thanks for the help. that seemed to have fixed that particular problem. however, now i'm getting a much more detailed error.
"Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
with this line highlighted:
"Line 75: Select Case GetUpgradeStatus()"
followed by a stack trace:
[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities.Config.GetConnectionString(String name) +47
DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities.Config.GetConnectionString() +78
DotNetNuke.Data.SqlDataProvider..ctor() +83
[TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.]
System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) +0
System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache) +103
System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache) +261
System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) +66
DotNetNuke.Framework.Reflection.CreateObject(String TypeName, String CacheKey, Boolean UseCache) +232
DotNetNuke.Framework.Reflection.CreateObject(String ObjectProviderType, String ObjectProviderName, String ObjectNamespace, String ObjectAssemblyName, Boolean UseCache) +571
DotNetNuke.Data.DataProvider.CreateProvider() +39
DotNetNuke.Data.DataProvider..cctor() +13
[TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'DotNetNuke.Data.DataProvider' threw an exception.]
DotNetNuke.Common.Globals.GetUpgradeStatus() +65
DotNetNuke.Common.Global.CheckVersion() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\DotNetNuke\App_Code\Global.asax.vb:75
DotNetNuke.Common.Global.Application_Start(Object Sender, EventArgs E) in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\DotNetNuke\App_Code\Global.asax.vb:252
sorry if posting all this just causes clutter, but i don't know how to distinguish what information there is useful towards solving the problem.