Crash in 98se....

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N Cook - 26 Sep 2003 05:25 GMT

Hello,

I've created an OCX control in VB6, and have wrapped it in a demo
application (exe) for testing purposes. It works fine on my development
machine (Windows 2000), but I get problems when I move to a testing
machine (98se in this case). At the moment I don't have any other
testing machines, other than Win2K machines with Visual Studio installed.

The application is a simple form with my control, a dtPicker control,
and a few labels. The form appears on startup with the labels displayed
properly, but with empty boxes instead of the two controls. They just
look like empty text boxes, without the standard times being displayed.
The application hangs for a couple seconds, and then just terminates,
without any error messages at all.

I've created the application using the Package and Deployment tool.

I'm really not sure what's occurring. Anybody have any clue where I can
start to look?

Nicole

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Andreas - 26 Sep 2003 12:37 GMT

I had a similar problem where FM20.dll causer the problem. When I
updated to version to 2.1.6927.1 and made a new installationpackage,
everything worked out.

You can try to copy your fm20.dll (or other DLL) to the target machine
and run "regsvr32 fm20.dll" to register your dll on the target
machine. (Make a backup of the original dll first.) If that solves the
problem, then that DLL-file didn't register correctly on the target
machine. For example, my version of fm20.dll had some error regarding
it's version number so the installation didn't overwrite that dll on
the target machine even though my version was newer. My problem got
solved when I installed (with regsvr32) a even newer version of
fm20.dll.

If you have an On Error statement you could remove that temporary to
see if you get any error output before the application closes down. I
had "error 7, Out of memory".)

best regards,
Andreas Lundgren

$PT3.634745@news20.bellglobal.com>...

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Nicole

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Rick Rothstein - 26 Sep 2003 14:03 GMT

As it regards the FM20.DLL file, this is BAD advice. Please read this link
from Microsoft about the FM20.DLL file and the fact you can't distribute it
legally. There is also some question as to how well it will work in a
compiled program as well too.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q224/3/05.asp

Rick - MVP

> I had a similar problem where FM20.dll causer the problem. When I
> updated to version to 2.1.6927.1 and made a new installationpackage,
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
> >
> > Nicole

Reply to this Message

N Cook - 26 Sep 2003 15:15 GMT

Looking into the Support directory that Package & Deployment creates, I
don't see this FM20.DLL. Does this mean then that it isn't used at all?
Looking at the MSDN site that you pointed out Rick, I don't use any of
those controls.

Even if it was an incorrect DLL, shouldn't there be an error message?

What other reason could a VB application have for just terminating
without some kind of complaint?

Nicole

> As it regards the FM20.DLL file, this is BAD advice. Please read this link
> from Microsoft about the FM20.DLL file and the fact you can't distribute it
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
>>>
>>>Nicole

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Steve Gerrard - 27 Sep 2003 04:19 GMT

I think you have to do the step by step approach. First, I would put the
UserControl module directly in the test application, rather than referencing the
OCX. Test that out (or maybe that is how you are testing it?)

The "empty boxes" symptom sounds like trouble creating the controls. Possibly
the form never completes loading, and the bail out is too early to even give any
error message - although that seems really odd.

Also, what controls are embedded in the UserControl ? Maybe something is up
with them.

If it were me, I would go ahead and strip down the test application to just
labels, make the setup, run setup on the test machine, and try the application.
Then add back the dtPicker, do it all again, and see if that is okay. Then add
back the UserControl, maybe a stripped down version, do it all again, etc. You
have to somehow isolate where the problem is, there are too many question marks
as it stands.

> Looking into the Support directory that Package & Deployment creates, I
> don't see this FM20.DLL. Does this mean then that it isn't used at all?
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Nicole

<snips>

> >>>Hello,
> >>>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> >>>
> >>>Nicole

Reply to this Message

N Cook - 29 Sep 2003 01:35 GMT

Thanks Steve,

Sounds like good advice. It's a little tricky in this situation since I
don't have full access to this particular machine, but I'll give it a shot.

