David, I am getting to the point that I believe it is an OS problem.
I just downloaded and implemented VS6 SP1 Core download which claims to fix binary compatibility bugs with certain runtime redistributable files.
Stills the problem persists. What is funny about this David, is that after rebooting upon completion of the SP. I tried pasting the 5 lines of code onto the command box, highlighted the code, right clicked and executed the code. It work fine! Tried it again thereafter and it fails miserably!