Running 3.20a (c02f2513f) on Windows 10 32-bit.

For the last week I've gotten several appcrashes whenever sbbsctrl.exe starts up.

Faulting application name: sbbsctrl.exe, version: 3.20.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Faulting module name: gdi32full.dll, version: 10.0.19041.2604, time stamp: 0x2b5302d5
Exception code: 0xc0000090
Fault offset: 0x0003f8e5
Faulting process id: 0x1f80
Faulting application start time: 0x01d952d887c053d6
Faulting application path: C:\sbbs\exec\sbbsctrl.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\gdi32full.dll
Report Id: 74424471-cef3-489d-ac6d-ab7ca4b0be51
Faulting package full name: (blank)
Faulting package-relative application ID: (blank)

It first happened this past Sunday evening after I stopped and restarted the Mail service, and I couldn't get sbbsctrl.exe to start at all until I re-installed Synchronet from scratch and copied the data to the new install. Today it started happening again (the one pasted above is from today) after a reboot of the PC. Every appcrash message lists the faulting module as gdi32full.dll.

I don't want to have to go through a whole install again, so at the moment I'm just using sbbs.exe to run the BBS in place of sbbsctrl.exe. Nice to have as a backup option, but I miss sbbsctrl.exe :)

Happy to provide more detail if I can.

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07
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þ Synchronet þ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Hi there, Chad! I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing appcrashes with sbbsctrl.exe. Let's see if we can figure out what's causing the issue.

The gdi32full.dll module is related to graphics device interface functionality in Windows 10, so it's possible that there's a conflict with Synchronet or another program on your system that's causing the crashes. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to try and resolve the issue:

1. Run a System File Checker scan to check for and repair any corrupt system files that may be causing the issue. To do this, open an elevated command prompt and type "sfc /scannow" without the quotes.

2. Open the Event Viewer and look for any related errors or warnings that may provide more information on what's causing the appcrashes. To do this, press the Windows key + X and select "Event Viewer" from the menu. Look for errors or warnings in the "Windows Logs" section, specifically the "Application" and "System" logs.

3. Try updating your graphics drivers to the latest version, as outdated drivers can cause conflicts.

4. If all else fails, you may need to uninstall and reinstall Synchronet again.

I hope these steps help resolve the issue for you. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything else I can assist with.

--
Chad Jipiti

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þ Synchronet þ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH (gdi32full.dll)
By: Codefenix to All on Thu Mar 09 2023 06:08 pm

Running 3.20a (c02f2513f) on Windows 10 32-bit.

For the last week I've gotten several appcrashes whenever sbbsctrl.exe starts up.

Faulting application name: sbbsctrl.exe, version: 3.20.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Faulting module name: gdi32full.dll, version: 10.0.19041.2604, time stamp: 0x2b5302d5
Exception code: 0xc0000090
Fault offset: 0x0003f8e5
Faulting process id: 0x1f80
Faulting application start time: 0x01d952d887c053d6
Faulting application path: C:\sbbs\exec\sbbsctrl.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\gdi32full.dll
Report Id: 74424471-cef3-489d-ac6d-ab7ca4b0be51
Faulting package full name: (blank)
Faulting package-relative application ID: (blank)

It first happened this past Sunday evening after I stopped and restarted the Mail service, and I couldn't get sbbsctrl.exe to start at all until I re-installed Synchronet from scratch and copied the data to the new install. Today it started happening again (the one pasted above is from today) after a reboot of the PC. Every appcrash message lists the faulting module as gdi32full.dll.

I don't want to have to go through a whole install again, so at the moment I'm just using sbbs.exe to run the BBS in place of sbbsctrl.exe. Nice to have as a backup option, but I miss sbbsctrl.exe :)

Happy to provide more detail if I can.

Try deleting or renaming the Windows registry key that contains the sbbsctrl settings: http://wiki.synchro.net/monitor:sbbsctrl#settings and see if that helps.

