Sage 50 ODBC connection fails when task scheduled - VB.Net

Hi guys

My program includes a simple query on Sage 50 via ODBC, something I've programmed hundreds of times before. The Sage data tables are on a network drive. On this particular client's PC (Windows 7, 64 bit), the query ran perfectly every time when run manually, but threw the following errors when scheduled:

ERROR [08001] Cannot find all files in data path
ERROR [01000] The driver returned invalid (or failed to return) SQL_DRIVER_ODBC_VER: 23.1
ERROR [IM006] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed
ERROR [01000] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] The driver doesn't support the version of ODBC behavior that the application requested (see SQLSetEnvAttr).

I checked all the DSNs, drivers and registry and everything seemed OK. I did a search and the only relevant post was one here by RogerMoquin:

Problem with ODBC connection when run from a scheduled task
      
His solution was to insert a two minute delay, though I think his issue was with login.  In my case the program runs long after login. Using his idea, however, I found one solution was to set the program to try to connect, then each time an error exception is raised, it waits two minutes. After 3 tries it consistently connects. (Please note that I changed to a DSN-less connection string, but it still uses the 3 tries).

' Original 
'Dim ConnectionString As String = "DSN=SageLine50v23;UID=MyID;PWD=MyPassword;"
'DSN-less
Dim ConnectionString As String = "Driver={Sage Line 50 v23};DIR=S:\ACCDATA;UID=MyID;PWD=MyPassword;"

....
        Dim Conn As OdbcConnection
        Dim Comm As OdbcCommand
        Dim DR As OdbcDataReader
        Dim SQL As String
        Dim Retry As Boolean = True
        SQL = "SELECT stock_code, qty_in_stock from stock ORDER BY stock_code"
        Conn = New OdbcConnection(ConnectionString)
        Comm = New OdbcCommand(SQL, Conn)
        Do While Retry
            Try
                Tries += 1
                Conn.Open()
                Retry = False
            Catch oe As OdbcException
                If Tries < 3 Then
                    Retry = True
                    Threading.Thread.Sleep(120000) ' wait 2 min
                Else
                    Retry = False
                    ErrCode("Sage Connection " & oe.Message.ToString() & vbCrLf & "[T" & Tries & "]")
                End If
            End Try
        Loop
        Try
            DR = Comm.ExecuteReader()
            While DR.Read()
                CWCode(RecCount) = DR("Stock_code").ToString()
                CWQty(RecCount) = DR("Qty_In_Stock").ToString()
                RecCount += 1
            End While
            DR.Close()

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Firstly I would like to thank RogerMoquin for inspiring my solution. Finally, I would like to understand where the problem lies and if there is a better way of avoiding this in future. Any ideas?