Strange Visual Studio crash when adding CSLA 3.8.1 to toolbox

Jaans posted on Saturday, November 28, 2009

I've just had a very weird (and frustrating) experience with Visual Studio insta-crashing when I add the CSLA 3.8.1 assembly to the toolbox.

Usually with a new version, I remove the old CSLA version from the toolbox first, close VS, and then re-add the new version of CSLA to the toolbox. I and my team been doing this since way back when without issue, until now.

On the build machine it works just fine (Server 2008 R2 64-Bit with VS 2008 SP1)??

Strangly on all the other computers Visual Studio just abruptly dissappears from the screen (instantly and without a crash report that usually follows). This happens the instance when you OK the browse dialog that add's the new assembly to the toolbox.

Sure enough there are a few posts on the web about similar behaviour. The various solutions range from running DevEnv /SafeMode and resetting the toolbox, to more extreme /ResetSettings etc. Also tried clearing the various bin/obj and other locations where assemblies are cached. Nothing worked.

Then, we tried to add a previous version of CSLA 3.8.0 Alpha 1 and it worked perfectly. Tried again with 3.8.1 and it just crashed as before.

This might just be an issue with our environment (not that I can figure it out) but has anyone experienced anything similar?

Could there have been changes to CSLA build that may be the culprit?

Thanks in advance!
Jaans

RockfordLhotka replied on Saturday, November 28, 2009

Which controls are you adding to the Toolbox?

3.8 has no changes to Windows Forms or Web Forms controls - only WPF controls were changed/added, and I don't think they show up in the Toolbox until VS10.

Jaans replied on Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanks for that Rocky

Ps: I'm adding all the Web/Windows Forms controls - nothing new really.

Must be something in the environment - though is it strange that its not happening with the old assembly.

Will post if I find the solution.

Thanks!

cdkisa replied on Monday, November 30, 2009

I had a similar problem. The solution is to start VS in safe mode and then add the controls. I think it only applies in 2008.

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /safemode

Raul Perez replied on Friday, January 08, 2010

I had the same problem in normal or safemode, when select the csla.dll.

I have solved it, installing VisualStudio 2008 SP1

Jaans replied on Friday, January 08, 2010

Hi Raul

Was it a case of Installing VS 2008 SP1 because it was not previously installed, or was it a case of re-installing an already installed SP1?

Jaans