Visual Studio 2010 keeps causing display driver to crash

Question

Hi, I've recently made the switch from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010, but I'm running into all sorts of problems with dialogs.

For some reason opening certain dialogs keeps freezing my system, and then I'll get a message from windows saying that my ATI display driver has stopped working and it had to restart it. I'm not sure what's at fault here since I haven't had any such problems with Visual Studio 2008 or any of my other programs. I tried re-installing Visual Studio 2010 professional, but that did not help. One way I've found to consistently reproduce the problem is to create a new file/project (so far I've only tried C++ console/win32 projects as well as creating C++ source and header files), however there are several dialogs which will reproduce these results, albeit inconsistently with the exception of the new file/project dialogs. I got the image via Microsoft's DreamSpark program.

System Info:

Acer laptop with Intel core i5 and ATI HD5650 mobile graphics with the latest CCC and driver from ATI (10.12) running windows 7 home premium 64 bits. I have no idea if my Visual Studio is up to date, but I'm assuming so because Windows Update doesn't tell me of any available updates. I also have the ATI Stream 2.3 SDK installed as well as Visual Studio 2008 (I uninstalled the ATI Stream Profiler thinking that was the problem, but it happened with or without this add-in).

Does anyone have a clue as to what the root problem could be as well as how I could fix it?

edit: Oops, I meant ATI Stream 2.3 SDK, not 2.2.

edit2: I just did a complete uninstall of Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010 and only re-installed Visual Studio 2010. The same problem still persists.

edit3: Did some more testing, so far the best way to reproduce the problem is this:

1. Start Visual Studio 2010 pro.

2. Create any project type (tested multiple Visual C++ and C# project types, WPF applications were particularly interesting cause they crashed my display driver twice in a row)

3. Between choosing the project type and the wizard launching or creating the project, my whole system will freeze, then recover after ~5-10 seconds with a notification that my ATI display driver has stopped working and had to be restarted.

As far as I can tell, it's only the very first project I create which has this problem (at least repeatedly, I've had this crash at other times). Creating a second project when Visual Studio was still running won't cause this problem (well, so far hasn't). However, closing and restarting visual studio will repeat the same reproducibility conditions.

Answer 1

Hi helloworld922,

 

Thanks for your post.

 

According to your description, the issue you are having is:

·         Every first time you start Visual Studio 2010, create a new project/file, there will be a message says the display driver has stopped working and it had to restart it.

·         This will only happen when the first time to start Visual Studio.

·         You have installed the latest graphic drive(10.12), and Window is up-to-date.

 

Based on my analysis of this issue, you could perform below steps:

·         Right-click on the desktop, choose Personalize, check if you are using Aero Themes. If so, turn it to Windows 7 Basic. Does this issue exists?

·         Check the graphic drive settings to see there is anything incorrect.

·         From the Command Prompt, navigate to the \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\.

·         Try running devenv /Resetsettings in Command Prompt to eliminate the cause of corrupted settings.

·         Try running devenv /ResetSkipPkgs in Command Prompt.

·         Try running devenv /Safemode in Command Prompt to see if you can apply it correctly. This can eliminate the possibility that third party Add-ins or packages are causing problems.

·         Reboot the machine into Safe Mode. This can isolate some third party application/driver's interference.

·         Switch to try a new user account. This can rule out the possibility of corrupted user profile.

 

Since this also might be caused by some graphic drive issues, you can also consider to contact Acer support: http://support.acer.com/.

 

If above solution does not work, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

---

Andrew Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 2

I have the same issue of helloWorld except even opening a second project didn't solve anything...

Similarities between my problem and his:

- Same image of VS2010 (Dreamspark)

- Windows x64

- Same graphic drivers

- Same error, even after reparing/uninstalling/reinstalling VS2010

Differences

- I only have VS2010 installed, not 2008 version.

