PHP-WIN: Handle DCOM BSTR return value

Hi, I hope someone could help me with this. I have tried confirming my email addr with php.windows newsgroup but still...ko. How could I get a return value from DCOM server defined as follow [propget, id(0x00000002)] HRESULT _stdcall About([out, retval] BSTR * Value ); In PHP, I defined $objApp = new COM("ComSer.Common") or die("Unable to instantiate DCOM server"); $vVar = $objApp->About; echo $vVar; but it was giving me memory can't be written error. But say if I create $word = new COM("Word.Application"); echo $word->Version; // This works. Why? Thanks, I'd like to appreciate your reply in advance. Regards, Khor