Error When You Connect to OLAP After You Install SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services

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This article was previously published under Q282037

Symptoms

In Microsoft Excel 2002 and in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, when you try to connect to an OLAP data source, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

Initialization of the data source failed.

Check the database server or contact your database administrator. Make sure the external database is available, and then try the operation again. If you see this message again, create a new data source to connect to the database.

-or-

When you click Connect in the Create New Data Source dialog box, nothing happens.

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Cause

This problem occurs when you install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services after you install Excel, and you then attempt to create or refresh a PivotTable Report that connects to an OLAP data source.

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Workaround

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1.	In Microsoft Excel, click Detect and Repair on the Help menu.
2.	Click to clear the Restore my shortcuts while repairing and Discard my customized settings and restore default settings check boxes.
3.	Click Start.

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