dragging control will immediately crash visual studio

Question

Problem repro: create a new windows application fx project, create button on the grid, drag it to another location.

After about 0.5 seconds visual studio throws an error and asks me if I want to debug. If i choose yes, I can get to this call stack:

> ntdll.dll!7c901230()  
  [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for ntdll.dll] 
  milcore.dll!53216a95()  
  milcore.dll!5316ba53()  
  milcore.dll!530d9318()  
  milcore.dll!530d5b1b()  
  milcore.dll!530d5b38()  
  milcore.dll!530d93c2()  
  milcore.dll!530d9204()  
  milcore.dll!530d9464()  
  milcore.dll!530d94b3()  
  milcore.dll!530d57be()  
  milcore.dll!530d57c8()  
  milcore.dll!530d588a()  
  milcore.dll!5315d097()  
  kernel32.dll!7c80b50b()  
  kernel32.dll!7c8399f3()  
  milcore.dll!5315d082()  

At first I thought it was windows xp 64 bit that just wasn't working right, but I just did a complete clean install of xp 32 bit, vs2005 and all the januari bits and I get the exact same problem. At work I do not have this, so it must be my machine.
It's an athlon 64 X2 dual core, with nvidia 6600GT and whql forceware 81.98.

I have tried setting hardware acceleration off.

Any pointers? this is really bugging me bigtime.

Regards,

Ruurd Boeke

Answer 1

i just wanted to add that the example given of dragging a control is only to show how easy it is to crash visual studio. I have the same problem with Aurora or samples i have downloaded..  I can crash anything 'avalon' within 10 seconds..

It just seems that the avalon part of winfx won't work well with my computer.

Any pointers greatly appreciated.. should I look into getting another gfx card?

Answer 2

have you tried installing latest drivers for this video card for 64bit machine from nvidia.com?

I've had some some problems with this video card and outdated drivers before - maybe this will work for you?

Answer 3

Yes, I did..

With the februari release, the behaviour did not change: it still crashes. I can start Xamlpad, put a button in, start dragging the splitter and it will crash the same way as I described.

In visual studio, cider will not show anything now (this is new). It will just report that it can't find certain types: assembly, grid  etc. in the error pane.
This is new. However, I can do a rebuild without a problem (the errors dissapear then).

Any other pointers?

Answer 4

try rolling back v81.98 of the driver to the driver that comes with the OS as that is probably the most supported scenario. I see that nvidia is testing new beta versions of this driver but didnt find anything availabe for xp64 as of yet.

 

Answer 5

I'm having the same problem as described in the original post, and have the same hardware configuration: 32-bit XP on an AMD 64 X2 with a GeForce 6600 GT. I tried rolling back my graphics driver as suggested earlier, but the version number didn't change -- the driver before 81.98 (or 8.1.9.8 as the Device Manager calls it) wasn't backed up, if there was one. Any other ideas? Avalon applications worked fine prior to the January CTP -- what might have changed there to break this hardware configuration? Thanks!

    -- Ryan Milligan

Answer 6

Another thought...the really odd thing is how sporadic the problem is. Sometimes Visual Studio manages to create a new Avalon project (complete with showing Cider), and sometimes it doesn't. Attempting to drag a button from its original location on the form is a 100% instant crash.

Sometimes I can hit ctrl-F5 and actually display the resulting application. When it works, I can drag it around and resize it all I like, and it won't crash. When it doesn't work, it crashes with the call stack in the original post on start-up.

    -- Ryan Milligan

Answer 7

Well, I'm very happy that at least someone is experiencing the same problem as I have.

Don't bother with the driver of your gfx card: I've tried almost all versions, and also the suggested clean windows drivers.

My friends have reported some athlon related issues to be indeed fixed, but mine is still there.

I would really like someone from microsoft commenting on this issue. If I can help on debugging, I would be more then happy to do so.

Answer 8

lets start by providing the complete callstack for original failure.

please follow instructions here on how to setup public symbols server, then try to repro and get a callstack with complete function names:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q319037

if symbols still dont come out - we can look into why that happens.

