VB5 Help

Good Morning! I hate to make my first post so selfish, but this forum seems to have all the potential for helping me learn and hopefully solving a recent problem. I've been in IT for years, but I'm more on the network/server/security side of the house. I have a close friend who has a custom VB program they use for inventory in their small family business. The developer is in bad health and has been unavailable for weeks. There is a problem with part of the program that has kept them from updating their inventory for almost a month now. Initially I would love to just solve their problem and move on, but I understand I may just have to get my hands dirty and take some ownership. I have exhausted my resources for finding a local person who is interested in the project.

1. Is this the right section on the forum for asking for help?
2. Is the common procedure around here, post errors and questions in the thread or take it offline in email or PM?
3. I don't know what kind of compensation to offer or estimate for the work so I told them I would try and fix it and we can come back to money later.
4. The program runs on their accounting pc which is not connected to the Internet. I have to visit them to test, but I have a copy of the folder with .DB and exe's. I could not locate any source files so I have had little success as running them on my pc's.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to VBForums :wave:

1. It is he right place if you want somebody to do all of the work for you (which is unlikely to happen), if you just want advice on fixing it yourself then one of our other forums would be the place... I can move it if needed (you can't move it yourself).

2. In the thread, as that way more people can see it and help you (plus it puts less demand on the specific person/people who have helped already).

3. Good idea.

4. Oh dear... without the source files you are almost certainly stuck (assuming the issue needs code changes). If it is actually VB5 you would need to completely re-write the entire thing from scratch, if it is VB 2005 there is a chance you could decompile (but it would be much more effort than having the source files).

I am pretty sure it is classic 5. I don't think the guy will be able to tell them where the source is. I guess I should start reviewing the DB files in Excel or something to try and draw out something new.

When you say error, does it display a particular error or just stop working? If it displays any errors could you please post the exact errors.