Oh... hmm well I've never come across this before since I don't use VB for graphics stuff, but perhaps you could convert it to a string, take off the &H using the Right() function, and then convert it back? A bit messy I know but I don't know how VB is treating the number if it's giving you the &H at the beginning.

I've just realised you said it was sticking &H08 in front of the number... why do you think it shouldn't do that?