unexpected error

[theman32x]

i've managed to make this graphic viewer program which just opens graphic files ... i sent it to 8 people (friends) to try it out for themselves n tell me what they think of it ... out of the 8 only 3 of them said they had a problem opening the program ... they said that when they tried to open the program it said "unexpected error" n the program never loaded ... y is it that for 5 people it worked n for 3 it didn't?

i made the program in vb5 n all of my friends have the msvbvm50.dll file ... i didn't use any extra controls ... i checked their OS n they have win 98 n win 98 sec ed that can't be the problem because it worked on both OS ... i don't know what file they might be missing because it doesn't tell them that they r missing any files ... furthermore, 1 friend who it doesn't work for has vb5 installed so he should have all the files ...

anybody have any idea to what might be causing this "unexpected error" problem?

[MrShickadance]

Aren't all errors unexpected?

Ahh, the joy of Microsoft error reporting.

[billrogers]

r u making a setup/deployment package or just giving them an exe??

[theman32x]

just an *.exe

[MrShickadance]

You should probably distro it with a setup package, that way you insure everyone gets all the required files.

[kmchong]

I experienced these kind of 'unexpected error' quite frequently. I am using VB5 SP3 on Chinese Win95, and my users run on Win95 Chinese, Win98 Chinese, Win98 English etc.

After the long history, most of the case, the 'Unexpected error' is due to wrong version/incomptaible dll, ocx. hat's why your program cannot trap this error since this happen before your program start.

More complicate, my suspision, some components, like dll, may be installed together with MS Office or so. As a result, although some machine seems to have the same thing installed, but I still got one have 'Unexpected error' and one is OK.

Try to make sure the sequence of installing the product is consistent, or just the most primitive machine to compile your program before distribute.

[billrogers]

I would try making a setup package, that way everyone can get the same dll's. If you wish to see what dll's the users are using you can just check the properties. So say for instance your program uses the MFC40.dll then you would need to check the properties to see what version it is, chances are they dont all have the same version. Which can cause all kinds of problems. If you dont wish to make a set up program you could just include the dll that you use with the exe.

[Frans C]

Yep, your users probably have an older version of the vb runtime dll then you have (MSVBVM50.dll or MSVBVM60.dll). P&D will solve this.

[btz3d]

Hello Ryan!

[theman32x]

that is a good point ... it never crossed my mind about people having outdated versions of the files ... as soon as i read the posts about the different versions i talked to one of the persons who couldn't open up my program ... i asked them to check their version of msvbvm50.dll and to my surprise they had the same one that i had ... however, they didn't have the same comdlg32.ocx version ... but now i have sent them a link to microsoft where the current runtime files are ... i told them to download the vb5 n vb6 runtime files ... my program still didn't work ... so now i have re-made the program in vb6 enterprise ... i'm waiting for the person to tell me if the program now works for them ... if it doesn't i don't think anything can fix the "unexpected error" for them ...

[Frans C]

Why don't you create a setup program for your program. This assures all needed dll's and ocx's are included, and these problems should not occur. It's not much work, but the package will increase a lot in size.
In vb5 it's called the setup wizard(if I remember correctly) and in vb6 it's the Package and Deployment wizard (or P&D). If you don't like P&D, there is also the windows installer for visual studio 6, donloadable from ms website (but it's a big download).

[kmchong]

Things Isn't That Simple.

I use Setup Wizard to create the package, but the problem still exist.

It very much depends on the configuration and the sequence that user install application into Windows.

As my experience, I made the setup wizard, run it in 3 different PC, Chinese Win98, English Win98 x 2; you guess?

The Chinese Win98 is running OK, one of the English Win98 is OK, but the other come out message say the VBJet is wrong version!!!