Program freezes while using "Sleep"

intSeconds = (hours * 3600) + (minutes * 60) + seconds
timeLeft = intSeconds

For seconds = 0 to intSeconds
timeLeft = timeLeft - 1
Sleep 1000
Next seconds



When I run my program and hit the button that is supposed to count down the seconds, it just freezes and I have to end task VB. Any help appreciated, or another way to make a counter. Thank you.

Of course it does. Why do you have Sleep in the loop in the first place?

Of course it does. Why do you have Sleep in the loop in the first place?

yea i just realized it would, i have it because i wanted to make a countdown.. pausing every sec and so on...

Perhaps you should consider a Timer control instead?

Put this code into a module:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Option Explicit

Private Type FILETIME
dwLowDateTime As Long
dwHighDateTime As Long
End Type

Private Const WAIT_ABANDONED& = &H80&
Private Const WAIT_ABANDONED_0& = &H80&
Private Const WAIT_FAILED& = -1&
Private Const WAIT_IO_COMPLETION& = &HC0&
Private Const WAIT_OBJECT_0& = 0
Private Const WAIT_OBJECT_1& = 1
Private Const WAIT_TIMEOUT& = &H102&

Private Const INFINITE = &HFFFF
Private Const ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS = 183&

Private Const QS_HOTKEY& = &H80
Private Const QS_KEY& = &H1
Private Const QS_MOUSEBUTTON& = &H4
Private Const QS_MOUSEMOVE& = &H2
Private Const QS_PAINT& = &H20
Private Const QS_POSTMESSAGE& = &H8
Private Const QS_SENDMESSAGE& = &H40
Private Const QS_TIMER& = &H10
Private Const QS_MOUSE& = (QS_MOUSEMOVE _
Or QS_MOUSEBUTTON)
Private Const QS_INPUT& = (QS_MOUSE _
Or QS_KEY)
Private Const QS_ALLEVENTS& = (QS_INPUT _
Or QS_POSTMESSAGE _
Or QS_TIMER _
Or QS_PAINT _
Or QS_HOTKEY)
Private Const QS_ALLINPUT& = (QS_SENDMESSAGE _
Or QS_PAINT _
Or QS_TIMER _
Or QS_POSTMESSAGE _
Or QS_MOUSEBUTTON _
Or QS_MOUSEMOVE _
Or QS_HOTKEY _
Or QS_KEY)

Private Declare Function CreateWaitableTimer Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "CreateWaitableTimerA" ( _
ByVal lpSemaphoreAttributes As Long, _
ByVal bManualReset As Long, _
ByVal lpName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function OpenWaitableTimer Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "OpenWaitableTimerA" ( _
ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, _
ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, _
ByVal lpName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function SetWaitableTimer Lib "kernel32" ( _
ByVal hTimer As Long, _
lpDueTime As FILETIME, _
ByVal lPeriod As Long, _
ByVal pfnCompletionRoutine As Long, _
ByVal lpArgToCompletionRoutine As Long, _
ByVal fResume As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function CancelWaitableTimer Lib "kernel32" ( _
ByVal hTimer As Long)

Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" ( _
ByVal hObject As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" ( _
ByVal hHandle As Long, _
ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function MsgWaitForMultipleObjects Lib "user32" ( _
ByVal nCount As Long, _
pHandles As Long, _
ByVal fWaitAll As Long, _
ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long, _
ByVal dwWakeMask As Long) As Long

Public Sub Wait(lNumberOfSeconds As Double)
Dim ft As FILETIME
Dim lBusy As Long
Dim lRet As Long
Dim dblDelay As Double
Dim dblDelayLow As Double
Dim dblUnits As Double
Dim hTimer As Long

hTimer = CreateWaitableTimer(0, True, App.EXEName & "Timer")

If Err.LastDllError = ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS Then
' If the timer already exists, it does not hurt to open it
' as long as the person who is trying to open it has the
' proper access rights.
Else
ft.dwLowDateTime = -1
ft.dwHighDateTime = -1
lRet = SetWaitableTimer(hTimer, ft, 0, 0, 0, 0)
End If

' Convert the Units to nanoseconds.
dblUnits = CDbl(&H10000) * CDbl(&H10000)
dblDelay = CDbl(lNumberOfSeconds) * 1000 * 10000

' By setting the high/low time to a negative number, it tells
' the Wait (in SetWaitableTimer) to use an offset time as
' opposed to a hardcoded time. If it were positive, it would
' try to convert the value to GMT.
ft.dwHighDateTime = -CLng(dblDelay / dblUnits) - 1
dblDelayLow = -dblUnits * (dblDelay / dblUnits - _
Fix(dblDelay / dblUnits))

If dblDelayLow < CDbl(&H80000000) Then
' &H80000000 is MAX_LONG, so you are just making sure
' that you don't overflow when you try to stick it into
' the FILETIME structure.
dblDelayLow = dblUnits + dblDelayLow
End If

ft.dwLowDateTime = CLng(dblDelayLow)
lRet = SetWaitableTimer(hTimer, ft, 0, 0, 0, False)

Do
' QS_ALLINPUT means that MsgWaitForMultipleObjects will
' return every time the thread in which it is running gets
' a message. If you wanted to handle messages in here you could,
' but by calling Doevents you are letting DefWindowProc
' do its normal windows message handling---Like DDE, etc.
lBusy = MsgWaitForMultipleObjects(1, hTimer, False, _
INFINITE, QS_ALLINPUT&)
DoEvents
Loop Until lBusy = WAIT_OBJECT_0

' Close the handles when you are done with them.
CloseHandle hTimer

End Sub


Now... use this in your form:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wait (0.2) 'Wait is in seconds... so this will wait for 1/5 sec.

That worked, although long code :)

but I still can't get the count down to work.

intSeconds = 100
tLeft = 1

While (tLeft > 0)
Wait (1)
tLeft = intSeconds - 1
Wend


It only subracts once and then it stops.

Public Time As Currency
Private Sub Form_Load()

Time = 60

End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Time = Time - 1
MsgBox Time
End Sub


timer1.interval = 1000 btw

Thank you everyone who helped. I got it to work by doing this:

If intSeconds = 0 Then
tLeft = "Completed!"
Else
Call cDown
End If
End Sub



Private Sub cDown()
While (tLeft <> 0)
Wait (1)
tLeft.Caption = tLeft - 1
Wend
End Sub