Answer 9

It took sometime to download all the symbol files, but the proces worked fine. Except that the issue lies in milcore apparently, which is not available on your symbol store. I still hope this can be of help ;-)

I'm debuggin on the x64 btw.

Call stack:

> ntdll.dll!DbgBreakPoint()  
  milcore.dll!000000005318d13a()  
  [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for milcore.dll] 
  milcore.dll!00000000531391f7()  
  milcore.dll!00000000531390dc()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138d60()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138e03()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138f85()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138ea3()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138f50()  
  milcore.dll!000000005313932d()  
  kernel32.dll!BaseThreadStart()  + 0x3a bytes 

After I break to copy the above callstack, I can press F5 again to continue and then this callstack appears:
> ntdll.dll!DbgBreakPoint()  
  milcore.dll!000000005318d13a()  
  [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for milcore.dll] 
  milcore.dll!0000000053138fc8()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138ea3()  
  milcore.dll!0000000053138f50()  
  milcore.dll!000000005313932d()  
  kernel32.dll!BaseThreadStart()  + 0x3a bytes 

After that I'm in a loop, alternating between these two callstacks.

What can I do next to help?

Answer 10

not sure if you needed to download symbols, just creating this environment variable:

_NT_SYMBOL_PATH

and setting it to:

symsrv*symsrv.dll*c:\localcache*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

 

should work.

 

could you grab file version info from milcore.dll that should be located in windows\system32\ folder with filever.exe /v milcore.dll command.

 

and paste output of that command here.

 

filever.exe should come with your XP installation CD:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2Fdirectory%2Fworldwide%2Fen-gb%2Futility3.asp#XSLTSection121121121120

 

Answer 11

I don't have access to my XP installation disk at the moment, but the Properties window in Explorer tells me I have version 6.0.5300.0 of milcore.dll. Is there anywhere we can get symbols for this DLL? Thanks for your help!

    -- Ryan Milligan

Answer 12

I am interested in the value for "File Version" when you look at version info properties in explorer Version tab.

symbols for this release should be available via public symbols store.

Answer 13

I meant to comment about this other issue; found in forums that someone already replied to that - Cider does not work on x64 OS with this CTP. this is a known issue.

Answer 14

If you happen to have a copy of the appropriate .pdb file, could you possibly mail it to me at [e-mail]? A zip file would probably be best so it doesn't get blocked. I tried setting up the symbol server, and it's not pulling down milcore.pdb.

    -- Ryan Milligan

Answer 15

It's not pulling in milcore.

I can't access it either at this moment, will do so immediately when I'm at the machine.

About the fact that cider does not run on x64: that is indeed known and not the issue here.

Answer 16

The fileversion states:

6.0.5300.0 (winmain_oob/avalon_wap_FEB_CTP_2006.060131-1602)

Although the modules window does not state symbols loaded, I could set an option of load exports. Then I could load. This is the call stack:

> ntdll.dll!RtlAddFunctionTable()  - 0x46e70 bytes 
  milcore.dll!MilCalcProjectedBounds()  + 0x1da36 bytes 
  [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for milcore.dll] 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x14b5f bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x14a44 bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x146c8 bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x1476b bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x148ed bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x1480b bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x148b8 bytes 
  milcore.dll!VirtualChannelEntryDyn()  + 0x14c95 bytes 
  kernel32.dll!BaseThreadStart()  + 0x3a bytes 

I hope this helps.

Answer 17

could you please paste entire output of filever.exe /v milcore.dll command?

