What does HRESULT 0x80040E44 (DB_E_BADPROPERTYVALUE) mean?

DB_E_BADPROPERTYVALUE

Meaning

Windows documents DB_E_BADPROPERTYVALUE as “Property value is invalid”. Here, an OLE DB property is assigned a value invalid for that property.

Relevant OLE DB contract

This result must be interpreted against this contract: OLE DB objects follow both COM lifetime rules and provider-specific state contracts; open dependents, ownership transfer, aggregation, callbacks and namespace identity must be traced from the exact interface call rather than inferred from a wrapper exception.

Start with the COM object that returned the result and every dependent interface or provider-owned resource involved in the call when investigating this result.

Diagnostic sequence

1. Capture this result immediately at the native OLE DB return and obtain the current OLE DB error object before another COM call replaces thread error information.
2. Identify the exact stage: an OLE DB property is assigned a value invalid for that property.

Specific conditions that produce it

• Cause 1: the VARIANT type does not match the property's required type.
• Cause 2: the value is outside the supported enumeration or numeric range.
• Cause 3: the property conflicts with another requested property.

Evidence to collect before changing the system

• Evidence 1: the property set GUID, property ID and VARIANT type.
• Evidence 2: DBPROPSTATUS for the property.
• Evidence 3: provider property information and current conflicting values.

Corrective actions

• Action 1: query property metadata before assignment.
• Action 2: validate type and range for each property.
• Action 3: handle properties-in-error individually rather than discarding all diagnostics.

Retry and recovery policy

Retry rule: retry after correcting or removing the specific property value.

Difference from related HRESULT values

DB_E_BADVALUES is a broad invalid-value result, while DB_E_BADPROPERTYVALUE specifically identifies an OLE DB property value.

Practical incident

A rowset request sets a Boolean property using a string VARIANT; constructing the required VT_BOOL value prevents it.

Official Microsoft references

• Microsoft: overview of OLE DB
• Microsoft: OLE DB interfaces
• Microsoft: IErrorRecords