e invece di questa versione cosa ne dici?
codice:
Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        
        If Not Page.IsPostBack Then            
            dplCategorieImg.databind
        End If

    End Sub

Public Function Categorie() as DataTable
dim dap as new OleDb.OledbDataAdapter("SELECT CategoriaID, Nome FROM Categorie Order By Nome", ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("ConnectionString"))
dim dt as new datatable
dap.fill(dt)
return dt
end sub
p.s. imposta nella dropdownlist anche la proprieta' DataSource = Categorie