Okay yeah, for some strange reason, setting the item index to 3, cleared all the items, I removed all code that accessed the combobox and started adding back one line at a time, I uncommented a line to set the item index, it tried to set the value of 3 (which is well within range) but after a while all the items just disappeared :/. Looks like im gonna have to stick with the listbox for now. tre bizarre