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 BSOD while launching Visual Studio 2017
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  12:24:04 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hello,

I was tempted to try installing Visual Assist Trial on my Visual Studio 2017 Community with the newest update (1-2 days ago).

Once I installed it, just launching Visual Studio makes my PC go BSOD with CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED error.

Managed to remove it by doing a /SafeMode switch on devenv.exe and problem was gone.

My PC is as follows:
Windows 10
i7-4790K
32GB of RAM

Hope you can help me. :)

feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  12:40:46 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
First step, having loaded the IDE in safe mode, are you seeing Visual Assist listed in the:

IDE tools menu -> Extensions and Updates...

dialog, under the list of installed extensions? If so, you should be able to uninstall VA from here, which will require an IDE restart.

Next, can you confirm your version of VS2017. With an update just installed, I am using version 15.3.1. Is this the version you have?

With VA uninstalled, does the IDE now load normally and without any problems?

In theory, it should be impossible for VA to cause a BSOD, there needs to be something at the driver level going wrong to cause this to happen. Are you working remotely, or in some form of virtual machine?

Have you run Windows Update to look for any updates, especially any driver updates? If not, please do so.

Do you have a Logitech keyboard or mouse, and if so, do they have any extra software that helps to control their extra functions? If so, can you please check and see if there are any updates available for this software?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  2:11:44 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by feline

First step, having loaded the IDE in safe mode, are you seeing Visual Assist listed in the:

IDE tools menu -> Extensions and Updates...

dialog, under the list of installed extensions? If so, you should be able to uninstall VA from here, which will require an IDE restart.

Next, can you confirm your version of VS2017. With an update just installed, I am using version 15.3.1. Is this the version you have?

With VA uninstalled, does the IDE now load normally and without any problems?

In theory, it should be impossible for VA to cause a BSOD, there needs to be something at the driver level going wrong to cause this to happen. Are you working remotely, or in some form of virtual machine?

Have you run Windows Update to look for any updates, especially any driver updates? If not, please do so.

Do you have a Logitech keyboard or mouse, and if so, do they have any extra software that helps to control their extra functions? If so, can you please check and see if there are any updates available for this software?



My Visual Studio version is 15.3.1 .

I have uninstalled successfully and it works fine afterwards.

Installing it again gives me the same blue screen.

I don't use a virtual machine, neither I have any logitech devices.

My windows are fully up to date, same are all drivers.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  3:28:11 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
How did you install VA? Did you download and run the .exe installer from our website, or did you do an online install from the Visual Studio extension gallery?

I am wondering if you could have a corrupt installer, somehow. But I don't understand how this could crash the entire machine like this.

Which version of VA are you installing?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  3:52:32 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I got the installer from wholetomato website. Installer is called VA_X_Setup2231_0.exe . I might try installing it from the extensions instead..
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  3:56:23 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Nope. Still got a blue screen. I don't even have any other extensions. I install VA, launch visual studio and my PC just BSODs during the splash screen. Very, very weird.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  4:05:50 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Can you please find the path to your devenv.exe file, the file the VS2017 shortcut runs. It will probably be something like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe

then run the command:

PATH/devenv.exe /RootSuffix VATest

this will create a new, default VS2017 profile for you. Can you now install VA from the online gallery, and see if this makes any difference? This will tell us if somehow your default profile is causing problems.




zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 21 2017 :  4:12:36 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
This solved it. I wonder though. What could have made it to bluescreen? Is there a way I could reset my old profile to default?
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  06:53:52 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I honestly don't know why or how a corrupt profile, which is what this seems to be, could have resulted in a blue screen. A crash, that would make sense, but to blue screen? A guess, and its just that, is that its somehow connected to the IDE trying to use hardware acceleration for the display of its front end.

To reset the old profile, there are a couple of things you can try. Firstly, the command:

devenv.exe /ResetSettings

may well do what we need. If this does not fix the problem, can you please try:

devenv.exe /ResetUserData

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  11:02:22 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have tried those two commands, even did a reset of all settings using the menu. Once I install Visual Assist, I am getting a Blue Screen. Now it's different though. It's UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION. I don't even know anymore how the new profile works, but old one doesn't...
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  12:55:41 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I was afraid of this. I have tried these two command line switches once or twice before, and they don't seem to clear / delete as much of the profile data as I would like or expect.

Making sure all instances of the IDE are closed, can you please look in the directory:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio
you should see two directories with names starting "15.", and one ending with "VATest". These are the directories where the profiles are stored. If you delete the directory without "VATest" at the end, this will delete the current default profile for VS2017.

A new directory and profile will be created next time you load VS2017, replacing this deleted directory. This should be as clean and default as the VATest profile was, so hopefully VA will be safe and stable when you install it into this profile.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  1:43:12 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Nope. I have deleted both folders, launched visual studio, everything worked fine. Installed VAX and restarted IDE into CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED blue screen. What a pity. :(
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  2:37:35 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
If you modify your VS2017 shortcut to pass the "/RootSuffix test" command line argument every time you load the IDE, does this still fix the problem? By modifying the shortcut, you will always be loading the IDE the safe way.

But I still don't have any idea of what might be going wrong here. Did you ever get the IDE to run long enough with VA installed to change any of the VA settings? I am looking for clues as to what might be different between the normal and second profile.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  3:17:14 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Well yes, it is a solution, but not a very safe one because I launch it from the start menu. I could modify that too, of course.

With second profile I can run it as long as I want and it works completely fine.

