Paint.NET exits immediatly after starting

[MJW]

When I try to run PDN., it  doesn't start. It does, however, appear for a moment in the Task Manager's list of Background Processes, before immediately disappearing from the list. I went to the Program directory for PDN, and tried clicking the PaintDotNet.exe file, and the results were the same. The file date is 5/29/2020.

 

I have PDN set to start when debugging plugins in Visual Studio, so I thought I might get a clue there. When I load a plugin project and try to debug, I get an error message:

Quote

Managed Debugging Assistant 'FatalExecutionEngineError' : 'The runtime has encountered a fatal error. The address of the error was at 0xaf48d123, on thread 0x1b88. The error code is 0xc0000005. This error may be a bug in the CLR or in the unsafe or non-verifiable portions of user code. Common sources of this bug include user marshaling errors for COM-interop or PInvoke, which may corrupt the stack.'

 

I tried running PdnRepair and rebooting, but it didn't fix the problem. I also disabled hardware acceleration using RegEdit, also with no effect.

 

I had one of MIcrosoft's forced updates early Thursday morning, and I'm not sure whether, until today,  I ran PDN after the update.

 

The first time I tried to run PDN today was from a Canon scanner program called CanoSnan. That's not something I often do, but I've done it before, and it's always worked. I mention it only because I'm not sure whether the CanoScan program might modify the PDN Registry for some reason.

[toe_head2001]

22 minutes ago, MJW said:

Common sources of this bug include user marshaling errors for COM-interop or PInvoke

 

Sounds like the issue is in relation to a native Win32 DLL. Maybe one that Windows Update modified. That's just a guess; I can't say for sure.

[Rick Brewster]

"FatalExecutionEngineError" = memory corruption

 

Some code is stomping on memory it doesn't own, which happens to be in the .NET Runtime, causing it to fall over.

 

Edit: What this means is that catching the culprit is difficult, because it's always something else that trips and falls on its face

[MJW]

I believe I've found the problem. I tried running the Event Viewer this morning, and it wouldn't run, either. It then occurred to me that it might be a memory problem. Sure enough, when I ran the Windows memory test, it said I had a problem (though it provided absolutely no details of what sort of problem). I tried unplugging my computer, and re-seating the memory cards -- which stretches to the limits my computer-technician expertise --  but without effect.

 

Oddly enough, both very large programs Firefox and Visual Studio seem to run fine. I know those are both 32-bit applications, so I wonder (with no real evidence) if it's related to that. It could be the error I saw in VS was separate for Paint.NET, and occurred in some component of VS that runs when debugging.

 

Anyway, now I've got to find a solution. I'm not sure if it's just a matter of replacing a bad memory card.

 

 

[BoltBait]

34 minutes ago, MJW said:

replacing a bad memory card

 

That's the first thing I'd try. Memory is not expensive and it does wear out eventually.

[MJW]

I ran the Dell BIOS diagnostics, which found no memory errors. I ran the ""thorough" version of the diagnostics, which takes well over an hour, so I doubt it would miss a hardware memory failure that causes programs to consistently and immediately crash. That makes me think there might be something going on other than a bad memory card.

 

I wish I could run Dell's SupportAssist program, which is a diagnostic program that runs under Windows, but unfortunately that's one of the programs that no longer works.

 

I wonder -- once again, with no evidence -- whether Windows is somehow misconfiguring some hardware setting related to memory. 

 

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate hearing them.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

7 hours ago, BoltBait said:

 

That's the first thing I'd try. Memory is not expensive and it does wear out eventually.

 

^ I'd try this first as well. Swap out your memory with known good ones or just replace 'em with bigger faster sticks.

[BoltBait]

What version of Paint.NET are you running and how are you running it?

[Rick Brewster]

If you have 2+ memory modules installed, there's a cheaper experiment you can perform immediately.

 

Remove all but 1 of the memory modules. Then do your memory test, see if PDN crashes, etc. If you still get failures, try again with the next memory module (only 1 at a time).

 

If you're suffering from a bad memory module, I bet only 1 of them is bad and the rest are fine.

 

If I'm right then you can at least limp along with less memory until you get a replacement... and if I'm wrong then I'd even put a wager on the problem being something other than a bad memory module.

[MJW]

Thanks to those who offered advice, which I really appreciate.

 

I got Paint.NET (and the other programs as well)  working again by uninstalling the latest Windows update. I found an article saying that Outlook recently stared crashing immediately upon opening with the same 0xc0000005 error code. Microsoft claims it's not related to the update. I very much doubt the claim.

 

As far as the memory problem the Microsoft memory test found, I don't think it's related, and I'm not at all sure there's a problem. Dell's BIOS and SupportAssist memory tests found no problems. It may be the second thing Microsoft has told me recently that I don't believe.

 

EDIT: I see Windows has an update ready to install on my system -- almost certainly the one I just uninstalled. I'd like to believe they fixed the problem; but I'd also like to believe I'll win the Publishers' Clearinghouse Sweepstakes one of these days.

 

EDIT: Much to my pleasant surprise, PDN worked after the update was installed. I assume whatever fix was done to make Outlook work also fixed the other affected programs.