MSCOMM32.OCX Application Error

Question

Platform: Advantech PCM9375, Windows XPE,  Visual Studio 6 (Visual Basic), Serial Communications to a remote serial device.  The following error log is generated after the application crashes:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    Application Error
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    1000
Date:        8/3/2012
Time:        11:17:16 AM
User:        N/A
Computer:    ADVANTEC-90SWAK
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Application Error ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: vs-3000 dashboard.exe, 5.2.0.599, mscomm32.ocx, 6.0.81.69, 0000d7df.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74   Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c   ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 76 73 2d   ure  vs-
0018: 33 30 30 30 20 64 61 73   3000 das
0020: 68 62 6f 61 72 64 2e 65   hboard.e
0028: 78 65 20 35 2e 32 2e 30   xe 5.2.0
0030: 2e 35 39 39 20 69 6e 20   .599 in
0038: 6d 73 63 6f 6d 6d 33 32   mscomm32
0040: 2e 6f 63 78 20 36 2e 30   .ocx 6.0
0048: 2e 38 31 2e 36 39 20 61   .81.69 a
0050: 74 20 6f 66 66 73 65 74   t offset
0058: 20 30 30 30 30 64 37 64    0000d7d
0060: 66 0d 0a                  f..    

This crash does not occur all the time.  If I make a copy of MSCOMM32.OCX and rename the original file to something else and replace it with the copy, the problem goes away for a while.  The problem happens on application startup.

Thanks if you help with this one.

Answer 1

This forum is specific to the Help System built into Visual Studio. Further, VB6 is out of support.

For help with a VB6 issue, this article in the Visual Basic General forum offers some suggestions:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/6a0719fe-14af-47f7-9f51-a8ea2b9c8d6b

Answer 2

Hi,

from your description it sounds like someone is modifying / replacing the MSCOMM32.OCX. So maybe you should look at the system what could have replaced / modified that file. Is there a software distribution system or patch distribution system active that is doing it? Is there any other software installed which "repairs" itself (e.g. through advertised shortcuts)?

Do you see any version difference? Which version is required so that it runs and which version is installed when the app no longer runs?

With kind regards,

Konrad

Answer 3

Konrad,

Thank you for your reply. 

We are quite sure that MSCOMM32.OCX is not being replaced.  As an experiment, we copied MSCOMM32.OCX to the desktop and copied it back to the /system32 directory.  Then the application did not crash, but this is not a permanent fix because the problem reappears again.  The application software is the only piece of software running except for Windows XP Embedded.

We are thinking perhaps that the registry is being altered.  We copied the registry from a known working system and compared it with the system that is failing and there is a difference.  Don't know what that is.

We are also looking at the Western Digital Compact Flashes (SSD-C02GI-4600) that run the O.S. and the application software.  Maybe they have bad sectors or bits. 

Regards,
Peter