%1 is not a valid Win32 application

It's a pity that DynaLoader doesn't tell us exactly *which* file it is that's not a valid win32 application. One is tempted (by the error message) to assume that it's Perl/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll that's the offending file - and perhaps that is the case, here. But the problem could also be with some other dll that Perl/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll needs to load. It would be rare to find that a dll that has been installed as part of an ActivePerl installation is "not a valid Win32 application". I guess you could try re-installing ActivePerl over the top of the existing installation, and see if that changes anything.

Which build of ActivePerl 5.10 do you have ? (Running perl -v will tell you.) Oracle is not visible to my 5.10.0 installation, so the error caused by the following attempt to load DBD::Oracle on my ActiveState build 1004 is not surprising:

C:\_32>perl -MDBD::Oracle -e 1
Can't load 'C:/_32/ap1004/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll' for module D
+BD::Oracle: load_file:The specified module could not be found at C:/_
+32/ap1004/lib/DynaLoader.pm line 202. at -e line 0
Compilation failed in require.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.
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On the face of it, one might assume that it's telling me that C:/_32/ap1004/lib/auto/DBD/Oracle/Oracle.dll can't be found. But that's not so - "The specified module" in question is, in fact, oci.dll.

You might get better mileage out of ActivePerl 5.8.8 (build 824). On that build of ActivePerl, DBD::Oracle loads fine for me:

C:\_32>perl -MDBD::Oracle -e 1

C:\_32>
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Somehow (I'm not sure how) I have oci.dll in my ActivePerl 5.8.8 perl/bin folder. I'm assuming it shipped with ActivePerl ... but I could be wrong about that. I don't know why they would ship it with 5.8.8, but not 5.10.0. (Some licensing issue, perhaps ? )

Cheers,
Rob