AJAXToolkit and Invalid FORMATETC structure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040064 (DV_E_FORMATETC))

less than 1 minute read, October 25, 2007

I was working on our Web 2.0 project today, and I kept getting one of the following errors with Visual Studio 2005 any time I tried to drag and drop an AJAX Toolkit control in my Web Site Project:

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Microsoft Visual Studio
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The operation could not be completed. Invalid FORMATETC structure
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OK  
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Microsoft Visual Studio
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Invalid FORMATETC structure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040064 (DV_E_FORMATETC))
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OK  
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Microsoft Visual Studio
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Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
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OK   Help  
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So, after fighting this error for hours and hours, trying to get my AJAXToolkit Drag & Drop working, the problem turned out to be a solution wide reference problem.

I removed all project references from the solution (actually remove them from the solution by Right Clicking the Project in Solution Explorer > Remove), then added them back one by one. Recompiled, and the problem seemed to go away.

UPDATE 1/23/2008: Please check my other post on this problem.

Microsoft, thanks for another the great and descriptive error message… *sigh*.

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Comments

Matt

December 17, 2007 at 11:10 AM

I also fought this error for hours. I have two sites (a website and an administration website), and one worked when dragging AJAX controls and one didn’t. In the one that didn’t I forgot to include the config section for system.web.extensions in the Web.config file. So apparently, in their wisdom, Microsoft has painted a bunch of errors with the “Invalid FORMATETC structure” brush, and for that I have damned them to the deepest bowels of hell across the span of the last few hours.

Maybe something good will come from the time spent though. Hopefully my tirades have intimidated our newly hired network admins who bore witness to them as they must be broken to our will as quickly as possible. :-)