Strange Form Behavior

I have a process that a user goes through maybe 30 times a day. The steps
are
always the same. During the process the sequence goes through 4-5 forms
being
displayed and allowing keyboard entry before a report prints from each form.
This happens at literally hundreds of locations with no problems and no
issues. However, on all of the machines at one single location a strange
thing happens. When the user goes to a form and the form displays, all of
the
fields will be accessible but the cursor dissappears. Clicking in any field
on the form the user can type but the cursor is not visible. The strangest
thing is that no matter what key the user presses on the keyboard, the
(ctrl+F1) key is the result (a 'y' with the two umlauts on top of it) in all
fields. Now, the titlebar of the form itself actually appears disabled, but
the form is not disabled. The REALLY strange this is that if the user
presses
the windows key on the keyboard (which activates the startmenu in windows)
and then clicks with the mouse on the titlebar of the form in Visual FoxPro,
everything returns to normal and the titlebar is now dark, the keys work
correctly in all fields, and the cursor is active. Once this problem occurs,
it happens everytime until I delete the resource file and restart our app
(or
so it appears).

All of the systems are new systems.
Windows XP.
6 workstations.

I have checked the power settings, desktop themes, resource files, other
Visual FoxPro apps and their files, replaced the keyboard, etc. It will only
happen at this site and then it is reproduced nonstop.

Any ideas? Why does switching tasks to/from windows startmenu fix it? The
form is the same form that has run for years (and called in the same
sequence) by hundreds of users.

Thanks in advance

Dan
Wed Nov 30 13:10:32 CST 2005

Since you say the problem goes away when you delete the resource file,
you're apparently not using the resource file for anything. Have you
considered just turning it off permanently in config.fpw?

Dan

Tracy wrote:
> I have a process that a user goes through maybe 30 times a day. The
> steps are
> always the same. During the process the sequence goes through 4-5
> forms being
> displayed and allowing keyboard entry before a report prints from
> each form. This happens at literally hundreds of locations with no
> problems and no issues. However, on all of the machines at one single
> location a strange thing happens. When the user goes to a form and
> the form displays, all of the
> fields will be accessible but the cursor dissappears. Clicking in any
> field on the form the user can type but the cursor is not visible.
> The strangest thing is that no matter what key the user presses on
> the keyboard, the (ctrl+F1) key is the result (a 'y' with the two
> umlauts on top of it) in all fields. Now, the titlebar of the form
> itself actually appears disabled, but the form is not disabled. The
> REALLY strange this is that if the user presses
> the windows key on the keyboard (which activates the startmenu in
> windows) and then clicks with the mouse on the titlebar of the form
> in Visual FoxPro, everything returns to normal and the titlebar is
> now dark, the keys work correctly in all fields, and the cursor is
> active. Once this problem occurs, it happens everytime until I delete
> the resource file and restart our app (or
> so it appears).
>
> All of the systems are new systems.
> Windows XP.
> 6 workstations.
>
> I have checked the power settings, desktop themes, resource files,
> other Visual FoxPro apps and their files, replaced the keyboard, etc.
> It will only happen at this site and then it is reproduced nonstop.
>
> Any ideas? Why does switching tasks to/from windows startmenu fix it?
> The form is the same form that has run for years (and called in the
> same sequence) by hundreds of users.
>
> Thanks in advance

TarekHaddad
Wed Nov 30 13:11:05 CST 2005

Hi Tracy,

Try checking in Regional And Language Options: In Advanced TAB the language
& all settings.

Tarek Haddad


"Tracy" wrote:

> I have a process that a user goes through maybe 30 times a day. The steps
> are
> always the same. During the process the sequence goes through 4-5 forms
> being
> displayed and allowing keyboard entry before a report prints from each form.
> This happens at literally hundreds of locations with no problems and no
> issues. However, on all of the machines at one single location a strange
> thing happens. When the user goes to a form and the form displays, all of
> the
> fields will be accessible but the cursor dissappears. Clicking in any field
> on the form the user can type but the cursor is not visible. The strangest
> thing is that no matter what key the user presses on the keyboard, the
> (ctrl+F1) key is the result (a 'y' with the two umlauts on top of it) in all
> fields. Now, the titlebar of the form itself actually appears disabled, but
> the form is not disabled. The REALLY strange this is that if the user
> presses
> the windows key on the keyboard (which activates the startmenu in windows)
> and then clicks with the mouse on the titlebar of the form in Visual FoxPro,
> everything returns to normal and the titlebar is now dark, the keys work
> correctly in all fields, and the cursor is active. Once this problem occurs,
> it happens everytime until I delete the resource file and restart our app
> (or
> so it appears).
>
> All of the systems are new systems.
> Windows XP.
> 6 workstations.
>
> I have checked the power settings, desktop themes, resource files, other
> Visual FoxPro apps and their files, replaced the keyboard, etc. It will only
> happen at this site and then it is reproduced nonstop.
>
> Any ideas? Why does switching tasks to/from windows startmenu fix it? The
> form is the same form that has run for years (and called in the same
> sequence) by hundreds of users.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>
>

Dan
Wed Nov 30 13:47:01 CST 2005

Hi Tracy,

The fact that the title bar is disabled implies that you app does not have
focus.

