One possible source of this error is when you try to run 32-bit ActiveX controls with 64-bit MATLAB. This isn't supported at the moment and is a limitation of the 64-bit Windows operating system. ActiveX controls are "in-process" COM objects which can not be used by 64-bit applications.
The workaround is to install a 32-bit version of MATLAB on the 64-bit machine.
Please let us know if the above is indeed the root of the issue and feel free to revert to this thread for any further queries.