With first one I see a splash screen and it just BSODs instantly. Uninstalling Visual Assist using a safe mode fixes it.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 22 2017 :  4:27:54 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
If you right click on the shortcut in the Windows 10 start menu, you can use "Open File Location" to be taken to the shortcut its self, which you can then modify. If you also make sure that VA is not installed in the default VS2017 profile, then this should be safe. Opening the IDE via the start menu will open the alternate profile with VA, while any shortcuts you have missed will open the IDE without VA, which will be safe, but more limited.

I would like to try and get to the bottom of this problem, but with an instant blue screen, we don't really have much of an option to debug, or try and see what is going wrong.

You might be able to capture details of the problem if you ran a "bad" instance of VS2017 under a good instance of VS2017, via the debugger, but since you are going straight to a BSOD, I would not recommend this, since I really am not sure that the error could be caught before the machine went down.

A random thought, but have you tried running a RAM scan and a hard drive check, to see if any hardware problems might be a factor? This still doesn't explain how or why VA has this effect in the default profile though.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 23 2017 :  04:14:24 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Yeah, I have tried running a memtest for the night, which resulted in no errors. Neither my hard drive is faulty. I assume my windows got borked somehow, just not sure how it can be related to a fresh default profile folder on Visual Studio.

Now that I think of it, when I turn on my Visual Studio, it uses my logged in account to reset the settings to online stored ones. Can I reset those? Maybe the problem is there.

Else, maybe there's a way using EventLog or something else to find out what died? I does a dump nonetheless.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 23 2017 :  06:00:59 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I don't know about the online settings for your VS2017 profile, but when I delete the default profile directory, I am asked if I want to log in on the next load of VS2017, but I have the option of doing this later. So if you get the same options, it might be worth trying logging in later, to see if you then get a clean default profile, without any imported settings from your online settings.

Disconnecting your network cable would also help ensure this, since it will stop settings being downloaded.

In the past when we have managed to dig further into BSOD problems, the crash was happening at a low level, before any error codes or results were handed back to VA. So we never knew there was a problem coming, or anything about it. I guess the same will be happening here, but it's just a guess. But like you, I fail to understand how a clean profile in VS2017 can effect this.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 23 2017 :  08:07:46 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I will try to do offline profile reset later on this evening and see if that helps at all.

Weirdly enough when I deleted the folders, I was not asked to set the color schemes, development schemes or even asked to log in. I was just logged in instantly.
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 23 2017 :  08:17:43 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Tried doing a full settings reset offline. This time it was even more spectacular. :D

Saw the splashscreen on for a way longer time (20 seconds). ALL except default desktop icons disappeared. Started hearing error sounds. Saw like at least 200 error windows appearing in a second with a name close to "msieftp.dll" (it for sure had FTP in the end) and then it bluescreened in the most spectacular blinking of colors way. Wow. :D

Edited by - Murloc992 on Aug 23 2017 08:19:44 AM
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 24 2017 :  09:20:20 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Um, would "wow" be an acceptable response?

I am out of ideas, to be honest. The simplest solution seems to be to modify the VS2017 shortcuts to pass the RootSuffix command line switch, since somehow this fixes / avoids the problem.

From a quick search, it looks like "msieftp.dll" is used for IE and probably windows explorer ftp, so this could be related to fetching the RSS and update information that is loaded along with the IDE profile, and perhaps other profile information as well. But this doesn't really make sense to me, since going off line should simply result in online checks failing or timing out in a safe and polite manor.

Beyond this, I am thinking this is some form of low level corruption with your IDE or entire Windows system, but this theory is weak, since the problem is so very specific to VA and the default profile. A reinstall of VS2017 might fix this, but will take a little while. A full hard drive wipe might help, but who want's to go there if they won't have to?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Aug 24 2017 :  6:21:01 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I will try to reinstall VS2017 and let you know. Wiping the hard drive doesn't look like an option. :)
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Aug 26 2017 :  06:23:44 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Good luck! Personally I would probably just go with the second profile, even though it is a slightly suspect work around.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Sep 18 2017 :  07:06:01 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hi again,

Long time no write, but I have tried reinstalling the Visual Studio, doing full file cleans, including app data and so on. Nothing really solved the mystery of the blue screens. Maybe you have any other news about this? For now I guess I will just use another profile hardcoded into the shortcuts..

Edited by - Murloc992 on Sep 18 2017 07:06:17 AM
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Sep 18 2017 :  08:17:39 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Unfortunately no, no other news. In all of the cases where we have been able to pin down the cause of a blue screen, it has been drivers, sometimes directly, or sometimes via the "helper" software for mouse or keyboard. So if you want to try one last attempt you could try changing to a different mouse and keyboard, to see if this makes any difference.

I wish I had a better answer and plan for you, but at least changing the shortcut does work, which is something. But I would have hoped that all this uninstalling would have helped.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Sep 19 2017 :  07:15:27 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I will be reinstalling my OS around these days for a good measure and will try using VAX again. If I will get blue screens again, I guess my hardware combo doesn't like it at all. :P
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18724 Posts

Posted - Sep 19 2017 :  08:58:33 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
That's a fairly extreme solution, hopefully you are not doing a full OS reinstall just to get VA working in your default profile?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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Murloc992
Junior Member

Lithuania
15 Posts

Posted - Sep 19 2017 :  5:03:09 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I did reinstall it this evening and it(VAX) works. This was also a good case for me to cleanup the clutter I had so it's no biggie. We will never know what caused this. :)
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