You wrote:
>Once this problem occurs, it happens everytime until I delete the resource
file and
> restart our app

You also wrote:
> if the user presses
> the windows key on the keyboard (which activates the startmenu in windows)
> and then clicks with the mouse on the titlebar of the form in Visual
FoxPro,
> everything returns to normal and the titlebar is now dark, the keys work
> correctly in all fields, and the cursor is active

Do both of these methods work every time? or do you require restarting once
it starts?

Is your app running as a Top Level form? (ShowWindow = 2)

Can your app load more than one Top Level form at a time?

Could this customer have a software for logging keystrokes?

I know there are more questions than answers... I hope your responses will
help us determine the problem.


Let me know,
Dan





"Tracy" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23qu5w7d9FHA.444@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I have a process that a user goes through maybe 30 times a day. The steps
> are
> always the same. During the process the sequence goes through 4-5 forms
> being
> displayed and allowing keyboard entry before a report prints from each
form.
> This happens at literally hundreds of locations with no problems and no
> issues. However, on all of the machines at one single location a strange
> thing happens. When the user goes to a form and the form displays, all of
> the
> fields will be accessible but the cursor dissappears. Clicking in any
field
> on the form the user can type but the cursor is not visible. The strangest
> thing is that no matter what key the user presses on the keyboard, the
> (ctrl+F1) key is the result (a 'y' with the two umlauts on top of it) in
all
> fields. Now, the titlebar of the form itself actually appears disabled,
but
> the form is not disabled. The REALLY strange this is that if the user
> presses
> the windows key on the keyboard (which activates the startmenu in windows)
> and then clicks with the mouse on the titlebar of the form in Visual
FoxPro,
> everything returns to normal and the titlebar is now dark, the keys work
> correctly in all fields, and the cursor is active. Once this problem
occurs,
> it happens everytime until I delete the resource file and restart our app
> (or
> so it appears).
>
> All of the systems are new systems.
> Windows XP.
> 6 workstations.
>
> I have checked the power settings, desktop themes, resource files, other
> Visual FoxPro apps and their files, replaced the keyboard, etc. It will
only
> happen at this site and then it is reproduced nonstop.
>
> Any ideas? Why does switching tasks to/from windows startmenu fix it? The
> form is the same form that has run for years (and called in the same
> sequence) by hundreds of users.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>

Tracy
Wed Nov 30 15:14:10 CST 2005

I understand that but what would be shifting focus? This only happens at
one site (on all machines at the site). The process is identical at all
sites (hundreds). It doesn't happen continuously either. It will work fine
for 4-5 times and then any fix that appears to fix it will last for about
4-5 more times and then it will start ocurring again. The process is
identical everytime too - it is a simple receipt entry form.

Dan
Thu Dec 01 07:42:32 CST 2005

The reason for the questions was to get a better understanding of what is
possible. If the problem is ONLY at this location, it would appear to be
environmental. Can you reproduce the problem on thier Pc? If not, it could
be caused by a unexpected keystroke event (or associated code to the event).
The main person in this office probably trained everyone else, therefore the
problem could appear at each machine as the users all enter data in the same
pattern.
The pattern they move from field to field could be unique to this company,
but constant from everyone in the company. Example: The use of carriage
return instead of tab.

Without more information, its hard to guess. My company has been using
LogMeIn to dial into clients computers. Perhaps you can dial into your
customers PC with this method to attempt to cause the problem on thier PC.

Good luck,
Dan


"Tracy" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:u5YxJMf9FHA.1844@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I understand that but what would be shifting focus? This only happens at
> one site (on all machines at the site). The process is identical at all
> sites (hundreds). It doesn't happen continuously either. It will work
fine
> for 4-5 times and then any fix that appears to fix it will last for about
> 4-5 more times and then it will start ocurring again. The process is
> identical everytime too - it is a simple receipt entry form.
>
>

Andrew
Fri Dec 02 03:31:50 CST 2005

"Tracy" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23qu5w7d9FHA.444@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> fields will be accessible but the cursor dissappears. Clicking in any
> field
> on the form the user can type but the cursor is not visible. The strangest
> thing is that no matter what key the user presses on the keyboard, the
> (ctrl+F1) key is the result (a 'y' with the two umlauts on top of it)

Sounds unusual, one thing that springs to mind is that ÿ is CHR(255) so I
wonder if somehow it is receiving an overflow, I wonder what is set in all
the options in control panel/regional settings/languages/details?

--
Regards
Andrew Howell

Tracy
Fri Dec 02 07:52:04 CST 2005

I'll definitely check it out. thanks for the ideas!