Friday, May 23, 2008

TypelibBuilder.exe Crashes & Javascript Intellisense

Edited: Read an update on getting a resolution to this issue at: http://jberke.blogspot.com/2008/10/typelibbuilderexe-crashes.html.

Edited: Read the final update on this issue:
http://jberke.blogspot.com/2008/10/typelibbuilderexe-crashes_21.html



I've been fairly happy with VS 2008; however, one feature which has never worked right for me is javascript intellisense. It seemed that no matter what I did, as soon as I dropped a ScriptManager on a page, or added an external reference, I'd get a windows error dialog popup telling me TypelibBuilder has crashed.

After searching around and trying some of the suggested solutions which were all from the beta version of VS. I still had the error. I filled an issue on Microsoft Connect, and after some time, was contact by a Microsoft Developer. By the way this developer gave me some of the best support I've ever had from a third party so hats of to you :-).

The underlying issue appears to be a conflict between the biometric software called DigitalPersona and TypeLibBuilder. Nothing has been confirmed but if your having the same issue, and you have a process called DPAgent.exe. Kill the process and your javascript intellisense will probally start working again.

There is no patch available yet; however, I will update this post once one is available. Hopefuly this post will help save you the months of annoyance and frustration. If it did leave a comment, I'm interested to know how many people might be impacted by this.

Enjoy
-Josh

21 comments:

gk said...

Well, it's hard to believe, but when i killed mentioned process, it really solved the problem. Thanks buddy, may be you haven't exactly saved my life, but believe me, you've made it easier. :)

Josh Berke said...

Glad you found this useful. Question are you using VS2008 SP1? I'm going to be upgrading and I wonder if MS fixed this issue. While working with a dev from the VS team, I found a slight change to the initialization code which I've been using for the last 3 months without any issues.

When I last heard from him he said he didn't know if it was going to be included in SP1 because the other devs couldn't understand why the change worked. Essentially we moved the start of a timer to occur earlier in the process. Which I understand their point that sprinking pixie dust is not a good feeling as a way to resolve an issue...but on the same token I'd rather not have the software crash every time I open up an .aspx page.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm using VS2008 with SP1, but since today I got the error message. I closed the process you mentioned and the problem solved. Thanks buddy.

Regards,
Janos

Josh Berke said...

Your welcome. I recommend anyone facing this issue file a new connect issue or leave feedback on the one I had going: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=336160

Anonymous said...

Killing that process fixed it for me too. How could those 2 be related?

Josh Berke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josh Berke said...

I believe the DP is using some window hooks to determine when new windows open up. This way it can figure out if the window is a login window.

Under the covers I think typelibbuilder is using a window and pumping message to talk back to visual studio.

I was just looking at the traffic on this post, and am wondering how many people are now having issues with SP1 that were not having issues with RTM?

Anonymous said...

Thank you Very much!! my goodness... i thought i was going to go nuts. Do you know if there is a fix for this? or even an official bug?

Josh Berke said...

There is a bug but they closed it.

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=336160

I've been running a private build of typelibbuilder on RTM since July

Jake said...

a private build huh.... mind posting it?

Jake said...

btw, i had these issues with RTM.

Josh Berke said...

I wish I could post it, but I don't feel comftorble with doing that. What we need to do is put pressure on Microsoft to release the fix.

You can start by adding validation to the connect issue:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=336160

If you have an MSDN account, you can also use one of your support incidents. Since its a bug they shouldn't charge you for it.

Rumor has it that this might not be an issue in VS10 so I'm guessing they are not motivated to fix this. We need to motivate them. They have a fix and they should release it.

Anonymous said...

I'm getting this in SP1 as well. It's so annoying - thanks so much for being the first person to publish a solution to help us all out! MS had better fix this for VS10 :)

Joel Hammond-Turner said...

The problem for MS is that whilst there's a bug in THEIR software (TypelibBuilder), it's a third party piece of software that's causing it.

Still, good work on finding a work-around - it'd been driving me batty the last two days.

Josh Berke said...

Yes and I know, I have spoken quite a bit over email with the developer who worked on the patch, and I think the biggest issue is they don't understand why the patch works.

Essentially what I discovered when playing with a fake typelibbuilder, was that moving the creation of a timer to occur prior to them Posting a message back to visual studio would not result in the error creating the timer.

Which I have to admit is very weird. The developer has been campainging for them to release the fix, and the more people who comment here the mroe people who flag that connect issue will help.

Anonymous said...

I have visual studio 2008 on my brand new HP with vista x64 AND a fingerprint reader... ending the process did stop the crashing. thanks a million for the post!

Anonymous said...

microsoft is notorious for ignoring their customers... They might fix it in VS10? Give me a break. Who wants to pay $500 for a new version of Visual Studio just get a bug fix. Micosoft blames digital persona? Ironic considering my finger print reader is a MICROSOFT product. This issue is beyond annoying. How can you consider eliminating the use of your finger print reader as a "good" solution. It is pathetic that we have to resort to these methods.

Josh Berke said...

Quick update that while testing DP's patch, I realized that they had fixed it so that it no longer crashed typelibbuilder; however, typelibbuilder still failed to work. I missed this during my inital testing and it looks like typelibbuilder was caching the results from the succesful runs.

I'm really dissapointed now, particulary since again MS created an experimental version of typelibbuilder, which I am still running without any issues, but this was for RTM, and I want to upgrade to SP1.

Anonymous said...

man you'll go to heaven. i was trying to discover the cause myself. but DPAgent.exe?!!? i really have no idea, and yes my laptop is Pavilion dv5.

Armaghan Uljamil said...

this solved my problem. I was going crazy with this and after I killed DPAgent.exe it works like a charm.

Luiz Fernando said...

Thank you very very much!!!

I was going crazy too with this damn error in typelibbuilder, and nothing solved...