VoiceAttack2: Miscellaneous crashes

[BillEvansAlone]

Hi Gary. I'm frequently seeing crashes back to desktop from VoiceAttack 2. If you recall, in an earlier post I reported unexpected quits coinciding with OVR Toolkit or Elite Dangerous opening or closing. There was also a correlation with having used Get Choice Input. Unfortunately, the new crash events are not so reproducible. Nevertheless, I've encountered a crash twice when locking my computer (WIN+L), and sometimes when exiting MSFS2024 or, if in VR, when toggling focus between game and a desktop window. VA2 has also crashed with the command edit window open, when I was reading but not typing.

Perhaps the variety of circumstances in which this problem occurs points to something environmental?

I'm attaching my latest VoiceAttackFault.txt, but note it is not catching all the errors. In my Computer Management log, there are 405 altogether since 11th April. They are all Event ID 5150, and all seem to be reporting a threading issue similar to the errors in VoiceAttackFault.txt.

Apologies for dumping this lot on you. Thanks for your help when you have time.

My system: o/s Win 11 24H2. mb ROG STRIX X870-E Wi-Fi. cpu 9950X3D. ram 64Gb DDR5. gpu ZOTAC 4090.

[Gary]

Thanks for the heads up. 

The error that I see over and over has to do with pen/stylus components getting hung.  Do you have pen/stylus software running?  If so, what tool is it - I can try running it here.

Also what's kind of weird is that this particular exception seems to be generated multiple times.  For instance, '25 April 2025 21:00:55' repeats a bunch of times at the end.

[BillEvansAlone]

That is truly weird. I have no pen or stylus. My input devcies are a Honeycomb Alpha Yoke and a Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle/Joystick combo. I do also have another device that's a bit unusual: an XTouch MIDI controller. I convert its MIDI output to vJoy button pushes using a FreePIE script. I've never notice it cause any issues, but I'll leave it unplugged for a bit and see if that makes any difference.

EDIT: just remembered I have an Apple Pencil - but there's no tablet connected to the computer to write on. I suppose the iPad is on the same Wi-Fi network...

EDIT2: A trawl through Add/Remove programs revealed something called Ink.Handwriting. It seems to be part of Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Office, that was). AI tells me it enables pen input to Word, OneNote etc

[BillEvansAlone]

Hi Gary. There is a Wacom Pen driver "wacompen.sys" in System32/drivers. I don't have a Wacom pen, but maybe it comes courtesy of Windows Update? According to "driverquery /FO list /v", wacompen.sys is started manually and its current state is stopped. Apart from this driver, I can't find anything that isn't core Windows or Microsoft 365 functionality.

On a separate note, the one crash I can reproduce reliably --by closing OVR Toolkit after VA2 has executed a Get Choice Input-- does not create an event with the pen thread failure stuff. Possibly it's a totally different cause? In the computer management event log, though not in VoiceAttackFault.txt, there are a couple of messages that I've reproduced below. Hope they are helpful.

1. SOURCE: .NET Runtime. Event ID: 1025. Task Category: None.

Application: VoiceAttack.exe
CoreCLR Version: 8.0.1525.16413
.NET Version: 8.0.15
Description: The application requested process termination through System.Environment.FailFast.
Message: Encountered infinite recursion while looking up resource 'Arg_NullReferenceException' in System.Private.CoreLib. Verify the installation of .NET is complete and does not need repairing, and that the state of the process has not become corrupted.
Stack:
   at System.Environment.FailFast(System.String)
   at System.SR.InternalGetResourceString(System.String)
   at System.SR.GetResourceString(System.String)
   at System.NullReferenceException..ctor()
   at System.Globalization.CultureInfo.get_CurrentUICulture()
   at System.Resources.ResourceManager.GetString(System.String, System.Globalization.CultureInfo)
   at System.SR.InternalGetResourceString(System.String)
   at System.SR.GetResourceString(System.String)
   at System.NullReferenceException..ctor()
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)


2. SOURCE: Application Error. Event ID: 1000. Task Category: Application Crash.

Faulting application name: VoiceAttack.exe, version: 2.1.5.0, time stamp: 0x674f0000
Faulting module name: System.Private.CoreLib.dll, version: 8.0.1525.16413, time stamp: 0x846eb4cf
Exception code: 0x80131623
Fault offset: 0x00000000002a5f99
Faulting process id: 0x2078
Faulting application start time: 0x1DBB742FEE96C49
Faulting application path: G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\VoiceAttack 2\VoiceAttack.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App\8.0.15\System.Private.CoreLib.dll
Report Id: ac7b68b5-fa1d-4893-b756-838f65ad33e8
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[BillEvansAlone]

Hi all. A quick question...

TL;DR:
Is anyone else experiencing crashes from VA2 to desktop as per the posts above? I'm considering re-installing Windows, but mine is ...ahem... a "mature" installation with masses of carefully configured software, and the idea of starting afresh...well, I don't want to go there if it won't solve the problem.

MORE INFO:
There are two types of crash:

1. Reproducible, but only if you own the Steam VR overlay "OVR Toolkit". In Steam, launch OVR Toolkit. You don't need any other VR application, or even to own a VR headset. Now start VA2 and run a command that asks a question using "Get Choice Input". Answer it. Finally, go back to Steam and stop OVR Toolkit. VA2 will quit.

2. Not reproducible. Crashes do not coincide with any particular action, but they are frequent enough in-game to be really bothersome. I've also experienced VA2 quitting when I've been in Command Edit, not typing just reading. Weirdly, this type of crash usually generates log messages relating to pen or stylus activity, but I have no pen software installed beyond what comes with Windows or Microsoft 365.


Full log messages can be found in the posts above (or their attachments).

My system is: o/s Win 11 24H2. mb ROG STRIX X870-E Wi-Fi. cpu 9950X3D. ram 64Gb DDR5. gpu ZOTAC 4090.


Thanks everyone.