Visual Studio 11 Beta => broken MS Visual Database Tools

Question

I've had MS SQL Server 2008 R2 and VS 2010 Pro running happily for quite a while.  I took the plunge and installed VS 2011 Beta - after which I had all kinds of issues, so I uninstalled it.

Now, anytime I try to open a Database diagram in MS SQL Server Managment Studio it shows this error:

===================================

The specified module could not be found.
 (MS Visual Database Tools)

------------------------------
Program Location:

   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.NativeMethods.ThrowOnFailure(Int32 hr)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.VirtualProject.CreateDesigner(Urn origUrn, DocumentType editorType, DocumentOptions aeOptions, IManagedConnection con, String fileName)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.VirtualProject.Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.ISqlVirtualProject.CreateDesigner(Urn origUrn, DocumentType editorType, DocumentOptions aeOptions, IManagedConnection con, String fileName)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.ISqlVirtualProject.CreateDesigner(Urn origUrn, DocumentType editorType, DocumentOptions aeOptions, IManagedConnection con, String fileName)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.ScriptFactory.CreateDesigner(DocumentType editorType, DocumentOptions aeOptions, Urn parentUrn, IManagedConnection mc, String fileName)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.Editors.VsDocumentMenuItem.CreateDesignerWindow(IManagedConnection mc, DocumentOptions options)

So, I tried googling for this error, and it seems a lot of people have it.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlexpress/thread/ee141933-6334-4995-a8c5-2c1adeb47409

The original poster ended up reformatting his drive.  One of the commenters posted a different solution:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/vstsdb/thread/d65c71f5-3887-4f2a-bbd3-e799a4ac6fdc

His fix did not work for me.  I copied the .dll from a different computer and overwrote the DLL at C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Visual Database Tools\dsref80.dll

But it did not fix the problem.

So, I spent the entire day yesterday:

a) Uninstalling everything related to Visual Studio, SQL Server -- I pretty much *all* Microsoft related software; I manually deleted any additional folders under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft* that were left behind.  I manually deleted any additional folders under C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft* that were left behind

b) Re-installing Visual Studio 2010 Pro

c) Re-applying all service packs and updates

d) Re-installing MS SQL Server 2008 R2

e) Re-applying all service packs and updates

It is *still* broken.  This took me the entire day, and it is extremely frustrating.  I fear the problem may lie in the registry somewhere but I have no idea where.

I will lose another entire day if I have to re-format the drive and re-install everything from scratch.  Please tell me there is an alternative solution to this?

Answer 1

I also tried the recommendation in the links above:

Remove the dsref80.dll and do a Visual Studio repair.  This did not fix the problem.  After running the repair, it said Visual Studio 2010 setup is complete.  Setup completed, however, some warnings were detected.

Here are the contents of the Error Log:

[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #GDR.cab
[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #QFE.cab
[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #SP.cab
***EndOfSession***[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #GDR.cab
[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #QFE.cab
[05/08/12,11:41:19] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #SP.cab
[05/09/12,11:03:41] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #GDR.cab
[05/09/12,11:03:41] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #QFE.cab
[05/09/12,11:03:41] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #SP.cab
[05/09/12,11:19:18] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #GDR.cab
[05/09/12,11:19:18] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #QFE.cab
[05/09/12,11:19:18] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional - ENU: [2] UpdateFileFetcherFromMsi: Warning: Missing fwlink entry for cabinet: #SP.cab
***EndOfSession***

Answer 2

Hello zenocon,

Another community member encountered the similar issue as you, and for his scenario the root cause is missing the 'msvcr11.dll'. To deal with it is to install that dll back by installing 'packages\vcRuntimeMinimum_x86\vcRuntimeMinimum_x86.msi'. For more information please see: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqltools/thread/6a159935-b454-4e95-9553-32a4b390adf1 

If the above thread is not in the same scenario as yours, I think you shoud use process monitor to to check if there is any assemblies load errors when you open database diagrams in SSMS. And then do the according actions based on what you find with the Process Monitor.

In addition, as your issue is more related to SQL Server Tools, I think you'd better reopen one new case on the SQL Server Tools forum as well http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqltools/threads 

Thanks.

---

Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 3

I can confirm that it does fix it.  You have to extract the vcRunTimeMinimum_x86.msi and vcRunTimeMinimum_amd64.msi packages to a temp dir, and then copy the dlls to:

C:\windows\system32 <= AMD64 dlls go in here

C:\windows\syswow65 <= x86 dlls go in here

The filenames are:

atl110.dll

msvcp110.dll

msvcr110.dll

vccorlib110.dll

After doing this and restarting SSMS the database diagrams worked again.

Answer 4

I can confirm this.

Also, i can confirm that indeed the x86 files go into the SysWow64 folder and visa versa. 

Nice, finally a fix this annoying bug!!