Article ID: 149325 - Last Review: June 29, 2004 - Revision: 4.0

BUG: Can't Load VB 3 Binary Form with Some Extended Characters

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This article was previously published under Q149325

SYMPTOMS

Adding a Visual Basic 3.0 form that contains code with some extended characters to a Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit or 32-bit project causes the following error:

The basic code in <filename> was corrupt, and couldn't be loaded.

The problem has been confirmed with the ANSI characters 196/228, 197/229, 214/246, 201/233, and 220/252. It may occur with other extended characters also. The problem only occurs if actual code contains these extended characters; it doesn't happen if a property is set to a string with one or more of the problem characters. This problem does not occur if the Visual Basic 3.0 form is saved as text rather than as binary, and also does not occur if the file name of the form does not contain any of the problem characters.

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RESOLUTION

Use one of the following workarounds to avoid this problem:

Load the form(s) into Visual Basic 3.0 and save them as text before loading them into either bitness of Visual Basic 4.0. This is the preferred solution and should work in all cases.
It may be possible to work around the problem by changing the file name of each problem form to one that does not contain any of the problem characters. This can be done with File Manager or Explorer after saving the form in Visual Basic 3.0 but before loading the form into Visual Basic 4.0 16- or 32-bit. Once the form has been loaded, it can be saved from Visual Basic 4.0 with the original filename.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be an issue in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

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MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce

Start an utility that can output characters of any ANSI value (the Character Map utility that ships with Windows NT performs this function). Select and copy to the clipboard the ANSI characters numbered 196 and 197.
Start Visual Basic 3.0. Form1 is created by default.

Add this code to the Form_Click event of Form1:

      Sub Form_Click()
         Form1.Caption = "[ASCII 196][ASCII 197]"
      End Sub

Save the form file from Visual Basic 3.0 with a name of [ASCII 196][ASCII 197].FRM. Ensure that the Save As Text check box is NOT selected so the form will be saved as binary.
Shut down Visual Basic 3.0 and start either Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit or Visual Basic 4.0 32-bit.
Select Remove File from the File menu to remove the default Form1.
Choose Add File from the File menu and choose to add the file saved in step 4. After clicking OK to dismiss the previous version message, the error mentioned above will be displayed. If the form is examined at this point, no code will be present.

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