"Strange" ADO behavior

Hello there
I've encountered this problem. I put an ADO control on my form, connect it
to a DB, test the connection OK. But when I try to access it using code, I
get this message: "object variable or With block variable not set" and my
code fails. After many attempts to work this out, I found this: if I put
another control and bind it to the ADO DC, my code works! If I delete the
data bound control, my code fails again, and so on. So, in order to
manipulate the data bound to the ADO, I have to use a useless invisible
control!
(Using VB 6, all required references, etc).
Any ideas?
TIA