Strange Characters Occur When Typing New Event in SK98 1

[BCALAK]

To Do's did not forward and got Invalid File MAST.WK when changing time periods. Use SK98 with W2000 Prof

Downloaded and installed Sidekick.exe patch. BOTH PROBLEMS SOLVED . . . . B U T

NEW PROBLEM HAS DEVELOPED . . . when typing in a new Event, the first few letters are garbage

e.g. when "New Event" was typed in, it showed up as " èø ew Event "

Responses to suggestions thus far:

- not using FileBox extender

- run SK98 on desktop & laptop which both are W2K Prof operating systems; same problem on both machines; seems to rule out video card

- checked Task Mgr on both machines and Rundll32.exe is NOT running in background

- Don’t plan to “Download & install Windows XP Service Pack 1” since I’m running a W2K Prof operating system

Has anyone using SK98 with a W2K operating system found a solution to this problem????

 

[james33]

Dear BCALAK,
Just a quick note to see if you have managed to solve the problem yet?
It appears to be the only continuing problem with Sidekick98 and any of the NT derivatives like Win2000 or XP.


Regards Jim
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[BCALAK]

Haven't found a permanent solution. Do have "work-arounds" if I remember to do them.

Work-around #1

- Type Events info in "To Do" area

- highlight & Ctrl_x to cut it out of "To Do" area and Ctrl_v to paste it in "Events" area


Work-around #2

- Also do a copy (Ctrl_c) & paste (Ctrl_v) if the event is similar to one that's already listed without the unintelligible hieroglyphics

Thanks for following up

 

[james33]

Dear BCALAK,
Have you tried CLEARING the option box (i.e.unticking):

Display Appointment Start and Ending Time

The option is in Calendar View
Tools|Preferences|Calendar
HTH

Regards Jim
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[BCALAK]

Thanks for the suggestion, Jim; however it's unchecked

 

[james33]

Dear BCALAK,
Try checking it then adding an appointment and then see what effect that has and then try it unchecked..
It won't take long and I just want to see if it affects it at all,
Thanks


Regards Jim
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[BCALAK]

You really stick with it, don't you??!!!

I checked the "Display Appointment Start and Ending Time" box and did an Event entry. Same probelem continued.

Shut SK98 down and restarted it, unchecked the "Display Appointment Start and Ending Time" box and did an Event entry. Same probelem continued.

 

[james33]

Dear BCALAK,
I know in my head/heart that this is where the problem lies and it is bugging me especially because I don't know enough about programming to disassemble the program code and trace what is exactly happening.
I feel that it could be linked in some way to the short date format in Regional properties and when I have the same setup as you, I will try again.
Yes I am very persistent!
Thanks so much for your help.


Regards Jim
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[dickames]

I have run into the same problem running Sidekick 98 on Windows XP Professional.

My findings:
I have an HP laptop running XP Home Edition. No problems.

I have a Compaq 5000 series desktop that came with Windows 98. In installed Windows XP Professional Upgrade, and started have problems with garbage characters at the beginning of an appointment.

I have another Compaq 5000 series desktop that came with Windows ME. I did a hard drive re-format and installed Windows XP Professional as a fresh install, and had the same problem with garbage characters.

So, for me it happens with XP Professional, but not XP Home.

It only happens when typing a new appointment in the Calendar view. If I double-click on a blank appointment line, and open the Schedule An Event dialog box, I can type a new appointment without getting the garbage characters.

If I single-click on a blank appointment line, and start typing, I always get 2 garbage characters at the beginning of the appointment. Once I type several more characters, I can cursor back and backspace over the garbage characters to delete them. That's a workaround, but still a pain.

If anyone finds a solution, I would love to hear about it.

Dick Ames

 

[BCALAK]

Dick,

What you've described is EXACTLY what I'm experienceing with two W2K Prof installations

 

[bazak]

Hi- anybody ever find a solution to the garbage characters? I have SK98 running on a Win XP Home machine for close to two years no problem and now suddenly I've got this thing too. Anybody?

 

[slsphoto]

You can add my name to the list of XP pro users that get two initial odd charators before each event entry. I though it might be the font settings and messed with those for a while without improvement.

 

[garybritt]

On my SK98 with Win2k installation, I can NOT just type out an appointment. No characters at all appear when trying this. The ONLY way I can enter an appointment on SK98. SK95 and SKWin3.1 do not have this behavior on the same machine. UNTIL READING THIS THREAD I THOUGHT THIS IS JUST THE WAY SK98 WORKS. Is that not the case? I bet these problems are related, but don't have any thoughts on how to solve this.

I'm running a patched SK98 installation on Win2K Pro, Service Pack 3. Other than Service Pack 4 all patches and critical updates are installed. IE 6 with all patches and critical updates installed.

I'm going to boot into Win98 on this same machine and see if SK98 has the same problem under Win98.

Any thoughts?

Gary Britt

 

[garybritt]

Just booted to Win98 and tried this, and SK98 allows me to enter an appointment without having to use ctrl-alt-enter to bring up the appointment dialog. No strange characters either. On Win2K, as I tried to state above, but not so clearly, the ONLY way I can enter a new appointment is to first hit ctrl-alt-enter to bring up the new appointment dialog as just typing on a line in the calendar does not work for this. This problem on Win2K only happens for appointments and not for calls or to dos.

One point to consider is that whether I boot Win98 or Win2K this is the same machine and exact same SK98 setup. By that I mean the one single machine boots multiple operating systems and both run the very same SK98 setup located in the very same hard drive and directory.

Therefore the problem on Win2K must be either:

1. Operating System code conflict in general

2. Video Driver caused conflict as different video drivers run for each of the two operating systems.

3. Some file that works in the windows/system32 or windows directory on Win98 doesn't exist in the winnt or winnt/system32 direcotries or doesn't work right when running Win2k.

4. Combination of the above.

Any thoughts?

Gary

 

[JackPort]

Dear Friends,

I wrote an FAQ on this subject sometime ago, but apparently it has disappeared.

I located the problem in the Rundll32.exe file. When I downloaded Windows Service Pack 1, this process no longer displayed in the Windows Task Manager and the calendar worked fine on the offending machine.

Prior to downloading SP 1, I terminated the Rundll32.exe process with Windows Task Manager, and confirmed that the calendar worked fine--no garbage characters preceding the calendar events.

Don't ask me to explain it, but I know it works.

Jack

 

[JackPort]

I found the FAQ: faq807-3130

 

Update- I finally solved the SK98 strange characters on appointments problem on this Windows XP Home PC with SP1 installed. I was able to stop the problem temporarily (till the next re-boot) by closing rundll.exe. I finally realized the problem might be connected to the new driver I had installed for the video card several months ago, I deleted the new driver, re-installed the original one that came with the card, problem solved. This may not apply to anyone else's situation, but it looks like the problem can be related to video card drivers.

 

[SelwynM]

I removed rundll but I still have the same problem. Perhaps someone has found a solution Please

 

[james33]

Dear SelwynM,
What operating system, including service patches are you on?

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

 

[SelwynM]

Dear Jim,

Many Thanks for your prompt reply.

I have checked all the FAQ's and threads I can think of.

I am running xp pro SP2.

Regards