What does HRESULT 0x800401D0 (CLIPBRD_E_CANT_OPEN) mean?

CLIPBRD_E_CANT_OPEN

CLIPBRD_E_CANT_OPEN (0x800401D0) means that the clipboard could not be opened. OLE functions such as OleFlushClipboard can return this HRESULT when their internal call to OpenClipboard fails.

What usually matters

OpenClipboard fails when another window already has the clipboard open. Record the thread, window, and operation that failed, and check whether your own code has a successful OpenClipboard path that can exit without calling CloseClipboard.

• Keep the clipboard transaction short; do not hold it while doing unrelated UI, I/O, or RPC work.
• If contention is transient, use a bounded retry after the other owner releases the clipboard rather than a tight loop.
• If the HRESULT comes from OLE, preserve whether it was raised by OleSetClipboard, OleGetClipboard, or OleFlushClipboard.

Verification

Repeat the same clipboard operation and confirm that every successful open is paired with a close, including exception and early-return paths.

Technical references

• Microsoft: OpenClipboard.
• Microsoft: OleFlushClipboard.
• Microsoft: generic COM error codes.