Installing SSAS 2008R2 SP1 breaks PowerPivot

Reposted from Chris Webb's blog with the author's permission.

Here’s something I found out a few weeks ago, just before I went on holiday: installing SP1 for SSAS 2008R2 breaks a PowerPivot installation on the same machine. After I’d installed SP1 on my laptop I found I got an “Unable to open file” error message in PowerPivot whenever I tried to import data, at which point PowerPivot crashed. For me the fix was easy – reinstall PowerPivot and it worked again – but I’m glad I found this out before I needed to use PowerPivot in front of a customer.

Chris has been working with Microsoft BI tools since he started using beta 3 of OLAP Services back in the late 90s. Since then he has worked with Analysis Services in a number of roles (including three years spent with Microsoft Consulting Services) and he is now an independent consultant specialising in complex MDX, Analysis Services cube design and Analysis Services query performance problems. His company website can be found at http://www.crossjoin.co.uk and his blog can be found at http://cwebbbi.wordpress.com/ .