>I launch the form and the data and grid appear momentarily and then vanish leaving the form with empty space where the grid is supposed to be and my command buttons that are on the form.

Could you make simple test? Add a button to your form with following code in its click event:
IF USED("mytable") && use real table alias
=messagebox("Ok")
Thisform.Mygrid.Recordsource="mytable" && use real grid name
Thisform.Mygrid.Refresh
ELSE
=messagebox("No")
ENDIF

and try it