"The server threw an exception error" when running Excel-to-CSV.Vbs

Hi,
new to the forum, I am encountering an issue that is driving me mad I cannot find a solution anywhere to fix it.


I am running this script below from cmd prompt calling it with this command line: Excel-to-Csv.vbs test.xlsx test.csv (where test.xlsx is a NON-empty .xlsx file and test.csv is expected to be the output file, i.e. it is a conversion of a file from .xlsx to .csv).
-----------------------------------------------------
if WScript.Arguments.Count < 2 Then
WScript.Echo "Please specify the source and the destination files. Usage: ExcelToCsv <xls/xlsx source file> <csv destination file>"
Wscript.Quit
End If

csv_format = 6

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

src_file = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(Wscript.Arguments.Item(0))
dest_file = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(WScript.Arguments.Item(1))

Dim oExcel
Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")

Dim oBook
Set oBook = oExcel.Workbooks.Open(src_file)

oBook.SaveAs dest_file, csv_format

oBook.Close False
oExcel.Quit
-----------------------------------------------

I have Excel 2007 installed on a Windows 7 Home edition - 64 bit PC.

As I said, the script (used to) simply converts a .xlsx/.xls file to a .csv file, but recently it stopped working
and when I run the script, I get this error message as seen in image below, I cannot understand why it comes out.
Any idea how to fix this?

Line: 17
Char: 1
Error:The server threw an exception
Code: 80010105
Source: (null)

Here is a screenshot of the error:

tried to run the command line you proposed changing the red text with the actual directory/file, I hope I did it right, this is what I get:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Console2>(New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application).Workbooks.Open("C:\AT\temp\test.xlsx")
.Workbooks.Open("C:\AT\temp\test.xlsx") was unexpected at this time.

Wow, this worked! (from any directory not just from desktop)
Thank you so much!

Just one question: previously the script just converted directly the file from .xlsx to .csv, in a nanosecond, while now:
-it opens up Excel
-then it opens up the input file
- then it waits ~1 second, then it closes Excel.
At that point the .csv has been created, no error messages.

I wonder if basically the issue is that it is necessary to open first Excel?

I am asking because I have found a similar issue with a Perl script I have: it used to work fine, then it started to give me an error:
Win32::OLE(0.1709) error 0x80010105: "The server threw an exception"
in METHOD/PROPERTYGET "Open" at C:\AT\temp\excel-matrix-writer.pl line 61

Note that this happened exactly at the same time when the above .vbs started to give the similar "The server threw an exception" error, so I think this may originate from the same problem.

I resolved that issue for that Perl script by creating a .bat that contained this instruction BEFORE the Perl command line:
start input.xlsx

So basically Excel was started before launching the Perl command line and with this workaround it worked, no error messages.

It seems you have used something similar to solve the .vbs issue subject of this thread, I do not know if you agree.

I am just trying to see if I can get to the root of the problem in Windows and solve it once forever without having to resort to start-Excel-first workarounds.