I dont know if I can be of much help, but some questions to help narrow things down:

you say the xla crashes excel; I'm assuming it is when you run this sub? Is this the only code in the xla?

the SQL_WHERE gets flagged when compiling for me, 'sub or function not defined'. I'm using 2004 as well, so I'm not sure how you are getting it to compile. That variable (sql_filter) does not appear to be used anyway, right?

FYI, you can format your VBA code in your post by highlighting it and clicking the green VBA button when posting/editing.

Good luck, tim