ORA-12560: TNS: protocol adapter error while linking tables in Access

Question

One of my app dev is encountering an interesting error message while linking Oracle tables from Access. I am not able to able to reproduce this in my desktop or anywhere else. Details enclosed. Can you guys point me to a solution? Thanks in advance!
ODBC: Oracle Client version 10.2.0.1
Desktop : Win XP ; Access 2003
=>Able to login to the Oracle database sucessfully using sqlplus.
=>Able to create an ODBC datasource to Oracle database.("Test Connection" works fine)
=>But encountering the TNS protocol adpater error while linking the table(Access->File->Get External Data-> Link tables).
=>Not able to link any table in any schema in any Oracle database. Hence this is not a data centric issue.
What did I do?
=> Uninstalled Oracle 8 client and installed Oracle 10 client. No luck. Encountering the same error.
=> Turned on the ODBC trace and reproduced the error. The log is enclosed:
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLAllocEnv
          HENV * 0013C620
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLAllocEnv with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HENV * 0x0013C620 ( 0x09d31788)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLAllocConnect
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC * 0013C730
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLAllocConnect with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC * 0x0013C730 ( 0x09d31830)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLSetConnectOption
          HDBC 09D31830
          SQLINTEGER 103 <SQL_LOGIN_TIMEOUT>
          SQLPOINTER 0x00000014
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLSetConnectOption with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HDBC 09D31830
          SQLINTEGER 103 <SQL_LOGIN_TIMEOUT>
          SQLPOINTER 0x00000014 (BADMEM)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLSetConnectAttrW
          SQLHDBC 09D31830
          SQLINTEGER 30002 <unknown>
          SQLPOINTER [Unknown attribute 30002]
          SQLINTEGER -3
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLSetConnectAttrW with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          SQLHDBC 09D31830
          SQLINTEGER 30002 <unknown>
          SQLPOINTER [Unknown attribute 30002]
          SQLINTEGER -3
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLDriverConnectW
          HDBC 09D31830
          HWND 001D04E4
          WCHAR * 0x74329A38 [      -3] "******\ 0"
          SWORD -3
          WCHAR * 0x74329A38
          SWORD 2
          SWORD * 0x00000000
          UWORD 1 <SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE>
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLDriverConnectW with return code -1 (SQL_ERROR)
          HDBC 09D31830
          HWND 001D04E4
          WCHAR * 0x74329A38 [      -3] "******\ 0"
          SWORD -3
          WCHAR * 0x74329A38
          SWORD 2
          SWORD * 0x00000000
          UWORD 1 <SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE>
          DIAG [S1000] [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-12560: TNS: protocol adapter error (12560)
          DIAG [IM006] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed (0)
          DIAG [IM006] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed (0)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLErrorW
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638
          WCHAR * 0x047EE8B8
          SWORD 4095
          SWORD * 0x0013C624
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLErrorW with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638 (12560)
          WCHAR * 0x047EE8B8 [     126] "[Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-12560: TNS: protocol adapter error\ a\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0\ 0"
          SWORD 4095
          SWORD * 0x0013C624 (126)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLErrorW
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638
          WCHAR * 0x047EE950
          SWORD 4019
          SWORD * 0x0013C624
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLErrorW with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638 (0)
          WCHAR * 0x047EE950 [      66] "[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed"
          SWORD 4019
          SWORD * 0x0013C624 (66)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLErrorW
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638
          WCHAR * 0x047EE9E6
          SWORD 3944
          SWORD * 0x0013C624
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLErrorW with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638 (0)
          WCHAR * 0x047EE9E6 [      66] "[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver's SQLSetConnectAttr failed"
          SWORD 3944
          SWORD * 0x0013C624 (66)
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLErrorW
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638
          WCHAR * 0x047EEA7C
          SWORD 3869
          SWORD * 0x0013C624
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLErrorW with return code 100 (SQL_NO_DATA_FOUND)
          HENV 09D31788
          HDBC 09D31830
          HSTMT 00000000
          WCHAR * 0x0013C5EC (NYI)
          SDWORD * 0x0013C638
          WCHAR * 0x047EEA7C
          SWORD 3869
          SWORD * 0x0013C624
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     ENTER SQLFreeConnect
          HDBC 09D31830
MSACCESS 79c-ed4     EXIT SQLFreeConnect with return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
          HDBC 09D31830
Edited by: user5598619 on Feb 10, 2009 5:37 PM

Answer 1

Thanks a lot for your quick reply.
I've read all the posts mentioned (quite a few more) but I couldn't find any suggested solution to the "non-oracle10g"-problem other than using the global db name instead of the sid - which didn't help in our case:
However, in a last desperate attempt to solve the problem on my own before launching another cry-for-help-post I did try running the configuration assistant using the correct password for the SYS user 8-} and - strange but true - it did work :-)
Needless to say: I used the global db name of course, so I can't say what would have happened without it, but I trust your hint was a legitimate one.
Anyway - I gues that error Message concerning a "non-oracle10g database" was slightly misleading in this case.... grrrr.
Andreas