- I have Windows 7 x64 Professional (obtained with MSDNAA)

- Mine is a desktop pc with i7 core but that doesn't mean anything I guess

I also tried every step You said above with no result however I noticed that the video driver (and sometimes VS too) crash when I open a project which involves visual modeling of the application (Windows Form, WP7 App, WPF) while it doesn't occour in Console projects or XNA Games for WP7 becuase they involves only code-pages... It is strange also because on Windows Vista, same graphic driver, same Visual Studio 2010, no error at all (Hardware machine is different however)

When VS crashes this is the error I got (I'm italian so error message is in italian, I report the translation too):

"Eccezione non gestita a 0x7511cdc9 in devenv.exe: 0xC000041D: Eccezione non gestita durante una richiamata dell'utente."

Percorso stack di chiamate:

user32.dll!7511cdc9()

Eccezione first-chance a 0x7511cdc9 in devenv.exe: 0xC0000005: Violazione di accesso nella lettura del percorso 0x00000010.

=> Translation =>

(Unhandled exception at 0x7511cdc9 in devenv.exe: oxC000041D: unhandled exception during an user recall)

Stack:

user32.dll!7511cdc9()

First chance exception at 0x7511cdc9 in devenv.exe: 0xC0000005: Reading violation access at 0x00000010

 -> the italic part is a literal translation, i guess it talks about some internal function called by the user but it uses "richiamata" which is "recall" instead of "chiamata" which is "call"; I obtained the error message by starting a Visual Studio Debugger session after the VS2010 crash itself.

My Windows 7 (x64) installation is up to date and also is VS2010 (No updates available in Windows Update) My Graphic video card is Ati Radeon HD5770, Catalyst 10.12 (Preview, http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx)

Last thing... before Christmas the VS installation worked fine... when I got back from vacation this error started to happen so I really have no idea of what caused this...

EDIT: Actually I forgot to start VS with Windows in Safe Mode. It seems to work in that case. So I think it is a graphic driver related problem but no other application or game which make intensve use of graphics causes the display driver to crash...

Answer 3

 I am also having this problem.

Specs:

Windows 7HE x64

Visual Studio 2010

ATI Radeon 5870 (Catalyst 10.12)

Problem:

With any C# WPF Project, whenever I open the auto generated App.xaml from the Solution Explorer it crashes the graphics driver every time.  This is a brand new install and have tried installing a second time, same result.

 

Following the instructions above given by Andrew.  Nothing worked except for rebooting into safe mode where VS2010  stopped causing a graphics driver crash.

 

Now it does seem to be the fault of the Catalyst driver.  Although nothing else has caused a driver crash on my system except this with VS2010.  VS2008 is the perfectly fine.

Answer 4

From your description, this seems more likely a compatibility issue.

As you may know, different from Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010 use WPF technology to improve appearance and behavior. This might also cause some issue with the graphic drive.

Through more research, I find below article might be help to solve this issue.
Guidelines for troubleshooting graphic issues in WPF applications
Graphics Rendering Registry Settings
NOTE: Before you edit the registry, you’d better export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps in the How to restore the registry section of this article to restore the registry to its previous state.

If above guide not help, you can refer to AMD support, since this issue is related with ATI Radeon™ HD 5X Series: http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

You can also post these questions in Visual Studio WPF Designer forum, there are more experts in this WPF.

I hope this will helps.

Best Regards,

---

Andrew Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 5

Very similar issue:

Using VS 2008 with all sp's and patches applied. Developing dotNet VB and dotNet C# Webservices Application under XP.

When running the applications in the debugger, with the  Internet Explorer front end, the system locks, then blue screens. This was with a high end ATI Radeon 3800 series graphics card. It also happened with a GeForce 7950.

In both cases, the video driver (latest releases) went into an infinite loop according to the error report. The ati2dvag.dll was blamed for the Radeon, similar for the GeForce

In both cases, disabling hardware acceleration was recommended by the error reporting system, also recommended was upgrading directX. I have the latest directX drivers installed, all applicable patches, etc.

Running the system with acceleration disabled is not an option as I program directX applications.

If you do a search of the web you will see dozens of identical issues, mostly by gamers playing games.

