System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.

[steve123abc]

I have a version of software that I had written (in C#) for me several years ago. Thousands of installs have been done over the last 6 years with everything working correctly.

The software talks on a comm port (either physical or via a USB to serial adapter). This has been done successfully for a long time. It appears there has been a Windows Update that may have caused a problem leading to the following error.

System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.

The application gives the option to terminate or continue. If you continue, the comm port selection dropdown and the baud rate selection dropdown appear empty.

Has anyone come across this before? Is there a work around? I'd like to note have to change the application and re-install it on hundreds or thousands of PCs.

Thanks in advance. Steve.

[GaryTexmo]

Hmm, that's very odd. Since you have the code for this, I'd step through to see why this exception is being thrown. Perhaps the way the parameters come from the comm port changed, and are no longer matching the input string? This is pure speculation, you'll need to step through to see what's happening now.

You might luck out and be able to release a simple patch to update your binaries, or you might be able to put in a ticket with Microsoft... perhaps they made a mistake? (Wouldn't be the first time... >.>)

[tlhintoq]

If your comport is a virtual COM from a Microsoft bluetooth dongle there is a known bug. The MS BT stack sometimes make entries like this

COM15╪
instead of
COM15

It fails to put a proper null termination in the registry, then later when you get the available com port names they are fraked up.

Check the registry to see if they are screwed, or better yet parse the reg and fix all COM port names that aren't right.

LocalMachine | Hardware | Devicemap | SerialComm


Another thought... I recently saw a Dell mini PC with no COM ports at all, thus the result to the list of available com ports was null. An empty string would not be the right format for getting a number.