FIX: IPF Opening or Saving Form with Tab Control (171816)

SYMPTOMS

Attempting to open or save a form containing an SSTab control may cause Visual Basic to terminate with one of the following errors:

"VB5 caused an invalid page fault in module TABCTL32.OCX at 0137:212fef0b"

-or-

"VB5 caused an invalid page fault in module OLEAUT32.DLL at 0137:653468ec"

-or-

"VB5.exe Exception: Access violation (if using Windows NT or Windows 2000)"

CAUSE

This problem can occur if the form (.frm file) contains incorrect information for the SSTab's child controls. This problem should only occur when the .frm file has been incorrectly edited outside of Visual Basic (such as with a text editor), or if the .frm file is otherwise corrupt.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2.

For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

170365 : INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

For a list of the Visual Basic 5.0 bugs that were fixed in the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

171554 : INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Start a new "Standard EXE" project in Visual Basic 5.0.
Choose Components from the Project menu and select "Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control 5.0."
Place an SSTab control on Form1.
Add two TextBox controls (Text1, Text2) to Tab 0.
Add two TextBox controls (Text3, Text4) to Tab 1.
Save the project (Form1.frm and Project1.vbp).
Exit Visual Basic.
Start Notepad and open Form1.frm.

Delete the following lines from Form1.frm:

      Tab(0).Control(1)=   "Text2"
      Tab(0).Control(1).Enabled=   0   'False
      ...
      Tab(1).Control(1)=   "Text4"
      Tab(1).Control(1).Enabled=   0   'False
      ...
      Begin VB.TextBox Text4
         Height          =   495
         Left            =   840
         TabIndex        =   4
         Text            =   "Text4"
         Top             =   1200
         Width           =   2775
      End
      ...
      Begin VB.TextBox Text2
         Height          =   495
         Left            =   -74160
         TabIndex        =   2
         Text            =   "Text2"
         Top             =   1200
         Width           =   2055

      End

Save Form1.frm and close Notepad.
Restart Visual Basic and open Project1.vbp. Note that an error occurs.

These steps will also reproduce the problem if you create the original project in Visual Basic 4.0, edit the .frm file, then open the project in Visual Basic 5.0. In this case, the problem will occur when attempting to save the form.