Problem with Protection

[Guest]

I have a worksheet that has protected areas that prevent the user from
resizing, adding and deleting columns etc...

In the middle I have an area that is not protected. Within this area I have
a cell with a validation list attached to it. Depending on what is selected a
piece of code is run that sets the validation list for the next cell. So if
the first cell is set to say A then the validation list in the next cell uses
list A and so on.

This was working perfectly until I turned on the protection. Now when you
make a selection in the first cell I get the error message:

Run-time error '-2147417848(80010108)

Automation error
The object invoked has disconnected from its clients.

The cells in question should not be protected. Is there a way round this
without turning of the protection?

 

[Guest]

That error message makes me think that the cell is normally connected by
reference to another cell or cells that are protected but when you unprotect
one end of that relative connection, it disconnects the reference.