Crash every time I try to build in VS2013

[ceames1]

Hi,

Every time I try to build an LE install project in VS2013, it causes VS to crash and restart. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times with no change in behavior. When I go into Event Viewer, I see this:

Faulting application name: devenv.exe, version: 12.0.30110.0, time stamp: 0x52cfb65a
Faulting module name: IsWiBuild.dll, version: 20.0.0.529, time stamp: 0x5270a430
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00021604
Faulting process id: 0x4fc
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf3c7114d9a7ab
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013LE\System\IsWiBuild.dll
Report Id: 2174a1f0-a865-11e3-bab4-d4bed907e5ac

I have replicated this problem on two additional computers, one with VS2012, so it's not just mine. Also, I WAS able to get this to build in VS2010 this morning. Then this afternoon, after having made some minor display text changes, it now crashes my VS2010 every single time.

Obviously, something would appear to be wrong with IsWiBuild.dll, but this is the latest and "greatest" version. I had a prior version (20.0.0.4___something) and it failed then, but I'm at this version now after uninstalling and reinstalling. I'm not sure where to go with this next. I can get this to build in VS2010, but staying on 2010 isn't a viable alternative.

Does anyone have any ideas what may be going on here? We can't use the product if it stays like this. Any help would be appreciated.

FYI - I posted something a few months ago with no luck. People think it's bad RAM or a machine problem, and as I said back then, my RAM and machine have passed all tests. Plus, since I've replicated this on two other machines, that makes it even less likely that it's just me. There's something else going on.

Thanks!

[jcoone]

What version of VS2013 are you using? (professional, premium, ultimate)

What kind of installer are you trying to build?
32-bit/64-bit?
Windows service installer?

Is it creating shortcuts, or using any special custom actions?

Can you build the same project on another machine?

[ceames1]

Hi,

I'm using the Premium edition. 32 bit program. Not a service. Not creating shortcuts. No special actions. And, as I mentioned, it does this on 2 other machines as well, so it's not just my laptop.

Any thoughts?

[jcoone]

without knowing what your build is doing, it is very hard to guess as to what could be causing it. We had a few similar instances with builds failing and even some crashing, but it was due to VS2013 not running as an administrator and attempting to access an area that required admin rights. UAC shut it down completely on Windows 8 (Same behavior would be expected on Server 2012).

[ceames1]

Thanks for writing again!

I'm new to InstallShield, so I'm not sure what information I might be able to provide about the build project I'm trying to do. It's just a VS console app that creates an .EXE in a root folder. I put a config file in a subfolder. A few .DLLs go in another subfolder. Nothing fancy at all. I'm an admin on my own box, so I don't think that's it.

I THOUGHT I set it up to always run as an admin, but I was wrong. I reinstalled LE and set VS to always run as an admin. The first time I built the project with these settings, it actually worked. Then, I built it twice afterwards, making no changes whatsoever, and it crashed VS both times. Event Viewer is still complaining about IsWiBuild.dll.

I'm on Win 7, FYI.

I don't suppose you have any other tricks up your sleeve that I could try?

Thanks!

[jcoone]

built once, then crashed twice? that is very odd behavior. Does it crash if you do a full "Clean Solution" between build attempts?

Also, do you use any post build events in your console project? Those can cause problems at times as well, especially if they are copying files around you can get into race conditions on build order that will actually prevent the build from completing correctly. Confirm the project build order is correct.

Do you get the same behavior if you choose "Rebuild Solution" as opposed to "Build Solution"?

[ceames1]

Yes, I've cleaned, built, and rebuilt many, many times. All failures. This morning, 5 straight failures and no successes.

There are no post-build events. This really is a simple setup I'm trying to create here.

What's the purpose of IsWiBuild.dll? Since that's the file that's always causing the problem, do you know if there's an updated version I could try? Really at a loss here.

[Chaitra]

Hi,

Could you please provide us with a screen shot of the "Project creation failed" window. We shall try reproducing the same and assist you further on this.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks,
Chaitra

[ceames1]

I'm not sure how much this will tell you, but here you go! (I hope I'm attaching this right)

[ceames1]

And the Event Viewer tells me this...

[jcoone]

Are your projects on a network mapped drive? If so, try copying them to an actual local hard drive location and see if the build works there. We have had issues in the past building on remote drives, even ones that are mapped to a local drive letter.

[ceames1]

It's on a mapped network drive. I just copied it locally, and I've successfully built it for five consecutive times. I closed the solution, reopened it, and tried to build it, and it crashed Visual Studio again. VS reopened after the crash, I loaded the project, and it built. I closed and reopened the solution and tried to build, and it crashed and restarted VS again. I opened up the project again and tried to build, and it crashed VS again. This time, it didn't restart on its own, so I started VS up again, loaded the project, and tried to build it. The first time, it built. The second time, it crashed VS again. Tried to build it again, and it did twice. Closed the project, reopened it, built it, and it worked this time. Closed VS and restarted it, and building crashed VS again. That's on my local computer. Better than what I've seen in the past, but it's still seemingly the luck of the draw whether it decides to build or not.

Looking at the Event Viewer, it's still saying IsWiBuild.dll is the problem.

Meanwhile, on a cloud environment I have (cloudshare.com), everything has always been on a local drive there, and it still crashes repeatedly. Much worse behavior than what I'm seeing now on my laptop.

[jcoone]

ok, very odd that it built 5 times in a row and then went sporadic. Sounds like something may be getting hung up in memory that is causing issues. but aside from pulling from network locations for file / project references I have not encountered this behavior before.

if anything is holding an open file handle to the installer output directory, the build will fail and in rare cases will even cause VS to crash. Normally though it is just a build error.

[ceames1]

Any suggestions on how you think we should proceed here, or is this the end of the line? Since we can't get this working, we'll have to find a different third-party alternative?

I appreciate your taking the time to try and help. Thanks.

[jcoone]

if it is truly a problem with the Installshield project, you could try the following to isolate it.

1. remove the installshield project from the solution.
2. build the solution to ensure there are no problems with it building.
3. create a brand new installshield project keeping as much at default as you can.
4. Change only one setting at a time in the installshield project and build between each one. (Adding a project output, creating a shortcut, any custom actions, etc.)


This should allow you to figure out what part of the installer is failing the build and crashing. It is possible there is some form of corruption in your current installer project, and if that is the case creating a new one might get you past this issue.