Form Load Problems

[Ken L Herrold]

Guys: I'm in really deep here if I can't bail out.

Application (mo own) Has been working fine until today. A second one in development is displaying the same problems.

Here It is: Using a Form (not card stack) Menu based on a one field table -- Attempting to open a form via a button displays. "Can't open form [formname] loading default"

Instead of the default form displaying I get a white window titled "A_Case.DBF :Form View (Default)" The 'Form' has two fields, one labeled 'New' and the other, 'Old'. They're 1 character fields.

Clicking this same form at Control Panel opens it without argument. This happens to be only one form in My application which has quite a large number.

The other application in developement will not open any of the forms from the menu and displays this message and window.

How in the world will I bail out of this!

Oh, Incidentally, I've managed to keep all of the files for the applications - each in it's own folder.

Ken the Newbie

[crimmelcp]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken:
If your application is small enough(1 form and 1 database?) use winzip to zip up the files and post it on the board. I can download and see if it does the same on mine.
Charlie Crimmel

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Charlie:

Great I idea. Thanx anyway for the fine offer, however, I have another machine and can try it here.

We'll keep you posted.

Thanx again.

Ken the Newbie

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Guys:

I'm geting really desperate! I've recreated the menu; deleted the old one; and this problem prevails!

Still, when I double-click the forms at the Control Panel they all work as advertised. It's just that the Menu form I created won't open them and get the 'Default - a_case.dbf:Form Load (default) window.

I've installed the program on still another machine, zipped the application files and it performs the SAME WAY.

I read a Post by Selwyn saying that the Private and Shared paths should be set the same at the View-Settings A5 Menu choice. I've had these set that way since the beginning.

H E L P!

Ken the Newbie

[crimmelcp]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken:
zip the files and attach to your post.
I'll take a look.
Do a form -new and just put one button on the new form.
dont copy the form or button.
build from sctatch.
I have had forms start acting funny and had to rebuild the form from scratch.
It only seems to happen when I am doing a lot of development work on the application and copying the forms back and forth.
Charlie Crimmel

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken:

This is off the top of my head ....

Look in the application folder and if A_Case.* and A_Shared.* are there, if they are, delete them.

Check in your program folder(s) and make sure that you have the A_Case and A_Shared tables present. if they are in one (full program, for example) but not in the other (Runtime for example) copy them across. If they are not present in either I would reinstall the full program.

Make sure that, if you are starting from a shortcut, the "Start in" points to the correct program folder

Make sure that the settings (private and shared) point to the program folder for the version (Full or Runtime) you are using.

Finian

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Finnian:

Thanks for your reply. None of the above seems to work. I, howver, have two installations one on Drive D and another in Program Files on Drive c: This is a three station network A5 so I didn't think I'd have trouble with the license on multiple installations.

I wonder if this could be the problem.

Any other Ideas - I did the A_case.*/A_shared.* thing that you suggested and found these in both the program and app files. I deleted them from the App folder and renewed them with the Program file copies - is that the suggestion or have I messed that up as well.?

I did have the where-with-all to make new folders for the experimental ones so I wouldn't get in any deeper.

Thanks again for your concerns.

Ken the Newbie

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Guys:

Somebody out there P L E A S E get me out of this. To think that I have to start all over again on either of these applications would be a HORROR.

Otherwise I'm ready for the ultimate --- Paid support at Alpha - do you think they can help or will they just take the money?

Ken the Newbie

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken, you may be on to something. If I were you I'd consider doing the following:

1) make safety copies of my databases;

2) make yet another copy of my databases;

3) uninstall both installations of Alpha Five;

4) run scandisk (thorough) against both hard drives;

5) reinstall Alpha Five, but only once, after first disabling your antivirus software and any other 'monitoring' software that may be running in the background.


FYI, it's not necessary to install Alpha Five twice to run it twice. If your license permissions will support it all you have to do is start two different instances of it.

