external component has thrown an exception

i randomly get an error saying: external component has thrown an exception ....the application is in vb.net....
Below is the stack trace of the error

at globalmodule.Main1.AddColToSubGrid(AxMSFlexGrid msfg, String colName, String ClWidth, String Cntrl, String ColValid)
at globalmodule.Main1.getSubGridDesign(AxMSFlexGrid& msfg, String mainGridColName, DataSet DSFrmshrtctTemp, Boolean GetXmlDesignData)

can anyone tell me the reason or how to solve this error