program in IDE works; exe doesn't work, crashing at ntdll.dll

Question

Hi at all!
Actuallay i am working at a student project programming a game (C++ and DirectX 9, Windows Vista SP2 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1).
Our problem is very confusing! When we start our application out of the Visual Studio IDE (release or debug) it works fine. But when starting the created exe, it crashes after a few seconds with the following message details:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: xyz (my Programm)
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00064ffb
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

What does this error mean and why does it work out of the IDE? I cat attach the debugger but I'm not able to bring it to front, because the game is fullscreen.
I can't find any tips or people with the same issue. I hope you can help me. Thanks!

Answer 1

there's access violation in your app.
can you try remote debugging to attach the debugger to the program?

Answer 2

Thanks for reply. I never did that before. Can you tell me how I can do that?
I already switched the program to windowed mode and then started debugging the program, but I don't further steps...

Maybe you can tell me the difference between starting the program via the Visual Studio IDE (using "Start debugging" with F5) and starting the program out of the explorer. Does Visual Studio do some checks or something else when debugging the program?

- Edit: -
I am searching the hole day for a solution, and I figured out that running with F5 (Start debugging) works but Strg+F5 (start without debugging) crashes the application. Any suggestions?

Answer 3

Hello Jojo,

"then started debugging the program, but I don't further steps..."
Do you mean we could not step into/over the program?

As far as I know, one of the differences is the variable initialization. By default, if we start debugging our program, all variables uninitialized are set to null (0). For example, int count; will set the value 0 to count when start debugging.

Could we generate a small application (with C++ and DirectX) which could reproduce the issue? or could we post a code snippet here?

Thanks a lot!

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Answer 4

Hi,
sorry, I think I forgot a word in my sentence => I don't know further steps. Here's a snippet of my code where it crashes:

void Obj3DModel::load3DModel() {
	LPD3DXBUFFER pTempD3DMBuffer = NULL;		// temporary Buffer
	D3DXMATERIAL* d3dxMaterial = NULL;			// Materials of the Object
	string stXFileFull = m_stFolderName + m_stXFile;
	string stTextureFileFull = "";


	HRESULT hr = D3DXLoadMeshFromX(stXFileFull.c_str(),
		              D3DXMESH_SYSTEMMEM,
					  GraphicEngine::getInstance()->getD3DDevice(),
					  NULL,
					  &pTempD3DMBuffer,
					  NULL,
					  &m_dwNumMaterials,
					  &m_lpMesh);
	d3dxMaterial = (D3DXMATERIAL*)pTempD3DMBuffer->GetBufferPointer(); 

	m_pMeshMaterials = new D3DMATERIAL9[m_dwNumMaterials];		// materials
	m_pMeshTextures = new LPDIRECT3DTEXTURE9[m_dwNumMaterials];	// textures
	for(DWORD i = 0; i < m_dwNumMaterials; i++) {
		m_pMeshMaterials[i] = d3dxMaterial[i].MatD3D;							
		m_pMeshMaterials[i].Ambient = m_pMeshMaterials[i].Diffuse;	
		m_pMeshTextures[i] = NULL;
		if((d3dxMaterial[i].pTextureFilename != NULL) && 
		   (lstrlenA(d3dxMaterial[i].pTextureFilename) > 0)) {
			stTextureFileFull = m_stFolderName + d3dxMaterial[i].pTextureFilename;
			if(FAILED(hr = D3DXCreateTextureFromFileA(GraphicEngine::getInstance()->getD3DDevice(),
				                                    stTextureFileFull.c_str(),
									   &(m_pMeshTextures[i])))) {
			}
		}
	}
	pTempD3DMBuffer->Release();	

}

All the pointers used here are set to NULL before using them. I could figure out, that it crashes in the following line:

HRESULT hr = D3DXLoadMeshFromX(...)

 I call the function 2 times and it runs all fine. But just as I load a third x-file with this function it crashes. I know that I can "catch" the error with the FAILED macro. But it should be possible to load the x-File. Maybe I have enough time and write a small app which reproduces this error. Thanks for help.

Answer 5

Hello,

According to the SDK of the function D3DXLoadMeshFromX, the fist parameter of the function will be resolved according to the charactor set.  Another cause that I could think of is the charactor set. I noticed that the issue appears only with a third x-file, could we contact the provider for more information?

Best regards,

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