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    #1

    very strange problem

    hello:

    i have client using my app that has run quite well until now. there is a calculated field on a form that is the total of items sold. this field used to update upon pressing the f6 key to exit the browse, but now it just shows a value of zero. the field is used to calculate and post values to other tables upon hitting the save button. now i get the ol' "sub-element is of different type" error when the script runs.
    now for the corker of all, the app runs fine on my computer! i ran scandisk on the client's computer and there were no reported errors. i deleted all the files in the directory (single computer app) and reloaded from the files on my computer .. still the same thing. i deleted the calculated field and used the genie to create a new one .. still the same thing.
    the client is frustrated, and any help would be much appreciated!!

    tia

    regards,

    ed
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: very strange problem

    Ed,

    I'm not an expert in this area by any means but I wouldn't rely on scan disk to find all the problems. Get Norton utilities (brand suggestion). It will not only locate and fix windows problems but also tell you what and where they are.

    Next, I'd try it on another computer (bedside your own) if that's possible. This will give a confirmation of which computer is telling the truth. If your client's computer is the problem, then try Norton. Also search for a virus, just in case. If that doesn't work, it may be there is a conflict with A5 and windows, a new piece of hardware or a new software that was loaded. Could also be a conflict with a software program which runs in the background. Perhaps shutting down one item at a time may reveal the culpret. Another suggeston, install another hard drive and load only windows and the the app. If that runs OK, then try installing other apps one at a time until something conflicts. If nothing conflicts, then something is corrupt on the old hard drive. Hard drives are cheap and the cost of a hard drive vs labor will probably be cheaper.

    Well, that's my novice thoughts.

    Good Luck,

    kenn
    TYVM :) kenn

    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: very strange problem

      Hi Ed,
      >>. the field is used to calculate and post values to other tables upon hitting the save button. now i get the ol' "sub-element is of different type" error when the script runs.

      Comment

        #4
        RE: very strange problem

        when you say the app runs OK on your computer, do you mean with the same data tables? have you copied the data from your client to your computer to see if the same thing happens?

        Comment

          #5
          RE: very strange problem

          Ed, just a wild guess without the exact coding and procedures you use, did this computer get some new software installed?

          I too have had this happen out of the blue, it corrected itself after two weeks ( I did nothing different and I am using win98 2nd edition)
          BUT:
          on a HP celeron computer I ran into all kinds of problems and had to swith things around to keep things working. The onkey event is a good example where I ran into lots of problems. For the most part I use Onform events or user objects for better dependablity. Hope this helps.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: very strange problem

            hello:

            thank you all for your responses!

            the bizzare thing is that indeed, as the good doctor asked, the files and tables were loaded (through winzip) from the client's computer onto my own so they are the exact same files. i even tried zipping and unzipping on the clients computer. i will investigate if there have been any other programms loaded by the client. pending that, the first thing that i'll try is to uninstall A5V4 and re-load it.
            thanks all once again, i'll post what i find.

            regards,

            ed

            Comment

              #7
              RE: very strange problem

              Ed, I had this problem once before and when I
              found the error it was really simple, but I can't
              remember what it was. It seems to me that there
              was a field in one table that didn't match a
              corresponding field in another table, like
              posting from a character field to a numeric field
              or the lengths of the fields didn't match or
              formatted the same. It has been so long that I
              can't remember what it was, but was easy to correct.

              Jerry

              Comment

                #8
                RE: very strange problem

                hi jerry:

                thanks for your reply. the unusual thing behind this problem is that the code has been working for about a year. i did some modifications to it about three months ago and it worked fine until about three weeks ago. i re-loaded the app and A5V4 (including the upgrade to 4.03 build 230). i even went as far as to load my copy of A5V4 (as opposed to the runtime for a test only) and still the darned thing doesn't work. the only other software on the hard drive (aside from win98 files) is winzip and that has been there from the start. the client is not at all computer literate, and there is no internet connection so i don't suspect a virus.
                again i zipped the files from the client's computer and moved them to my win95 266 pentium II clunker and the field works as expected. as there is nothing but the a5 runtime and my app on the hard disk i'll try re-formatting it and re-load the operating system.

                thanks again to all!!

                regards,

                ed

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: very strange problem

                  Sometimes when I run into problems like this, I remove all alpha folders and reinstall the application. sometimes in doing this I find that somehow not all the tables were in the particular folder that I thought.

                  Bob Sullivan

                  Comment

                    #10
                    RE: very strange problem

                    hi bob:

                    thanks, i did re-install the app but did not specifically look for that. over the weekend i was going to try re-loading win98, however i'll verify the folder contents first. this sounds like a good possibility.


                    regards,

                    ed

                    Comment

                      #11
                      RE: very strange problem

                      Ed, you might check the paths to shared and private folders. Is it possible the client moved the app to a different folder and didn't mention it to you?

                      The symptoms you describe sound to me like the script is encountering a variable that has not been initialized. Do you run any scripts on start up which fill default global variables or such? If so you might want to verify that they're actually running.

                      Last wild idea... is the app being started from a shortcut on the desktop? If so, I'd send the shortcut to the recycle bin and create a new one...

                      -- tom

                      Comment

                        #12
                        RE: very strange problem

                        hi tom:

                        thanks for your reply!

                        in further talks with the client he indicated that one of his sales staff thinks that he is a guru(???), and may have been playing with the computer. there are a number of global variables that initialize at the start of each day and appear to be running as the daily close is not giving any grief. in re-loading the app and A5V4 i did indeed delete the shortcut icon and run from the start menu. there is a possibility that the "guru" may have deleted a file or folder that was included in the app but not in the correct directory. i will have the machine here this weekend and try my hard drive (which works fine on the app) in his computer. i hope to figure this thing out by substitution. if i can't get it by sunday i'll swap him my mainboard/hdd and get rid of the misery that way.

                        thanks again to all for your help in this unusual situation!!!!

                        ragards,

                        ed

                        Comment

                          #13
                          RE: very strange problem

                          We'll be pulling for you. Let us know what you find out.

                          -- tom

                          Comment

                            #14
                            RE: very strange problem

                            hello:

                            a huge thankyou to all for your responses!!!

                            i re-loaded win-98 and all is well. makes me even happier that i switched from acce$$ !!


                            best regards to all,

                            ed

                            Comment

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