Discussions

The PC I put together a couple of years ago has developed a loud noise.  I think it might be the CPU fan.  How hard is it to replace it?  What is the quietest CPU fans?

I'm working on converting an old VB6 Windows form into a VB 2008 WinForm,
using the VB6 InteropForm library. This old form uses a couple of Crystal
Reports XI Release 2 reports, which I want to leave "as is" for now, and
just pull them into the new WinForm. The first report went reasonably well,
after I figured out how to set the parameters to the report. (The report
uses a ODBC DSN.) However, I am not entirely sure how to handle the second
report, since it has a value (the last value) that can change. What I want
to know is, how to I assign the last parameter to new values and re-generate
the report? Here's what I've got currently for setting the parameters:

Private Sub LoadCrystalReportParams()

 Dim fields As CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterFields = New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterFields()

 Dim paramCutOffDate As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramCutOffDate.EnableAllowMultipleValue = True
 paramCutOffDate.ParameterValueType =
 CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.DateParameter
 paramCutOffDate.Name = "CutoffDate"

 Dim discretCutoffDate As CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue = New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 discretCutoffDate.Value = dEndDate
 paramCutOffDate.CurrentValues.Add(discretCutoffDate)
 fields.Add(paramCutOffDate)

 Dim paramCopy As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramCopy.ParameterValueType = CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.StringParameter
 paramCopy.Name = "Copy"
 Dim discretCopy As CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue = New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 If m_Print = PrintInvoiceEnum.PrintCopy Then
  discretCopy.Value = "Copy"
 Else
  discretCopy.Value = ""
 End If
 paramCopy.CurrentValues.Add(discretCopy)
 fields.Add(paramCopy)

 Dim paramContractName As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramContractName.ParameterValueType = CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.StringParameter
 paramContractName.Name = "ContractName"
 Dim discretContractName As CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue = New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 discretContractName.Value = sContractName
 paramContractName.CurrentValues.Add(discretContractName)
 fields.Add(paramContractName)

 Dim paramProviderAddress As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramProviderAddress.ParameterValueType = CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.StringParameter
 paramProviderAddress.Name = "ProviderName"
 Dim discretProviderAddress As CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue = New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 discretProviderAddress.Value = streetAddress
 paramProviderAddress.CurrentValues.Add(discretProviderAddress)
 fields.Add(paramProviderAddress)

 Dim paramCityState As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramCityState.ParameterValueType = CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.StringParameter
 paramCityState.Name = "CityState"
 Dim discretCityState As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 discretCityState.Value = cityStateAndZip
 paramCityState.CurrentValues.Add(discretCityState)
 fields.Add(paramCityState)

 Dim paramInvoiceNumber As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterField()
 paramInvoiceNumber.ParameterValueType = CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterValueKind.NumberParameter
 paramInvoiceNumber.Name = "@InvoiceNum"
 Dim discretInvoiceNumber As New CrystalDecisions.Shared.ParameterDiscreteValue()
 discretInvoiceNumber.Value = m_InvoiceNumbers(0)
 paramCityState.CurrentValues.Add(discretInvoiceNumber)
 fields.Add(paramInvoiceNumber)

 CrystalReportViewer1.ParameterFieldInfo = fields

End Sub

I'm working with VS 2008.  I've got a GridView control, which I populate through a DropDownList that is data bound using a stored procedure.  When the DDL changes it updates the contents in the GridView control.  The GridView control is also data bound, and is populated using its own stored procedure and the code returned from the DDL once the user selects something.  I've got another stored procedure assigned to the DeleteCommand of the SqlDataSource, which I intend to use is with a delete CommnadField of the GridView control.  However, in this case I want to use the value from one of the fields in the selected row of the GridView as a parameter to the delete command (stored procedure), to delete the record from the relevant tables.  I don't want to use the ID that comes from the DDL; that is inappropriate (and just plain wrong).

