I had the same issue with a dll yesterday and all it referenced was System, System.Data, and System.Xml. Turns out the build configuration for the Platform type didn't line up. The dll was build for x86 and the program using it was "Any CPU" and since I am running a x64 machine, it ran the program as x64 and had issues with the x86 dll. I don't know if this is your issue or not, just thought that I would mention it as something else to check.