> my stored procedure does an insert if the record doesn't exist and update if it does. I really dont want to return a dataset, I just need a rowcount that the record was updated. Somehow ExecNonQuery doesn't work for me.

create procedure UpdateThing( @ThingPK int, @ThingData varchar(20) )
as
   declare @RowCount int;
   update Thing set ThingData = @ThingData where ThingPK = @ThingPK
   set @RowCount = @@ROWCOUNT
   if @RowCount = 0
   begin
      insert into Thing (ThingPK, ThingData) values (@ThingPK,@ThingData)
   set @RowCount = @@ROWCOUNT
   end
   
   select @RowCount as Result;
go

and

object rowcount = this.ExecSprocScalar("UpdateThing", this.CreateParameter("@ThingPK", 4)
                    , this.CreateParameter("@ThingData", "Hello there" ));

if( ! (rowcount is int && (int)rowcount>0) )
{
 throw new Exception("Update failed");
}

ExecNonQuery() won't call a stored procedure by name unless you build the EXEC statement by hand.