thanks so much Borislav for responding

Yes, the table apInvItems is populated. The behavior is bizzare. If I do NOT set the controlSource in the .init of the form, the combo enables and populates. If I set the controlSource to apInvItems AND select AND browse the apInvItems table prior to setting the controlSource, the combo enables and populates. If I do not browse apInvItems, the combo will NOT enable. Issuing a browse does the trick, however having a browse window pop open in the init is not acceptable

Any ideas?