 <p>Because your dropdownlist is contained within another control it may be that you need a recursive findcontrol.</p> <p><a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/palermo4/archive/2007/04/13/recursive-findcontrol-t.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://weblogs.asp.net/palermo4/archive/2007/04/13/recursive-findcontrol-t.aspx</a></p>