serialization error---error: ALT

[Lee Dufendach]

first time I ever go this...Just about finished the program and BAM!!! I'm stopped cold. I can't even get into the program to see if one is left. All I have on the screen is Serialization error and then below that it says " Error: ALT.
Any clues?

[rangerboat72]

first time I ever go this...Just about finished the program and BAM!!! I'm stopped cold. I can't even get into the program to see if one is left. All I have on the screen is Serialization error and then below that it says " Error: ALT.
Any clues?

Welcome to the PC DEMON...

Hopefully you had Autosave turned on.

[jimfly]

I think it is a bug, what version do you use?
Ctrl+S may be help when coding program.

[rangerboat72]

I think it is a bug, what version do you use?
Ctrl+S may be help when coding program.

Ctrl+S twice to be sure. I've gotten in the habit of doing the Ctrl+S about every 10 minutes of writing a new program.

[Jan d.]

first time I ever go this...Just about finished the program and BAM!!! I'm stopped cold. I can't even get into the program to see if one is left. All I have on the screen is Serialization error and then below that it says " Error: ALT.
Any clues?

Sorry, no recovery possible. The only thing that seems to make this error happen less frequent is installing the hotfix for XP with SP2:

http://www.wilcoxassoc.com/support/hotfix.htm

Doesn't solve this problem but makes it go from weekly to quarterly.

Make yourself a little batch file that copies all your program files to another location or file name. Run this program daily. That way you are assured that you loose no more than 1 day's worth of work.

It is terrible that this problem keeps cropping up. This one ought to be beyond number 1 of things to fix on Hexagon's things-to-fix-list. It destroys our programs. Cash destruction. Unacceptable.



Jan.


by the way, please fill out your user profile!

[jjewell]

You probably lost it all, but try a couple things.

First completely delete your probe file, then try to open up....

Next, try to open in a text editor and look for something weird near the end...

This has worked ONCE only, can't remember what version, but considering it took me 5 hours to program, it was worth it. If I am working on a large program, I tend to just make a copy as the day goes on, and yes..SAVE,SAVE, but once you get an ALT ERROR, you are usually baked anyway...

Let us kow how you make out.

[craiger_ny]

You probably lost it all, but try a couple things.

Next, try to open in a text editor and look for something weird near the end...

This has worked ONCE only, can't remember what version, but considering it took me 5 hours to program, it was worth it. If I am working on a large program, I tend to just make a copy as the day goes on, and yes..SAVE,SAVE, but once you get an ALT ERROR, you are usually baked anyway...

Let us kow how you make out.

I was able to do that before as well. I've actually done it with a corrupt .mdb database. Sometimes you get lucky give it a shot. Check your file size too. I have had programs go South before and it is like there is nothing there, the .prg will be 2 or 4 KB vs a couple of hundred at least. If you are getting this error and the .prg size is very small (couple of KB) give up. You are toast in that case.

[Saliha]

first time I ever go this...Just about finished the program and BAM!!! I'm stopped cold. I can't even get into the program to see if one is left. All I have on the screen is Serialization error and then below that it says " Error: ALT.
Any clues?

Not often but sometimes this work for me, opening this prg file with MS-Word Appl. then copy all - create a new pcdmis pprg-paste all-done.

HTH
Saliha

[Mike N.]

how do you open the .prg file in MSWORD?

I forced it using the "open with" function and all I got was hyroglyphics (sp?)