Paint.net constantly crashing: stack overflow

[fatherof1000s]

Hi folk,

Tried searching the forums, haven't found this one though. I had Paint.NET 3.36, and started having this problem on my laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad T60p, 3 GB ram, 32-bit, running Windows XP SP2, current on all fixes for .NET and Windows). I've since upgraded to Paint.net 3.5.1 and then 3.5.2 over a month ago without change in behavior.

Paint.net pretty consistently will crash on me. Sometimes I can open it and get some work done (mostly consisting of getting screenshots via CTRL+Printscreen of VNC and Remote Desktop connections to remote machines, cropping images via the selection tool; also use some other functions but mostly the above), however usually within 5-20 minutes Paint.net will crash. Recently it started crashing even worse: I open Paint.net, paste a screen capture, and then either do a File->Save As or use the selection tool and it crashes immediately. For all these scenarios it always gives the following error: "There was an unhandled error, and Paint.NET must be closed. Refer to the file 'pdncrash.log', which has been placed on your desktop, for more information."

Looking through the pdncrash.log I've found lots of stackoverflow errors, amongst others. I have already submitted this error log via email, but am happy to put pieces of it here if required.

Another thing I noticed is Paint.net is NOT in my Add/Remove Programs list, however if I run "wmic product" in a command prompt, it does come up in the list (as "Paint.NET v3.5.2"). I have tried installing on top of itself, during which time it says it is "uninstalling the old version", and then installs without complaint. Nothing changes this behavior.

I do NOT have this behavior on my desktops, however I can't do my work there since I need VPN to corporate work, and they only allow it on my laptop, so must do my work there as I can only get those screencaptures there.

[Rick Brewster]

Please attach the crash log here too, thanks

[Rick Brewster]

Actually I found the crash log. They are actually overflow exceptions coming from GDI+; they are not stack overflow exceptions (easy enough to confuse them though).

From looking at the crash log I have two recommendations:

1. Install XP SP3. The log indicates you are still on SP2. Service Packs are very important to keep up-to-date with.

2. It looks like you have a Lenovo hotkey application hook installed, and the floating point exception masking is being futzed with (on the "Processor:" line, it says fps=0x11, but it should say fps=0x1). Try disabling/uninstalling it, if possible. The DLL listed in the crash log is C:\Program Files\Lenovo\HOTKEY\hkvolkey.dll . These types of programs have been known to cause exactly the issue you are seeing.

It also appears there are hooks running from the following, which you should also investigate if disabling Lenovo app doesn't fix things:

1. Something called "Dropbox"

2. Something called "TeraCopy"

3. Adobe Acrobat has a PDF hook (probably open/save dialog related)

4. There's some ATI dll

5. Something called Hummingbird Neighborhood

6. Symantec Endpoint Protection

These are just from looking at the list of "Native Modules" in the crash log, which indicates what DLL's have been pulled into the PaintDotNet.exe process.

[fatherof1000s]

Thanks Rick,

Will look into those. Teracopy was installed much more recently than when the problems occured, although Dropbox has been there for a while, so it's definitely a possibility, as far as timing is concerned. The Hummingbird thing is part of Exceed (remote unix management software) which was just installed so unlikely. The Lenovo stuff is likely since I did do a Lenovo tools install/update not too long ago. SEP (Symantec Endpoint Protection; basically the corporate version of Norton type stuff) has always been on the laptop, so also unlikely since the problem is more recent. Will gives these a try and post back what I find.

Thanks for your work!

Cheers

p.s. (post edit) can't upgrade to SP3 yet as this is a corporate controlled laptop, so they can be finicky about that sort of stuff. Will try the other routes first.

[fatherof1000s]

OK, so to anyone else who runs into this: If you have a Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad Hotkey Feature installed, for me at least it doesn't show up under installed programs in Windows. To uninstall I had to actually download the driver from the IBM website, run it, and it gives you the option to Remove the feature. The version I had was 2.22.0000. I tried running 2.23.0000 (the newest one), and tried completely uninstalling it... still have this issue where PDN crashes. Can try uninstalling other softwares (like DropBox, etc), however will also attach the crash log for the most recent one in case you wish to see it.

PND most recent Crash log.txt

[fatherof1000s]

Oh ya, some other little details I forgot to mention in the last post: I have upgraded to Paint.NET 3.5.3 as well, and it does show up in my Add/Remove Programs list now. Problem still present.

[Rick Brewster]

Can try uninstalling other softwares (like DropBox, etc),...

Yes, that's what you'll need to try next.

In the crash log, look through the list of "Native modules". In general, anything in C:\WINDOWS\system32 can be ignored. Your next two targets should be Dropbox and "Symantec Endpoint Protection".

[fatherof1000s]

FYI, not forgotten, just testing is slow. Currently DropBox is uninstalled, and crashes have decreased (although there were some still immediately following and uninstall and reboot). Will write more when I have more time to play with this.

Uninstalling Symantec Endpoint Protection is not an option. That is corporate mandated and controlled. If there is an interaction issue than either it'd need to be fixed, or worst case I'd have to either live with it or uninstall Paint.NET.