It turns out this is a “bug” IMHO in ASP.NET 2.0 (even though it was actually a bug on my page code as well -- so I guess it is actually a .NET 2.0 feature, not a bug).

 

My page has variables defined:

 

CustomValidator1 and Customvalidator1 (notice the lowercase V in the second instance).

 

When the asp compiler parses the aspx file, it cannot distinquish between the 2 variables even though this is C# which IS case sensitive and so should have no problems with this (code compilation generates no complaints as expected).

 

Ok now the hard part, how in the world did I find these conflicting variables??? Well, first I spent a while just looking at the code... Don't do that, it will take forever and you might not see it anyway.

 

Download Lutz Roeder's .NET reflector from: http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/

 

Run this on your apps dll, it will make your search for the needle in the haystack much easier. Typically, the two variables in question will be right next to each other.

 

Happy Hunting!

 

 

 

 

I can't say how many times this thing has helped me solve a problem (many!). If you do any web page development, you need this...

 

From Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en