I certainly can't think of any recent changes that would cause GDI-related crashes and I haven't seen them myself or heard any other reports of them.
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet "Real Fact" #35:
The irc.synchro.net network has more servers than users
Norco, CA WX: 59.9øF, 57.0% humidity, 7 mph SSE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs ---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH (gdi32full.dll)
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Thu Mar 09 2023 06:06 pm

Try deleting or renaming the Windows registry key that contains the sbbsctrl settings: http://wiki.synchro.net/monitor:sbbsctrl#settings and see if that helps.

Ok, I renamed the "Synchronet Control Panel" entry to "Synchronet Control Panel - OLD" and reran sbbsctrl.exe. A new blank entry for Control Panel showed up in the registry, but unfortunately I get the same outcome as before.

I tried setting some Autostart properties to false in ctrl/sbbs.ini today, specifically Mail and BBS. With those not starting on their own, sbbsctrl.exe does not immediately crash. But if I manually start up either the Mail or Termainal Server by hitting either one's play button, then sbbsctrl.exe crashes with the message in the event viewer.

I certainly can't think of any recent changes that would cause GDI-related crashes and I haven't seen them myself or heard any other reports of them. --

Starting to wonder if it's a red herring. Just for the heck of it, I made sure Windows was up to date. The Intel driver did need an update, but since updating it hasn't made a difference for this issue I'm having.

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07
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þ Synchronet þ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH (gdi32full.dll)
By: Codefenix to Digital Man on Fri Mar 10 2023 08:38 am

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH (gdi32full.dll)
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Thu Mar 09 2023 06:06 pm

Try deleting or renaming the Windows registry key that contains the sbbsctrl settings: http://wiki.synchro.net/monitor:sbbsctrl#settings and see if that helps.

Ok, I renamed the "Synchronet Control Panel" entry to "Synchronet Control Panel - OLD" and reran sbbsctrl.exe. A new blank entry for Control Panel showed up in the registry, but unfortunately I get the same outcome as before.

I tried setting some Autostart properties to false in ctrl/sbbs.ini today, specifically Mail and BBS. With those not starting on their own, sbbsctrl.exe does not immediately crash. But if I manually start up either the Mail or Termainal Server by hitting either one's play button, then sbbsctrl.exe crashes with the message in the event viewer.

Can you provide the last log messages before the crash? Does changing the log level make any difference?

If sbbs.exe isn't crashing in the same way, that suggests its something unique to the sbbsctrl (GUI), which really hasn't changed much in a long time. It's still possible it's a bug somewhere in either sbbs.dll or sbbsctrl.exe. If you're willing and able to build and run a debug version of sbbs.dll using Microsoft Visual C++ (http://wiki.synchro.net/dev:tools#windows), that might provide a useful stack trace at the time of crash. You don't need a debug version of sbbsctrl.exe (and since it's built with C++Builder, its stack trace wouldn't be useful without it anyway).

I certainly can't think of any recent changes that would cause GDI-related crashes and I haven't seen them myself or heard any other reports of them. --

Starting to wonder if it's a red herring. Just for the heck of it, I made sure Windows was up to date. The Intel driver did need an update, but since updating it hasn't made a difference for this issue I'm having.

You might try install a fresh copy of sbbs (not using the setup.exe) into a separate folder with all stock configuration files and see if that makes any difference. If you have another computer or VM you could try to reproduce the problem on, that'd be helpful to know too.
--
digital man (rob)

Sling Blade quote #13:
Karl: He lives inside of his own heart. That's an awful big place to live in. Norco, CA WX: 52.2øF, 96.0% humidity, 0 mph ENE wind, 0.14 inches rain/24hrs ---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH (gdi32full.dll)
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Fri Mar 10 2023 12:06 pm

You might try install a fresh copy of sbbs (not using the setup.exe) into a separate folder with all stock configuration files and see if that makes any difference. If you have another computer or VM you could try to reproduce the problem on, that'd be helpful to know too.

I got things back up and running, and I think I have the problem isolated.

First, I copied the BBS files to another PC running Win10 64-bit, and confirmed the crash occurs there as well. Logs to the event viewer with a similar appcrash message.

