FIX: GPF Occurs When Starting Visual Basic 5.0

When Visual Basic starts and the IDE is displayed, a GPF (General Protection Fault) occurs and Visual Basic does not load.

This problem may be caused by faulty Visual Basic 4.0 add-ins or invalid command bar configuration information in the system registry.

To prevent add-ins from being loaded when Visual Basic starts:

1. Start Notepad.exe.
2. Edit the VBAddin.INI file in your Windows directory and set all of the entries to zero (0). For example:
   
   
   • Original: AppWizard.Wizard=1
   • Modified: AppWizard.Wizard=0
3. Save VBAddin.INI.
4. Restart Visual Basic.

To deduce which add-in is causing the problem:

1. Click on Add-In Manager.
2. Check a single Add-In and click the OK button.
3. Restart Visual Basic.
4. Repeat this process until Visual Basic produces a GPF.
5. The last Add-In checked before Visual Basic produces the GPF is the faulty Add-In. You should remove the Add-In from your system and follow the instructions in step 1 above to remove the entry from the VBAddin.INI file.

To fix invalid command bar references in the registry:

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

1. Start Regedit.exe.
2. Delete the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Visual Basic\5.0
   						

3. Close Regedit.
4. Restart Visual Basic.

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  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/170365/EN-US/ ) 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  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171554/EN-US/ ) INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2