Hello. Do you have another "TextBox1" somewhere on your page? Perhaps in the Master page itself? If so - ASP.NET renames the controls in order to get a unique ID. It should automatically rename your RequiredFieldValidator1 reference to the control as well. But perhaps this does not happen as expected. Anyway you should go check it out. I've found the best way to debug this, is to try and rename your control to something logic eg. "txtName" - that way you ensure, that you decide the names, and not Visual Studio, because, well, it's best the other way around. ;-) Best Regards Soeren