Visual Basic Sterling ActiveX Error - vb.net

Question

I'm new to Visual Basic, and I'm having trouble with a program that I'm working on. I'm using the Sterling ActiveX library to create a basic functional program that does an easy task (sending an order) for the Sterling Trader software. I'm just trying to make something basic that works and that I can build off of. Here's my code so far:
Imports SterlingLib
Public Class Form1
Dim WithEvents m_STIEvents As STIEvents
Private Declare Sub GetLocalTime Lib "kernel32" (ByRef lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME)
Private Structure SYSTEMTIME
Dim wYear As Short
Dim wMonth As Short
Dim wDayOfWeek As Short
Dim wDay As Short
Dim wHour As Short
Dim wMinute As Short
Dim wSecond As Short
Dim wMilliseconds As Short
End Structure
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
m_STIEvents = New STIEvents
End Sub
Private Sub m_STIEvents_OnSTIOrderUpdateMsg(ByVal oSTIOrderUpdateMsg As SterlingLib.STIOrderUpdateMsg) Handles m_STIEvents.OnSTIOrderUpdateMsg
Dim order As STIOrder
order = New STIOrder
Dim storder As structSTIOrder
storder.bstrAccount = "ACCT7"
storder.bstrSide = "B"
storder.bstrSymbol = "CSCO"
order.Quantity = "500"
storder.bstrStrPriceType = SterlingLib.STIPriceTypes.ptSTIMkt
storder.bstrTif = "D"
storder.bstrDestination = "NYSE"
Dim theTime As SYSTEMTIME
GetLocalTime(theTime)
storder.bstrClOrderId = storder.bstrAccount & theTime.wYear & theTime.wMonth & theTime.wDay & theTime.wHour & theTime.wMinute & theTime.wSecond & theTime.wMilliseconds
Dim ret As Integer
ret = order.SubmitOrder
End Sub
Private Function Text1() As Object
Throw New NotImplementedException
End Function
End Class
When I run this program, I get the following error:
"Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {5E89F49B-6A12-420F-8570-E510EF1B580A} failed due to the following error: 800700c1."
What does this mean, and how can I correct it? When I debug, it highlights "m_STIEvents = New STIEvents" as the line where things are going wrong, but I can't figure it out.

Answer 1

You can reverse-engineer the error code, 0x800700c1. If not through Google then by design. The 8 makes it an error. The 7 is the "facility code", where the error originated, 7 means Windows. Which makes the last 4 digits a Windows error code. 0x00c1 = error 193. Which you can lookup many ways, one is by looking at the Windows SDK's WinError.h file:
//
// MessageId: ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT
//
// MessageText:
//
// %1 is not a valid Win32 application.
//
#define ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT 193L
The kind of error code that's invariably generated on a 64-bit operating system. Running 64-bit code and trying to load a legacy 32-bit ActiveX component.
Which suggests the easy fix: right-click your EXE project in the Solution Explorer windows. Properties, Compile tab, scroll down, Advanced Compile Options button. Change the Target CPU setting to "x86" to force your VB.NET code to run in 32-bit mode so it can load that ActiveX control. Or if it is already set to x86 then change it to "AnyCPU" to take care of the oddball chance that this is a 64-bit ActiveX control.
Contact the vendor of the component if that didn't work or you have any additional problems.

Answer 2

I don't know if you have solved this problem. The way I solved it was installing vb6 on my computer. I tried all the other ways and none of those works. This API is pretty old. Install vb6 solved my problem. Also if you want the program work, you have to login sterling trader pro. Good luck.