 

Answer 18

Here you go:

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>filever /v c:\windows\system32\milcore.dll
--a-- Wx64 DLL ENU      6.0.5300.0 shp  2,429,672 01-31-2006 milcore.dll
        Language                0x0409 (English (United States))
        CharSet                 0x04b0 Unicode
        OleSelfRegister         Disabled
        CompanyName             Microsoft Corporation
        FileDescription         Microsoft MIL Core Library
        InternalName            milcore
        OriginalFilename        milcore
        ProductName             Microsoft« Windows« Operating System
        ProductVersion          6.0.5300.0
        FileVersion             6.0.5300.0 (winmain_oob/avalon_wap_FEB_CTP_2006.
060131-1602)
        LegalCopyright          ⌐ Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

        VS_FIXEDFILEINFO:
        Signature:              feef04bd
        Struc Ver:              00010000
        FileVer:                00060000:14b40000 (6.0:5300.0)
        ProdVer:                00060000:14b40000 (6.0:5300.0)
        FlagMask:               0000003f
        Flags:                  00000000
        OS:                     00040004 NT Win32
        FileType:               00000002 Dll
        SubType:                00000000
        FileDate:               00000000:00000000

C:\Program Files\Support Tools>

 

Answer 19

thanks for this.

symbols should become available through public symbols store shortly.

meanwhile, I am trying to reproduce this on my machines - so far, I ruled out that video card isnt the culprit here.

is there any chance you could use a different video card and see if you are still hitting this?

thanks!

Answer 20

Hmmm, I was planning on doing that, but I just found out that this is an pci-express card and it's the only pci-express card I have lying around.

There is no support for agp on this mobo and I do not have a pci gfx card left.

Sorry.......... is there anything else I can do? Regarding the gfx card, I've tried uninstalling drivers and so on. Nothing has helped there.

Answer 21

if you could try to pull callstack again and see if it looks meaningful confirming that symbols should be working for you by now.

I found hardware here and trying to get this to repro so I can get a good debuggable information out of this crash.

will let you know as soon as I got somewhere with this.

thanks for your patience!

Answer 22

I would like to establish remote help assistance with your machine when you have time, to look around. can we do that?

to do this, hit Start, Help and Support and Choose "Invite a riend for Remote Assistance option"; then use my email address from my profile.

I will try to monitor my mails and hope to get to your machine as soon as possible.

thanks.

Answer 23

Invitation sent...thanks for your time.

Answer 24

could you please confirm you used correct email address? I am not seeing anything in my inbox. thanks.

Answer 25

meanwhile, lets try to create a user mode dump file:

download and install debugging tools from here (assuming we are still on 32 bit OS):

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx

tools will be installed to \Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows

now, when you get a crash before hitting debug button, the first few lines of the dialog will have name and process id of the crashed application, e.g. devenv.exe [3567].

attach installed debugger to that process: "\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows\cdb.exe" -p 3567

this will start console debugger session.

try to see if symbols maybe working and you may already have full callstack we are looking for. for that, issue these commands (notice "." before some commands):

.sympath+ SRV*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

.reload

reload may take awhile because debugger will try to cache any available symbols to your local drive.

now get the callstack:

k

if you still do not see correct callstack, then I would need you to create full user mode dump file and send it to me:

.dump /ma c:\avalon_crash.dmp

now you should have this dump file created on your local drive. I am not sure how big it will turn out. if file isnt super big, you can try sending it to the same email address from my profile, otherwise do you have access to an ftp site we can use for you to share this file? email me anyway, we will figure out a way.

let me know if you have any problems.

Answer 26

Will send invite when I get home. That will be in about 9 hours (at work now). I hope that will still work for you.

This weekend I will be able to create the user dump file.

Answer 27

sure, that would be just fine.

thanks!

Answer 28

Email sent, dump created: link is in email.

I'll try to be around as much as possible.

Answer 29

got dump file and was able to open it.

we are investigating now, I will send an update once cause is determined.

thanks for your help with this!

Answer 30

here's a workaround for this issue, it is known and is fixed for Beta2 upcoming releases (will make sure Release Notes for CTP get updated to reflect how to resolve this issue meanwhile):

 

launch VS and/or XamlPad

launch task manager (right click on toolbar, select task manager)

find whichever process you launched: e.g. devenv.exe for VS or XamlPad.exe

right click on that process and select "Set Affinity"

if you have more than one CPU selected, unmark all CPUs but one (shouldn’t matter which one)

 

now try to repro.

 

there should be no crashes anymore.