>One other clue is that event tracking shows that mycombolist.text1.gotfocus is executing, and it appears to be that this event method is culpable for reverting the editbox's value back to 'x'. text1 is apparently the name of the editbox object contained by the combobox and is of course totally hidden from any kind of examination. (sigh!)

How did you manage to have the combo contain a textbox in the first place? Combo is not a container class, AFAIK, and... keep it busy until Fox Police arrives...