I stood up a new SBBS as you suggested, and copied my data and configs folder-by-folder from my faulty copy to the fresh one. I eventually found that the ctrl/file.ini file was the culprit. With my file.ini in the ctrl directory, I could repeatedly crash sbbsctrl.exe on either PC, but it wouldn't crash with a fresh one. I managed to take a file.cnf from one of my old 3.18 backups and let the 'jsexec update' turn it into a "good" file.ini for 3.20a, and now sbbsctrl.exe is staying up for me at the moment.

DM, if you'd like, I can send you both my good and bad file.ini for comparison.

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07
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þ Synchronet þ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Codefenix to Digital Man on Sat Mar 11 2023 05:39 pm

DM, if you'd like, I can send you both my good and bad file.ini for comparison.

Yes, please!
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #33:
This guy [Gale], it's like scarface had sex with Mr. Rogers. - Hank Schrader Norco, CA WX: 63.5øF, 91.0% humidity, 6 mph SSE wind, 0.37 inches rain/24hrs ---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Sat Mar 11 2023 02:53 pm

Yes, please!

Sent.

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07
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þ Synchronet þ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Codefenix to Digital Man on Sat Mar 11 2023 06:43 pm

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Sat Mar 11 2023 02:53 pm

Yes, please!

Sent.

Thank you!

I narrowed it down (quickly) to the min_dspace setting. Yours was set to 16384P (petabytes), which exceeds the value that can be stored in a 64-bit (signed) integer and that appears to do something weird when called that code was called from sbbsctrl.exe that caused all subsequent floating point operations to cause a "invalid operation" floating point exception. I added some code to force that value within the range of a 64-bit integer, but it's still kind of mysterious why that happens, and only with sbbsctrl.exe.

Did you intentionally change the min disk space setting to that (very high) value or is that also a mystery? :-)
--
digital man (rob)

Rush quote #47:
All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars
Norco, CA WX: 57.5øF, 96.0% humidity, 2 mph E wind, 0.07 inches rain/24hrs
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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Digital Man to Codefenix on Sat Mar 11 2023 06:54 pm

I narrowed it down (quickly) to the min_dspace setting. Yours was set to 16384P (petabytes), which exceeds the value that can be stored in a 64-bit (signed) integer and that appears to do something weird when called that code was called from sbbsctrl.exe that caused all subsequent floating point operations to cause a "invalid operation" floating point exception. I added some code to force that value within the range of a 64-bit integer, but it's still kind of mysterious why that happens, and only with sbbsctrl.exe.

Awesome!

Yeah, I noticed the 16384P as well and wondered if that had something to do with the problem.

Did you intentionally change the min disk space setting to that (very high) value or is that also a mystery? :-)

No, I have no idea how it got set that high. Definitely didn't change that value intentionally.

Any chance that it could have gotten changed between iterations of 3.20a? If
I missed a jsexec update between builds, could that cause a corrupted ini?

|01<|09co|03d|11e|15Ÿ|11e|03n|09ix|01>|07
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þ Synchronet þ -=[ ConstructiveChaos BBS | conchaos.synchro.net ]=-

Re: sbbsctrl.exe APPCRASH
By: Codefenix to Digital Man on Sun Mar 12 2023 01:42 pm

Yeah, I noticed the 16384P as well and wondered if that had something to do with the problem.

Did you intentionally change the min disk space setting to that (very high) value or is that also a mystery? :-)

No, I have no idea how it got set that high. Definitely didn't change that value intentionally.

Any chance that it could have gotten changed between iterations of 3.20a? If
I missed a jsexec update between builds, could that cause a corrupted ini?

I think at some point during the v3.20a dev I did change that value from kilobytes to bytes and that might have triggered something to change that value. I'll experiment and see what I can find.
--
digital man (rob)

Sling Blade quote #22:
Karl: I don't reckon you have to go with women to be a good father to a boy. Norco, CA WX: 63.4øF, 74.0% humidity, 10 mph S wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net