-- tom

[Peter.Greulich]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken,

All your forms open ok from the controlpanel?

Create a new blank form (any table). Drag & drop form open buttons to the new form. Test to see if this works. If it does, your old main menu (or whatever) must have corrupted. In my expereince, form corruptions may occur occasionally, not from use, but while in development mode.

I can't imagine that your whole application would have to be scrapped. In the extreme, you may have to create a new "database" and add in all your existing tables & sets (which would salvage forms & reports, etc.)

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Guys:

Tom - Great ideas. Here's what I did. I had a good backup; went to my wife's machine and installed alpha5 on it for the first and only time.

Made a subdirectory [folder]; copied the app; and all performs quite nicely. On HER machine where, of course I don't want it.

Things are bad in my machine, apparently. I tried uninstalling and it appeared to have worked as advertised with one exception. When I installed it again in my machine, it was ALREADY registered. So, we're apparently dealing with something in the Windows registry that's buggering things. Does anyone know the registry entries made in the install routine. I checked for the Alpha registration number string in Regedit and it didn't come up with it.

We're dealing here with a three-user network copy of A5.

Man, if this goes on........... I'll tell my clients who want changed over to find an Access programmer.

What a dilemma!

Ken the Newbie

[martinwcole]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken,
I have run into this problem twice. Unfortunately I don't remember what the problem was, but the problem was in my code somewhere. It occured about 2AM and I cann't remember.

Here is what I would do.

Make a new form with the respective set. Don't goto any trouble to make it pretty. Just put the default fields and browses on the form. then see if all is cool. if so, then go back to your form and start looking EVERYWHERE and disabling code and removing settings until you find the offending setting or script.

the odds are very great that that is where you will find the solution

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Form Load Problems

Thanks Martin:

I've already made a second 'Menu' form as you have suggested. Instead of starting from scratch, I changed the default form; placed one button to open the offending form and it didn't change anything.

Mind you, I had not changed any existing code immediately prior to the failure. Each time I backed up [which leaves the program and copies all application directory files to a zip drive] I made sure that everything on the menu worked properly prior to the backup. I was able to install the program to my wife's computer; copy those backed files to HER drive into a folder under the program folder and the application works perfectly. I really don't, however, think it's my machine problem as everything else on my machine works perfectly and has for a long time.

Martin, keep thinking - maybe you'll recall what YOUR specific problem was. I'll keep plugging along.

Ken the Newbie

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Load Problems

Ken, I suspect that your decision to install Alpha Five twice, on separate drives, has resulted in 'confusion' in the Windows registry.

Depending on your knowledge and experience it might be feasible to use Regedit to search for and delete all keys dealing with 'Alpha Software' or 'Alpha5'. However, the Regedit is very unforgiving and if you make a mistake you could wipe out entries (keys) needed by other programs, or even Windows itself. In no time at all you could render your pc unusable.

So........

Before undertaking any edits in the Registry, I'd prepare as though you might have to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. Backup everything that you want to keep in case disaster befalls. Make system startup disks with any needed utilities in place. Then, check your backups to assure that they contain what you want, and can actually be used to restore data.

Then, I'd uninstall Alpha Five, again.

Then, I'd reboot the system.

Then, and only then, would I search for and delete all keys in the Registry for 'Alpha Software' and 'Alpha5'.

Then, I'd reboot the system.

Then, I'd run scandisk (thorough).

Then, I'd install Alpha Five again, but this time only once.


Ken, before undertaking this journey, wait for other comments and suggestions from others more experienced than I. You are definitely swimming in the deep end of the pool.

-- tom

[Robert Adler]

RE: Form Load Problems

ken:
i have experienced similar quirks with A5v4. You have the backed up copy works fine on your wife's machine. Back up the working application.
then go to your machine. backup the application to another directory or disk. Delete the contents of application directory on your pc. then restore the backup from your wife's pc.
run the application this should correct the problem.

bob