Thank you,
Nicole

> I think you have to do the step by step approach. First, I would put the
> UserControl module directly in the test application, rather than referencing the
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
>>>>>
>>>>>Nicole

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Scott D. Barrish - 26 Sep 2003 15:25 GMT

Just curious as to the information provided in the link...If it's "illegal
to redistribute the fm20.dll, then why is a FREE download from Microsoft
that installs the fm20.dll legal? By association, doesn't that make the
fm20.dll free game?

Reply to this Message

Rick Rothstein - 26 Sep 2003 15:41 GMT

> Just curious as to the information provided in the link...If it's "illegal
> to redistribute the fm20.dll, then why is a FREE download from Microsoft
> that installs the fm20.dll legal? By association, doesn't that make the
> fm20.dll free game?

I wasn't aware it is downloadable on line; however, I would guess that
because Office products need it, I presume Microsoft is making it available
in case a user manages to hose it somehow. I think the main problem with VB
installing and then using it is covered under the Note.

Rick - MVP

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Auric__ - 26 Sep 2003 22:13 GMT

>Just curious as to the information provided in the link...If it's "illegal
>to redistribute the fm20.dll, then why is a FREE download from Microsoft
>that installs the fm20.dll legal? By association, doesn't that make the
>fm20.dll free game?

No - their licensing scheme says, basically, that they are the exclusive
*legal* download site for fm20.dll (I know because I have a Unicode app
that uses it). fm20.dll comes with Office 97 & later, and also with the
ActiveX Control Pad. There is a link to it in the MSKB article Rick
linked to.

Signature

auric "underscore" "underscore" "at" hotmail "dot" com
*****
Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation.

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Andreas - 29 Sep 2003 10:12 GMT

I just happend to use a CheckBox from fm20.dll. I found it having a
nice feature just giving the value True or False. Is there an other
dll (that I can legally distribute) with a simular CheckBox???

best regards,
Andreas Lundgren

> As it regards the FM20.DLL file, this is BAD advice. Please read this link
> from Microsoft about the FM20.DLL file and the fact you can't distribute it
[quoted text clipped - 49 lines]
> > >
> > > Nicole

Reply to this Message

Rick Rothstein - 29 Sep 2003 13:36 GMT

The Value property for VB's own built-in CheckBox uses 0 for unchecked and 1
for checked (we can ignore the value of 2 that it can take; that is for a
gray, checked condition which can **only** exist if set by the programmer
directly). These values are really just as easy to work with as True and
False are. If you want to use something just as mnemonic as True and False
is, you can use the built-in VB constants vbChecked (which is pre-defined as
1) and vbUnchecked (which is pre-defined as 0) instead.

Rick - MVP

> I just happend to use a CheckBox from fm20.dll. I found it having a
> nice feature just giving the value True or False. Is there an other
[quoted text clipped - 56 lines]
> > > >
> > > > Nicole

Reply to this Message

Andreas - 30 Sep 2003 15:54 GMT

Yes, but it's quit a big program, and it saves status (True och False)
of all checkboxes in .ini files. So I'm not so keen of replacing them,
that would take quite some effort to replace them all and rewrite the
code so that it still will work with old .ini files widthout getting
any buggs... I was kind of hoping that there would be a simular
control in a "legal" dll.

/Andreas Lundgren

> The Value property for VB's own built-in CheckBox uses 0 for unchecked and 1
> for checked (we can ignore the value of 2 that it can take; that is for a
[quoted text clipped - 77 lines]
> > > > >
> > > > > Nicole

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Samir Talwar - 26 Sep 2003 16:07 GMT

Hi there.
Is the P&D thingy the VB installation wizard? If it is, try just
running the app without installing it (if you haven't already). If
this works, you need to find a decent installation program (try the
Nullsoft Install System - http://nsis.sourceforge.net/).

Samir Talwar

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Nicole

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VB Forum / General 2 / September 2003

Crash in 98se....