Problem with VS.NET 2003

[lgbjr]

Hi All,

I'm having a problem with a VB.NET project that I'm building in VS.NET 2003
(7.1.3088). As my project has increased in size (the executable is now about
2.5MB), I am experiencing a lot of instability in the IDE. I have been
working on this project for about 6 months now and have only recently
started experiencing these problems. The first thing that I noticed was that
when switching from the code view to the designer view, more than 50% of the
time I get an error saying Object Reference not set to an instance of an
object. I have to close the designer view, then re-open it, and everything
is fine. This is quite annoying, but as I'm almost finished with the
project, I just dealt with it.

Well, the problems have moved up to a new level! Now, after I receive this
message, close and re-open the designer, there are controls missing! The
code for the controls is still there, but the control itself is missing from
the form. If I try to re-add the control (using the same name), I get an
error saying that an object with that name already exists (which, in code it
does, but on the form it doesn't). So, I have to go to the code, remove the
references to the control, then go back to the form and re-add it. I thought
this was a one time occurance. I lost about 15 controls. But, as I was
adding them back (switching back and forth between code view and design
view), I got the same error message. I closed the designer, re-opened it,
and the controls that I had just added, plus 3 more were missing!!

I'm running on a dual P4 (3GHz) machine, with 2GB RAM and 400GB of disk
space. I've de-fragged everything, shutdown, restart, and even sweet-talked
my computer a bit, but nothing seems to help. I'm running McAfee AV and
Firewall, and I regualrly check for Adware/Malware, etc.

I don't know exactly how many controls I'm actually using in the project,
but to say the least, it's a large project. Is there any limitation to the
number of controls / forms / lines of code / etc. in a VB.NET project? Has
anyone experienced this before?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! I don't want to do any more
work on the project, as I don't want to lose any more controls!!

TIA
Lee

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Try reinstalling vs.net and the dot net framework 1.1 service pack 1.


Ken

 

[lgbjr]

Hi Ken,

I actually expected at least one response suggesting a re-install. It's on
my list of things to try. And it's not really a big deal to do it. But, if
it solves the problem, I'd like to know why. As I mentioned, I've been
working on this app for several months. I have installed new software, but
nothing recently. I work on this app 7 days a week, close to 16 hours a day,
and I haven't installed anything new in the past 24-48 hours. I'm curious as
to how an installed software package (like vs.net or the framework) could
become somewhat corrupted and require an re-install if nothing else has
changed on the computer.

Lee

 

[Peter Huang [MSFT]]

Hi Lee,

In addition to Ken's suggestion.
I think you may try to copy the project on another fine machine to see if
the project is corrupted.
Also I think you may try to create a new blank project and add the file ino
the project to see if helps.

Based on my experience, sometime the antivirus software or improper shut
down machine/IDE may have influence, just a guess. If you want to know the
root cause, I think you may need to contact MSPSS which will do the dump
analysis or live debugging.

If you still have any concern, please feel free to post here.

Best regards,

Peter Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[James Doughty]

Hi All,

I'm having a problem with a VB.NET project that I'm building in VS.NET
2003 (7.1.3088). As my project has increased in size (the executable
is now about 2.5MB), I am experiencing a lot of instability in the
IDE. I have been working on this project for about 6 months now and
have only recently started experiencing these problems. The first
thing that I noticed was that when switching from the code view to the
designer view, more than 50% of the time I get an error saying Object
Reference not set to an instance of an object. I have to close the
designer view, then re-open it, and everything is fine. This is quite
annoying, but as I'm almost finished with the project, I just dealt
with it.

Well, the problems have moved up to a new level! Now, after I receive
this message, close and re-open the designer, there are controls
missing! The code for the controls is still there, but the control
itself is missing from the form. If I try to re-add the control (using
the same name), I get an error saying that an object with that name
already exists (which, in code it does, but on the form it doesn't).
So, I have to go to the code, remove the references to the control,
then go back to the form and re-add it. I thought this was a one time
occurance. I lost about 15 controls. But, as I was adding them back
(switching back and forth between code view and design view), I got
the same error message. I closed the designer, re-opened it, and the
controls that I had just added, plus 3 more were missing!!

I'm running on a dual P4 (3GHz) machine, with 2GB RAM and 400GB of
disk space. I've de-fragged everything, shutdown, restart, and even
sweet-talked my computer a bit, but nothing seems to help. I'm running
McAfee AV and Firewall, and I regualrly check for Adware/Malware, etc.

I don't know exactly how many controls I'm actually using in the
project, but to say the least, it's a large project. Is there any
limitation to the number of controls / forms / lines of code / etc. in
a VB.NET project? Has anyone experienced this before?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! I don't want to do any
more work on the project, as I don't want to lose any more controls!!

TIA
Lee

I've had the similar experince my app would take 10 minutes to startup in
debug mode and I random problems. I ended up deleteing the project file and
created a new one then reimported all my files. After that it ran in debug
in a less than a minute.

 

[Guest]

I have had the 'missing controls' problem both in VS2002 and VS2003
what happens is that for some reason the section of code that assigns the
control to its parent (in the 'Windows Forms designer' section gets dropped,
you can just re add it in there. I do not know the reason for it, but once it
happens for a given form it is likely to reoccur. The only way to reduce the
likelihood of it happening is to close the form as soon as you have made any
changes to it - never leave it open - as it opens when a form is open in the
designer.

hth

guy