I reinstalled the latest psqlodbc_09_03_0300-x86.msi (32-bit driver). No change. I downgraded to version 9.2 — still failed. Then I noticed something odd: The driver’s configuration dialog had a checkbox labeled — but the value kept resetting to unchecked after saving.
I documented the fix in a Word doc on the desktop and locked the driver version. The system ran until 2020, when Windows 7 was finally retired and the plant upgraded to Windows 10 LTSC — using the same 32-bit ODBC driver in compatibility mode.
For five years, it worked perfectly. Then one Monday, the chart stopped updating. postgresql odbc driver windows 7 32 bit
It was 2018, and I was maintaining a legacy production line reporting system for a mid-sized manufacturing plant. The core database was PostgreSQL 9.6 running on a Linux server. The front-end was a vintage Windows 7 Professional 32-bit machine in the quality control lab. On this machine ran an ancient Excel 2010 VBA macro that pulled defect data every 15 minutes, generated charts, and printed them to a network label printer.
The Excel VBA code was using ADODB.Connection and setting CursorLocation = adUseClient . The PostgreSQL 32-bit ODBC driver, version 9.3+ on Windows 7, had a known but rarely documented bug: when adUseClient was set before opening the connection, the driver failed to negotiate the bytea type mapping correctly with the 32-bit PostgreSQL client library — especially if any column in the queried table was type bytea (even if not selected). The driver would throw a generic -2147467259 instead of a meaningful error. I reinstalled the latest psqlodbc_09_03_0300-x86
On Windows 7 32-bit with PostgreSQL ODBC, the newest driver is not your friend — especially if you have bytea columns or use client-side cursors. Test with 9.0 or 9.2, and always check the 32-bit administrator.
The VBA macro threw error -2147467259 (Unspecified error) at the conn.Open line. The data source name (DSN) was configured in User DSN using the PostgreSQL ANSI(x64) driver. Except… Windows 7 32-bit doesn’t have an x64 driver. That was my first clue something was very wrong. Then I noticed something odd: The driver’s configuration
But the connection failed even with the 32-bit driver. I ran psql from the same machine — worked perfectly. Firewall, network, credentials — all fine.