David,

I put a base class combo on a form set the back color to 255,255,128 and set the style to 2 - dropdownlist. The text is black with a grey background only around the text. The rest of the backcolor is yellow. The grey is only seen if there there is text showing. I went in the init and added a 4 lines with additem. If you don't see this then maybe is is a video card problem?

Thanks

>James,
>
>I'm still not exactly sure where you are seeing gray. When the control has focus I get a 1 pixel border of the current backcolor, a 1 pixel focus rectangle inside that and then the value that is using the SelectedBackColor.
>
>What color depth are you using? I tried 255,0,0 and 0,255, 0 and just the integer value 1092 and they all work properly for me.
>
>>This is a customer requirement for required fields. I only get the grey background around the characters when I change the backcolors to something other than 255 and the styl is 2 - dropdownlist.