Hi Neil (and all)
i appreciate your time and attention, but i think we're missing the
point here. you say:

>The whole *point* of asking to validate against a schema, is to run
all the available rules and determine any non-conformances

that is true, BUT - the problem here is not any specific errors in the
schema: the problem is that i wrote some code to tell me what those
are, and THAT code doesnt work. the problem is the error i am getting
before it even started. that's why i thought a snippet would be
enough. however, since you all put your time on it so kindly its my
duty now to come up with a simplified version, which i did. i hope
this helps.. simple schema, 5 elements, then data with one record.
(again, i'm not sure that looking into the specifics here will make a
difference, i think the issue is with the .net code... but you're the
experts)

xml below. thanks in advance!! Jonathan
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><xml xmlns:xsd="http://
www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xsd:schema >
	<xsd:element name="PL_PRICELISTCOUNTRYCUSTOMERTYPENAME">
		   <xsd:simpleType>
					 <xsd:restriction	 base="xsd:string">
										  <xsd:maxLength value="71"/>
					 </xsd:restriction>
		   </xsd:simpleType>
	</xsd:element>
	<xsd:element name="PLDTL_ACDINDICATOR"></xsd:element>
	<xsd:element name="PL_COUNTRYNAME">
		   <xsd:simpleType><xsd:restriction base="xsd:string"><xsd:maxLength
value="35"/>
				 </xsd:restriction></xsd:simpleType>
	</xsd:element>
	<xsd:element name="ITM_PARTNUMBER">
		   <xsd:simpleType><xsd:restriction base="xsd:string"><xsd:maxLength
value="16"/>
			</xsd:restriction>
		   </xsd:simpleType>
	</xsd:element>
	<xsd:element name="ITM_ITEMNAME">
		   <xsd:simpleType><xsd:restriction	base="xsd:string"><xsd:maxLength
value="80"/>
				 </xsd:restriction>
		   </xsd:simpleType>
	</xsd:element>
	<xsd:element name="pricelist"><xsd:complexType>
		<xsd:sequence>
			<xsd:element ref="PL_PRICELISTCOUNTRYCUSTOMERTYPENAME"/>
			<xsd:element ref="PLDTL_ACDINDICATOR"/>
			<xsd:element ref="PL_COUNTRYNAME"/>
			<xsd:element ref="ITM_PARTNUMBER"/>
			<xsd:element ref="ITM_ITEMNAME"/>
		</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>
	</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

<pricelistroot>
	<pricelist>
		<PL_PRICELISTCOUNTRYCUSTOMERTYPENAME>United States Direct To
Reseller</PL_PRICELISTCOUNTRYCUSTOMERTYPENAME>
		<PLDTL_ACDINDICATOR>NONE</PLDTL_ACDINDICATOR>
		<PL_COUNTRYNAME>United States</PL_COUNTRYNAME>
		<ITM_PARTNUMBER>021-06069</ITM_PARTNUMBER>
		<ITM_ITEMNAME>Office Arabic CmprhnKit MVL CD</ITM_ITEMNAME>
	</pricelist>
</pricelistroot>
</xml>