Inconsistent Linked Server Query Results

Hello,

I have a linked server named 'Charlie_File' to an Excel Workbook that I set up in SQLServer 2005 Management Studio. The workbook is on my local C drive. Sometimes, I get the results back that I expect when I run the following query;

SELECT*FROMOPENQUERY(Charlie_file,'SELECT * FROM [Feb$]')

Sometimes, on subsequent runs of the above query, I get the following message;

Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The OLE DB provider "MSDASQL" for linked server "Charlie_file" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7303, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "MSDASQL" for linked server "Charlie_file".

There seems to be about a minute or so of a delay before the query will run correctly on subsequent attempts. Is there a connection issue here where a connection blocks subsequent attempts to select the data within a specific time span?

Thank you for your help!

cdun2

It turns out that the problem was with security settings on the linked server. I didn't have a mapping set up between the linked server and the SQL Server login for myself, so under 'For a login not defined in the list above, connections will;' I selected 'Be made using the login's current security context.'

cdun2