codeigniter 3.1.7 result query array has an issue

Hello every one

i have been having an issue with the database query returning a boolean instead of result_array() or result_object! it is very frustrating to have to go twist code around at each stap, can anyone give a good suggestion to solving this problem?

below is the normal query that was supposed to return a result.

$query = $this->db->query('MY_QUERY');

return $query->result_array();


To be more precise the core code is generating a fatal_error : this is the error i am getting using form validation core library to validate the in put!

Fatal error: Call to a member function num_rows() on boolean in C:\xampp\htdocs\MY_PROJECT\system\libraries\Form_validation.php on line 1122