connecting to an Access database using Access Runtime 2013. The app is compiled to target x86. The problem is intermittent and occurs on multiple different PC's randomly, and accessing a database on a local hard drive.
Using cn As New OleDbConnection
System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.WaitCursor
If Not OpenDBConnection(cn) Then
System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Default
MsgBox("Unable to make database connection to update screen status.", MsgBoxStyle.OkOnly, "Database Connection Error (MMUN1)")
Exit Sub
End If
'continue processing....
end using
Public Function OpenAccessConnection(ByRef conn As OleDb.OleDbConnection) As Boolean
Dim builder As New OleDbConnectionStringBuilder()
'conn.Provider = "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0"
Try
builder.ConnectionString = "Data Source=" & DPATH & DBNAME
builder.Add("Provider", "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB." & ACCESSVER & ".0") 'ACCESSVER is '12'
conn.ConnectionString = builder.ConnectionString
System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.WaitCursor
conn.Open()
System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Default
Return True
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox("Unable to make Access connection. Error# " & Err.Number & " " & ErrorToString() & " " & ex.ToString, MsgBoxStyle.OkOnly, "Database Connection Error (OLEOPN1)")
Return False
Finally
builder.Clear()
builder = Nothing
End Try
End Function
Public Function OpenDBConnection(ByRef conn As OleDbConnection) As Boolean
'I know this is an extraneous function call but it is in transition from multiple prior uses and I thought I had better not exclude it from this post in case it mattered for some reason
OpenDBConnection = OpenAccessConnection(conn)
End Function
Error being returned intermittently:
I have read many of the posts on this topic and have not found a solution, and frankly am not sure where to look. Could this be coming from an earlier application error? Thread/STA issue? If so, what do I do about it? On the development machine, I will on occasion see a DisconnectedContext error, but have not seen the External component error which appears on PC's running the released version. Are these related? Also, there are some ADO (ADODB) connections being made to the database (still trying to replace/upgrade), but these are not open at the time this new connection is being made. But could it be a connection pooling issue? Thanks in advance for any help out there.