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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 04:04:19 AM
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Hi,
When running Visual Studio 2012 as Administrator, my entire system will hang and require a hard reboot to fix. I have isolated it to VAX by uninstalling all my AddIns and having VS launch fine. It only hangs when I have VAX installed.
Steps to reproduce:
Install VAX
Run VS2012 as Administrator
I'm running Windows 8 64bit. |
Edited by - Trix on Nov 22 2012 04:16:48 AM |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 3:53:07 PM
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Apologies for this, this should never happen.
Are you running via remote desktop? Is there anything "odd" about your system that might offer us a clue?
I am not having any problems running VS2012 as Administrator with VA installed, under Windows 8 64bit.
What is your IDE set to do on startup? Is it loading a solution? Just the start page? Showing an empty environment? I am wondering if loading a solution on startup might somehow be a factor?
Do you have:
IDE tools menu -> Options -> Environment -> General -> Use hardware graphics acceleration if available
turned on or off? Does changing this setting have any effect?
How are you loading VS2012 as Administrator? Perhaps you are doing something I am not. I am going to the Windows 8 start screen, typing 2012 to search for VS2012, right clicking on its tile, and selecting "Run as administrator" from the bar at the bottom of the screen.
Since your system is hard locking mini dump files are out, which is normally where I would start. Instead can you please run regedit and set the key:
HKCU \\ Software \\ Whole Tomato \\ Logging = 1
now run VS2012 as administrator, and after you have rebooted your computer can you please look for and send me the following files:
C:\\VAssist.log
C:\\va.log
C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\11.0\\Extensions\\ NNN \\Data\\Startup.log
C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\11.0\\Extensions\\ NNN \\Data\\vs11_1\\errors.log
VS2012 stores the VA files in a hashed directory name, which seems to be system and version specific, so I cannot tell you what the "NNN" directory name actually is, but it should be obvious when you get there.
If you can find any of these, please submit the files via the form:
http://www.wholetomato.com/support/contact.asp
including this thread ID or URL in the description, so we can match it up. Hopefully they will offer at least some vague clues as to what is happening here. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
Edited by - feline on Nov 22 2012 3:53:41 PM |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 8:24:36 PM
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Hi,
My IDE is loading into the Start screen, with hardware acceleration enabled.
I too am running it as administrator through the right click context menu.
As for the log files, during the crash steps, the files are not created. I confirmed they get created by having VS load without administrator, so I'm guessing the lock-up happens even before that. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 11:18:07 PM
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Thank you for trying that. Hopefully this tells us something, since if the system is locking up so soon that VA cannot save out any log files it is very soon.
Do you have any other IDE's installed, or just VS2012?
Can you try the following for VS2012 please. First create a shortcut on your desktop for VS2012. Find VS2012 in the start menu, right click on it, select "Open file location", which gives you the shortcut. Copy this shortcut and place it on the desktop.
This gives us a shortcut we can edit without changing your main shortcut. Please go into the properties of this shortcut, and in the Target field, add " /SafeMode" at the end, so my target became:
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe" /SafeMode
If you now run this shortcut VS2012 should load normally, but nearly all menu items in the VAssistX menu will be disabled, and you won't be able to load the VA options dialog. Assuming you see the same thing, can you please right click this shortcut and select "Run as administrator". What happens? Hopefully the IDE will load as an administrator process, and your system will be fine. If so we can try and use VS2012 to debug this problem.
If this is working, please close this IDE and edit the shortcut again, this time to make the target:
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe" /SafeMode /DebugExe "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe"
and again run as administrator. This will load a single instance of VS2012. Once it has loaded press F5 to start loading the second instance of VS2012, which will have VA loaded and active. Hopefully something more manageable than a full system lock will happen this time. Some form of exception being reported, an error, something.
Trying this with an earlier IDE might be safer, but I am not sure what other tools you have installed. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 11:18:57 PM
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| Also, can you try disabling hardware acceleration in VS2012, since a system lock like this suggests a driver level problem, so hardware acceleration might be a factor. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 22 2012 : 11:41:05 PM
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Hi,
Thank you for your continued support.
Safe mode allowed VS to load fine, and as you said the VAX menu was disabled. Upon loading devenv with F5 however, my system again froze. Both with and without hardware acceleration enabled. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 23 2012 : 11:31:35 PM
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Can you please look for the file:
%SystemRoot%\\Memory.dmp
If there is no such file, can you please look in the directory:
%SystemRoot%\\Minidumps\
and see if there are any memory dump files here that correspond to when you have been seeing these hard locks. From what I am reading there is a small chance a memory dump will have been created when this lock happens.