This happens on a new install on XP as the error destroyed my old system.

This is a very serious and  widespread issue that needs to be addressed.

Thank you.

 

 

 

Answer 6

I think I resolved the issue. I went in to CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and I disabled OpenGL Triple Buffering. Then I checked everything that sayd "Use Application Setting". Rebboted the computer then non dirver crash anymore.

 

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

I think this is definitely a wider issue with VS2010 and Windows 7 x64. I've had a recurring crash and lockup problem with video distortions on a high-end HP workstation running two Nvidia NVS295 video cards. An HP tech and I have gone over the hardware with great detail and have determined that this is not a general video or hardware error, but it is very specific to the installation of VS2010. An identical workstation without VS2010 has no stability issues; install VS2010 and crashes constantly, including during boot and times when VS2010 is not running. So far the fix that has resulted in the greatest stability is completely purging Nvidia drivers using a cleanup tool and reverting back to a very old version (~190) of the Nvidia driver.

Answer 8

Hi helloworld922,

 

I mark my reply as answer. If you  the problem still exists, you can post back and we'll continue working on this issue.

 

You can also post these questions in Visual Studio WPF Designer forum, there are more experts in WPF.

 

Thanks for your understanding.

 

Best Regards,

---

Andrew Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 9

If you use an AMD Radeon and have the Catalyst Control Center installed, uninstall the Catalyst Control Center (not the graphics driver) and that should fix it.

Answer 10

I am having the similiar problem. It started after  I upgrade to Catalyst 11.12. I believe the reason of this problem is the Ati driver not VS 2010.

Answer 11

I found a solution to this problem, the crash is caused by the wpf hardware acceleration / the incompatibility between the driver and the hw acceleration

You have to set

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics]
“DisableHWAcceleration”=dword:00000001

I havent noticed any differences in wpf performance (other than NOT crashing the display driver)

At least this worked for me, no crashes since the workaround.

 

Win7 Prof 64Bit

VS 2010 Ult.

Catalyst 11.3

Radeon HD 5750

source:

http://sleepdeprivedmind.com/2011/01/21/wpf-and-ati-5xxx-drivers-not-playing-nice-together/

Answer 12

I had the same problem.  Only mine occured primarily when searching source code.  I finally fixed the problem by buying a new video card.  The problem went away.

Answer 13

Same issue here (Win7x64+ATI5870+VisualStudio 2010 SP1)

Each time I opened a new (or existing) WPF project - the display driver crashed.

After uninstalling Catalys Control Center 2 and rebooted the computer, it worked without issues

Answer 14

I think I resolved the issue. I went in to CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and I disabled OpenGL Triple Buffering. Then I checked everything that sayd "Use Application Setting". Rebboted the computer then non dirver crash anymore.

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks Giuseppe. This works with Win7 SP1, VS 2010 SP1 and ATI's 11.5 Cat drivers and a 5870. This seems to be a problem on ATI's side. No need to uninstall the Control Center for me.

Answer 15

I have resolved this problem by disabling hardware acceleration in Visual Studio 2010. I have unchecked checkboxes "Automatically adjust visual appearance based on client performance" and "Use hardware graphics acceleration if available" in the Tools -> Options -> Environment -> General.

Answer 16

The same problem: Win7 (32-bit) SP1, VS 2010 SP1, ATI HD 5670

I have unistall the ATI Control Center 11.8 (not the ATI display driver) and everything works fine.

Before it I had to uncheck  "Use hardware graphics acceleration if available" in the Tools -> Options -> Environment -> General.

Answer 17

There is no problem. This does not need to be reported. All you need to do is disable hardware acceleration in VS. (It is turned on by default.) In order to turn it off, take these steps: 1) open VS 2) on the menu bar, open the Tools menu, click on options (normally the last item in the Tools menu) 3) in the options window, in the list on the left, go to Environment : General 4) on the right side of the window, you will see options under the heading "Visual Experience". Make sure none of the boxes are checked ...and now you will have no more display problems

 

Taken from some other website.