The specified module could not be found. Exception

Question

Im getting the following message on a messagebox shown from visual studio when I try to do any modifications on an sql server database from visual studio's server explorer on my 64bit machine at home. The database was created and filled on a 32bit machine. Any thoughts?

EDIT:

Fixed it by replacing the corrupted dll located here: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Visual Database Tools\dsref80.dll"

Answer 1

My problem was largely the same.

I was unable to create database diagram. Visual Studio 2010 would just silently fail, but SQL Server Management Studio gave the error message "The specified module could not be found. (MS Visual Database Tools)". This happened after having tried (and removed) the new Visual Studio beta.

Your solution brought me in the right direction. But instead of the dsref80.dll file, my problem was the whole folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8. After removing that folder and inserting a copy from a virtual machine (repairing VS would probably have worked also), everything is working again!

Answer 2

I was experiencing this same error on Visual Studio Professional 2012 Version 11.0.61030.00 Update 4 and solved it by going to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Visual Database Tools and renaming the dsref80.dll file to desref80.old.dll and then running the "Repair" action on my Visual Studio installation. When repairing, the Visual Studio repair dialog told me it couldn't locate the package source since I didn't have the installation disc available, so I just selected the "Download" option and it worked. This installs the appropriate version of the desref80.dll file.

Answer 3

f you think you may have this problem, just replace your files with a copy from another SQL Server 2008R2/Visual Studio 2008 Installation, that is working, as follows:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\msddslm.dll

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\msdds.dll

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\msddsf.dll

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\msddslmp.dll

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\msddsp.dll

Answer 4

Just as a bit of a heads-up to anyone else coming here from Google...

This happened (for me, and most people here) as a result of installing VS11 Beta, and then un-installing VS11 Beta without installing VS2012. Replacing the DLLs mentioned above, and optionally the DLLs located in the path below, seemed to fix the problems.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8\*.dll

Answer 5

I ran into this problem trying to use the SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), which uses Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode). Every time I tried to create a new Integration Services Project, I was getting an error, "... The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E) (System.Windows.Forms) ...".

As other posters have noted, the files in MSDesigners8 seem to be corrupted. I didn't think to install SQL Server 2008 R2 BIDS in a virtual machine to get copies of the DLL's to put into that folder, but I found a solution which seems to work: installing the Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) SP1.

Before that, I renamed the MSDesigners8 folder to MSDesigners8_old (and the .dll files were also renamed .dllold. I don't think that matters necessarily; I'm including it here only in case it does matter). I tried repairing as well as reinstalling BIDS, but it did not recreate the MSDesigners8 folder. Installing SP1 did.

After that, it may also take a reinstall of BIDS, but it may not. Good luck!