Is there anything in the windows event viewer that corresponds to when these hard lock happen? Go to control panel, then just search control panel for "event" and select "View event logs". You will probably find a lot of general errors, I have loads in my event viewer, so anything related to the system stopping or devene.exe is probably what we are looking for.
If you still have the shortcut for getting the IDE to debug its self, please run this again, but as a normal user, not as administrator.
When I do this I am asked if I want to restart with elevated permissions, go Ignore.
When the first IDE, with VA disabled, has loaded, please open the "Debug menu -> Exceptions" dialog, and turn on all 7 top level check boxes, and go OK.
Now press F5 to launch and debug the second IDE instance, that will have VA enabled.
I am seeing the following exceptions, each time an exception is reported I am unticking "Break when this exception type is thrown" and selecting continue:
First-chance exception at 0x75B04B32 (KernelBase.dll) in devenv.exe: 0x04242420 (parameters: 0x31415927, 0x736E0000, 0x00C2D730).
First-chance exception at 0x6FF20A60 (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Platform.WindowManagement.ni.dll) in devenv.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000.
after these first two exception reports I see the splash screen and the IDE loads.
First-chance exception at 0x75B04B32 (KernelBase.dll) in devenv.exe: 0xE0434352 (parameters: 0x80070020, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x736E0000).
First-chance exception at 0x75B04B32 in devenv.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: EEMessageException at memory location 0x00C2D8C8.
At this point the second IDE is loaded and working.
Are you seeing basically the same results, or something different? If you are feeling brave, it might be interesting to turn on all exception catching while debugging and run this as administrator, even though this will probably produce another hard lock. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 24 2012 : 12:23:22 AM
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Hi,
The only exceptions that don't match yours are:
First-chance exception at 0x0749DC4D in devenv.exe: 0xC0000096: Privileged instruction.
First-chance exception at 0x1F59DF46 (VA_X.dll) in devenv.exe: 0xC000001D: Illegal Instruction.
Regards. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 26 2012 : 12:25:33 PM
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Very interesting, thank you. As the name suggests, the Privileged instruction needs extra rights to execute, so probably runs when the IDE is run as admin, but not when run normally:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/89607/what-is-a-privileged-instruction
Can you try the same test, but this time modify the shortcut target to be:
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe" /SafeMode /DebugExe "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe" /SafeMode
so the debugged IDE does not load VA. Do you still see this Privileged instruction exception?
Do you have:
VA Options -> Startup -> Automatically check for new version
VA Options -> Startup -> Also check for new beta version
turned On or Off? Does turning off both of these options make any difference? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 26 2012 : 10:21:33 PM
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The exception is gone when the target is run with /SafeMode, it seems directly related to VA_X.dll.
Either option made no difference. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 26 2012 : 10:46:19 PM
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Thank you for your patience and help here. I suspected this was what you were going to see, but I am not sure why you are seeing this exception and I am not.
Can you please remove the second "/SafeMode" from your shortcut target, and run this once more as a normal user, with catching all exceptions turned on. This time when the Privileged instruction exception is reported please press Break, and then use:
Debug menu -> Save Dump As...
to save out a mini dump of the IDE at this point, and then send me the mini dump file. Hopefully this will offer some clues as to what is happening here.
Please submit the dump file via the form:
http://www.wholetomato.com/support/contact.asp
including this thread ID or URL in the description, so we can match it up. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 26 2012 : 11:06:50 PM
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Alrighty, i've uploaded two minidumps; One of the Privileged Instruction and one of the Illegal Instruction right after.
It appears to be related to some anti-debugger unpacking code from the looks of things.
%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%s%sThe thread 0x132d8 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
It is attempting to crash OllyDbg here using the string format vulnerability in it's OutputDebugString handler. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 27 2012 : 7:03:26 PM
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We have the dump files, thank you for these, the crash is happening when loading VA_X.dll, our main dll. There is a small chance you have a corrupt dll. Have you been seeing any problems with VA when running VS2012 as a normal user?
Can you please try uninstalling Visual Assist X from VS2012, and then downloading and installing Visual Assist X from the VS2012 gallery:
IDE Tools menu -> Extensions and Updates...
Select "Online" in the tree control on the left hand side, and you can now search the gallery for "Visual Assist X"
and see if this makes any difference?
I will see about getting you a test / debug dll in case this does not help. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Trix
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - Nov 27 2012 : 9:49:51 PM
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Uninstalling didn't solve anything; My general usage with VAX as a normal user has been fine, no crashes.