So, how do I do what I want to do?  Walking through the wizard it doesn't give me a chance to set up the parameter for the Delete command; it only gives me a chance to setup the parameter for the select command.

ZippyV said:

No problem here.

Hmmm.   OK, I'll just keep and eye on it.

In the last few days Microsoft released a lot of critical updates (~14 or so), which have automatically been applied to all our PCs at home.  I’ve got a Vista Ultimate desktop on a machine which I configured and built from Tiger Direct.  My son and daughter both have some HP laptops, that they purchased this year, running Vista Home Premium, and I have an older Dell laptop with Vista Ultimate.

 

All 4 of these machines are experiencing major problems. I cannot believe that this is coincidence.  I strongly suspect that it is a result of at least one of these critical updates.

 

My desktop experienced a BSOD last night while I was working on an ASP.NET application.  Lost everything.

 

My daughter’s laptop won’t come up at all.

 

My son’s laptop suddenly had massive display problems, went all “streaky” (you’d have to be here to see it) and the mouse froze.

 

As far as changes go, I had to purchase a new monitor yesterday for my desktop, as the only one died.  No other changes.

 

For my son and daughter, they haven’t made any changes at all to their laptops.  No new drivers, no new software, nothing.

 

The only similarity is that we’ve all had all of those critical updates from Microsoft applied automatically.

 

So, does anyone know one way or another if there is some issue with one or more of these updates? And if so, what in heck do we do about it???

When a user selects "work off-line" in Internet Explorer 7, what happens, exactly?  The reason why I ask is my son will get multiple tabs going in IE 7, all pointing to YouTube, and then he will get them all set to work off-line.  I've noticed that our connectivity to the Internet suddenly bogs down.  My guess is that whatever IE means by "work off-line" entails having to pull all resources from whatever web page it is being asked to work off-line on, to a local cache on the user's machine, so that it can be viewed off-line.

Am I correct, or does someting else happen?

At work I wrote a console application in VS 2008, which uses classic ADO, to make modifications to a MS Access 2000/2003 database.  (I’m adding a table, with a primary key, and then add a foreign key relationship.)  I tested it on two machines I have and it worked fine, and gave the .exe to one of my colleagues and she tested it on her machine and it worked fine.  Then she copied the .exe to one of our user’s machines, installed the .NET Framework 3.5, and even added SP1, but it refuses to run there.  It claims that its missing the ADODB assembly.  How can that be?  Since we installed the .NET Framework 3.5 and included service pack 1, I would have thought the user’s machine would be good to go, so I don’t know what the problem is or how to fix it.

rahsoftware said:

Hi,

You better off using WPF for these sort of forms. GDI/GDI+ are very slow when doing animations such as dimming an entire form. On older PCS it will mae your app look shocking and unsmooth. You are not planning to deploy your app on Terminal Services are you?

Good question about Terminal Services; no we're not planning on deploying this to TS.  We've done that before with the old VB6 program that I'm re-writing.  When we deployed that VB6 app to terminal services, man was its painting of forms abysmal!  And we weren't doing anything graphically with it!  What we did find is that having anything other than the basic steel gray background color, and text in black, would result in horrible rendering speeds.

However, you do bring up a good point.  This application is not meant to be viewed in TS.  We've moved all of the reports out of it onto a web interface using Crystal Reports, and that has worked well.  (It was only used in TS to render reports, which we alleviated by moving to an ASP.NET application.)  I really hope this new app won't run in TS.

You know how on many websites, when a popup occurs that is a part of that website, to gather information from the user, and the main page goes dim.  I'd like to do the same thing with a Windows Form application so that if a modal dialog box needs to be popped up then the rest of the application goes dim until the user responds to the dialog box and dismisses it.

How do I do that?

Refrax said:

i had one go out as well. it had the 1394 like yours. used the WD homepage and got it replaced. but i also have 4 of the USB only units on my home server and those have been working great for a long time now.

Could it be the Firewire that's the problem?  This unit does have a USB connection I could use instead, if that would be better.