Software Bisque Knowledge Base Article – 60

“ILLEGAL OPERATION ERROR” WHEN START THESKY

ISSUE

On launching TheSky v4, error message displayed:
“TheSky has performed an illegal operation error in module MFC40.DLL”
(TheSky never comes up)

RESOLUTION

If TheSky crashes after adding a database, this indicates that the file that was added is not a valid Sky Database File (SDB). That is, a text, picture, or other file format was incorrectly added to the Sky Database Manager.

To solve the problem:
1. Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard while launching TheSky. This undocumented command disables the current SDBs for the current session only. TheSky should launch and run without the error message. Then:

IF YOU KNOW WHICH FILE IS INVALID:
2a. Use the Data, Sky Database Manager to remove the file from the database list.
3a. Restart TheSky normally (do not use the Ctrl key). If the error message still appears, one or more invalid files are still in the database list – return to step 1.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHICH FILE IS INVALID:
2b. Close TheSky (if running), and delete the file SDB.LST from TheSky folder. Remember, by default Windows 95 hides extensions from file names.
3b. Restart TheSky and use the Data, Sky Database Manager tool to restore -valid- .SDB database files. Hint: Add a small number of files, then restart TheSky to confirm that none were invalid. Repeat this process until you have all desired databases added. If you encounter an error, return to step 1, then proceed to 2a.

Note:
Uninstalling and reinstalling TheSky does not resolve this problem (unless you also delete TheSky’s folder). The SDB.LST file is created at run-time and is not uninstalled. Software Bisque is investigating this situation and plans to eliminate the problem in a future release.

APPLIES TO

General

KEYWORDS

SBKB

This article was formerly published under the identifier Q143KB in Software Bisque’s prior knowledge base.

Last Reviewed: 11/24/2004