Cheers for the continued assistance. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 27 2012 : 11:09:35 PM
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| Thank you for the update, this is what I expected, but it was best to confirm all the same. Hopefully a debug dll will shed some light on this, once we have one. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Nov 29 2012 : 4:00:29 PM
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If you have the time, can you please try rebooting your Windows 8 machine into safe mode, and see if this makes any difference? Since I cannot reproduce this here, and so far no one else is reporting this problem, I am wondering if this is partly down to interaction with some other process.
If so, safe mode may stop the problem happening.
Booting into safe mode is a bit different in Windows 8. It looks like the easiest way is to start with Windows 8 booted normally, then use Windows Key + R, the run dialog, to run "msconfig"
On the boot tab turn on the boot option "Safe boot", leaving it set to "Minimal", and now reboot the computer.
This boots you into the desktop, but the start screen works normally, and you can still run VS2012 as administrator as before.
You need to go back into "msconfig" and turn "safe boot" off before restarting again, otherwise you keep on rebooting into safe mode.
I found the safe mode instructions here, in case any of this is unclear:
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/ |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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mgruber
New Member
Brazil
3 Posts |
Posted - Dec 11 2012 : 05:43:06 AM
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I have the same problem, but with VS2010. But may system freezes during the installation "Registering Visual Assist X with Visual Studio" step. As the case here, when I open VS2010 in Admin mode it freezes badly.
I cannot uninstall VA for the same reason. But if I delete the installation folder VS2010 works Ok running in Admin mode.
I have an AMD Phenom X6 machine. Don't know if this may cause any incompatibilities.
Don't know if it makes a difference, but may TEMP/TMP environment points to another drive instead of the default (Users\\...\\AppData\\etc)
Another clue is: I installed VS2010 using a machine admin account. Then installed VA using an Domain Admin account, only after SP1 and all updates where applied by Windows Update. |
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mgruber
New Member
Brazil
3 Posts |
Posted - Dec 11 2012 : 05:44:44 AM
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| Another clue: The same problem happens with an older build (1854). |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Dec 14 2012 : 12:30:36 PM
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Which OS are you using, and is this a 32 or 64 bit version?
When the system freezes during install, is this a complete system lock? Or are you able to recover use of your computer without having to power it off?
Which IDE's do you have installed on your system? If you only have VS2010 and above you won't see the "Registering Visual Assist X with Visual Studio" message from the installer, so what ever is happening here is not simply tied just to VS2010. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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mgruber
New Member
Brazil
3 Posts |
Posted - Dec 17 2012 : 04:10:15 AM
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My OS is Win8 64. I have VS2008 and VS2010. I reinstalled my Win8 and got the following: 1) Formatted OS partition, then installed Win 8. Next installed VS2008. 2) I ran VA setup before SP1 and hotfixes, since the previous setup was fully updated. 3) Same issue.
The system hangs for 5 minutes. CTRL+ALT+DEL didn't work. After a long freeze I managed to cancel the installation by clicking the Cancel button. Then I open Task Manager and it tells me "No running Processes", but machine is now responsive and I am able to restart the computer.
I followed other topics and registered VA manually. It freezes when I try to register VA_X.dll.
I have another machine at home with basically the same hardware. I put it on the table below:
==Failing== X ==Working==
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
MB: ASUS M5A88-V EVO* | Gigabyte 870A-USB3*
DRAM: 8GB | 8GB
OS HDD: Intel SSD 120G @3Gb/s | Corsair F3 SSD 120GB @6Gb/s
HDD1: WD Caviar Black 1 TB | WD Caviar Black 1 TB
HDD2: WD Caviar Black 1 TB | WD Caviar Green 1 TB
SATA driver: MS AHCI | AMD Sata Controller
(*) No overclocking option enabled
The fastest system is the one that works!
You see the only differences are CPU clock, motherboard, SSD brand and SATA driver.
So I gave up and returned to Win 7 and now it worked flawlessly.
Sorry, but one thing I forgot to test was to turn only 1 CPU core on before registering VA_X.dll. Maybe it's a multithread problem, since it does not seem to be from the deterministic domain and CPUs are running with a 100 MHz difference.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18750 Posts |
Posted - Dec 17 2012 : 11:21:05 AM
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| I am not sure what happened here, but I am glad you have found a solution and got this working. Apologies for all of the problems you had with this, I am not sure what went wrong here, I have never seen any sign of problems like this on any of my Windows 8 test systems. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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System Hang using build 1918
