[RESOLVED] Settings and power troubles

I have been using this code for a while now on my development machine and it worked all the time. Now, my test machine is a laptop without a battery. When the laptop loses power and shuts down immediately, the next time it turns back on just fine but my program starts having issues while loading.
Spare the, this isn't safe for the laptop, I know, but it's all I can do until I mod the power button.
Anyways, the program acts like the settings were never there, never initialized, never contained properties, nothing. I added the try/catch block and every time I start the program it always enters the catch block.
I am saving all the settings for the program every 15 seconds, but not closing the program is causing major problems. Is there anyway around this, or am I sol?

Code:

---

Try
            If My.Settings.firstresolution = "" Or My.Settings.firstresolution Is Nothing Then
                My.Settings.firstresolution = "800x480"
                resolution = "800x480"
            Else
                resolution = My.Settings.firstresolution
            End If
        Catch
        End Try

Try
            If My.Settings.SkinFolder Is Nothing Or My.Settings.SkinFolder = "" Then
                My.Settings.SkinFolder = resolution & "\Default"
                Form1.skinfolder = resolution & "\Default"
            Else
                Form1.skinfolder = My.Settings.SkinFolder
            End If
        Catch
        End Try

---

If you are saving the settings before losing power, I am not sure why they would be missing when power is lost and then the machine is rebooted.

The only thing I can think you might want to try is to uncheck the option to "save my.settings on shutdown" which can be found in the project properties -> application tab. Maybe having that option checked is causing the problem when power is lost.

Of course the power being lost to the OS is a pretty uncommon scenario. Even when a battery is running low, the machine will force sleep or hibernation when it can't function any further. Is it really a nessesity to code for that happening?

Normally I agree that it's a pretty uncommon scenario. In the situation I am in, I would normally standby/hibernate after a set period of ac power being lost if the laptop had a battery.

I didn't really want to describe the situation, as it seems like a long one to describe but here goes:
Laptop is in the car, no battery for laptop. Wires from +/- of car battery run to switches in the dash. From switches in dash, the +/- run to power inverter. From power inverter to laptop. When switches are on, laptop is manually turned on. When switches are off, laptop shuts off. I am in search of how to modify or jump the pins on the motherboard to simulate the press of the power button (this will solve the whole issue), but I am horrible with electrical work.
So, in the meantime I shut the switches off and the laptop shuts off. I didn't code the settings to save just in case of this, but figured saving them wouldn't hurt anyways. I will try un-checking the save settings on shutdown as soon as I get home from work.

Once the settings seem like they are corrupted, I can just build a new release and overwrite all the files and the new build will work just fine. I wonder if I am just getting unlucky in my timing, and losing power while it saves the settings corrupts them?

why don't you exit the app before flipping the switch off?

That probably would be the easiest thing to do. I didn't leave room on the app because I didn't think I would need to close it, it's a full screen touch media player, meant to not close. I might have to hide a close button somewhere for the time being.

Thanks anyways and I'll just go this route until I get the setup I am waiting for.