Geoff,

> I cant really be much help, I can only say that the problem does not
> occur with my dialect 3 databases. I am currently upto 4.2.Fb but I
> am pretty sure a couple of the apps I am using have not been
> recompiled on the latest releases, so I dont think the problem is in
> IBO.

Strangely enough, both IBConsole and isql do connect. That's why I think
it must be IBO related.

> The best I can suggest is that you scan your disk for GDS32.DLL
> instances. Also, given the currently manual install

"manual install" rang a bell indeed. I forgot to copy the new gds32.dll
in system32.
Anyway, that didn't solve the problem.

> make sure you are
> not attempting to run multiple instances of the server (make sure any
> old service instances are disabled if they still exist).

The services have the same names and in addition they have been
installed in the same directory, so I am pretty sure I have only one
instance running.

> I mostly run FB as an app under Win2k-Pro (SP2) and disable the
> services, although I doubt if that is likely to make any difference. I
> do this so that I can easily switch between different server versions
> for testing.

I have tried running FB as an application.
The error message is now "operating system directive CreateFile failed".
It seems that now IB_SQL somehow handled the error more gracefully,
since it doesn't pretend to be connected as before.
I am the administrator of the machine, though (whereas when it runs as a
service it uses the system local account).

I'll try to connect from Delphi and see if the call stack helps.
Ciao
--
____
_/\/ando