VoiceAttack shutting down after a few minutes after updating to Win 10 20H2

[fyrcat]

Hi there,
I recently updated my Windows 10 installation to 20H2.  I'm now experiencing VoiceAttack crashing after a few minutes.  I haven't pinpointed exactly how long it takes.

I'm running DCS in VR with an HP Reverb G2 as the default speaker and microphone. 

There is no VoiceAttackFault.txt file in the VoiceAttack folder or AppData VoiceAttack folder.  I've run sfc /scannow.  The first time I ran it it found one item, but the second time showed no issues. I then updated to the latest version of VoiceAttack (v1.8.7) but no change. 

Event viewer has logs faulting ntdll.dll.  But I also have 1 log showing the faulting module as AcLayers.DLL. 

Examples:

Code: [Select]

Faulting application name: VoiceAttack.exe, version: 1.8.7.0, time stamp: 0x5f887834
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.19041.662, time stamp: 0x5f641e44
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000e6ac3
Faulting process id: 0x1d48
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6dc76e548763e
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 3b635360-48a0-4336-8f0a-199628a26613
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Code: [Select]

Faulting application name: VoiceAttack.exe, version: 1.8.7.0, time stamp: 0x5f887834
Faulting module name: AcLayers.DLL, version: 10.0.19041.662, time stamp: 0xbe54d162
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000305b6
Faulting process id: 0x4b0c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6dc7b5f0553ca
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AcLayers.DLL
Report Id: 185ef448-f171-4d9c-ac8a-c28d8c7af5cd
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
After VoiceAttack crashes, I have been able to re-launch it while still in DCS.  However, checking Process Lasso showed that each instance of VoiceAttack.exe was still active after each crash. Not sure if that means anything.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[fyrcat]

Forgot to add that I'm using no plugins.  I pretty much just used VA out of the box and set up profiles for each of my aircraft.

[Pfeil]

Do you have any options enabled on the "Compatibility" tab for VoiceAttack.exe?


There are no known incompatibility issues with VoiceAttack and Windows 10 20H2 that I'm aware of (the author of VoiceAttack uses that version as well).

ntdll crashes point to a deeper issue with your system; It may be something got corrupted during the upgrade.

Unfortunately, if a file system scan (DISM followed by sfc; It's important to run both) doesn't solve the issue, a repair-install of Windows using installation media may be required.
The option to keep everything (which should be the default) normally preserves files and installed applications, but making a backup is highly recommended; Either way this is at your own risk.

[fyrcat]

I'm not running it in any compatibility mode, but I do have "Run this program as an administrator" checked.

Ah, ok, I didn't run the DISM suggestion, just sfc.  I'll try that now.  I really don't want to reinstall the OS if I can avoid it, so hopefully DISM is the step I missed.  Will report back.

[Pfeil]

"AcLayers.dll" is part of the compatibility system, which is why I asked.

Note that "reinstall" refers to Windows itself, as in the operating system, not the entire user environment (provided you choose to keep everything).
It's not a start-from-scratch clean slate, but closer to a more thorough version of the system file scan, in the sense that it'll replace system files with what should be known good copies.

[fyrcat]

Unfortunately, no dice.  I got about 60 minutes in before VoiceAttack faulted again pointing to ntdll.dll. 

I suppose I will have to try the repair install.  Ugh.

[fyrcat]

Just as an aside, after it crashed, I terminated the two ghost VoiceAttack.exe processes and restarted it.  That time it only lasted about 12 minutes before it crashed with the same ntdll.dll fault.  I'm downloading the windows 10 media for repair install so hopefully that does it.

[fyrcat]

Completed the Windows repair install.  Was able to use VA with DCS for about an hour then another ntdll.dll fault.  It may have coincided with a multiplayer connection timeout.  I'm not sure what to do next.  My only other thought is a driver issue of some sort - Nvidia is the only other driver I've updated recently.  So perhaps a rollback there.

[Pfeil]

Try rolling back your NVIDIA driver, but if that doesn't solve it, also check whether your other drivers are up-to-date; Perhaps an older driver is causing issues with the new Windows version.

[fyrcat]

I first updated my Realtek audio driver as there was a new release for this version of Windows on my mobo but VA still crashed after about 50 minutes. Out of time today but will try the nvidia driver rollback next (likely Thurs).

[Pfeil]

Looking over the previously reported ntdll crashes, including those on my own machine, the common factor appears to be joysticks.

Do you have any joystick devices assigned to slots and enabled? Are some or all of them disconnected?

[fyrcat]

OK I came back to check in on this and I think you've hit the nail on the head.  I recently replaced my Joystick and throttle and the old ones were both set in VA for some reason.  I have unassigned them and just had a solid 52 minute DCS session with no Voice Attack crashes.  I'll do some more testing this weekend but this is looking promising!

[fyrcat]

Another day of testing and no more VA crashes.  Removing the missing joystick assignments worked!  Thanks Pfeil!

[Pfeil]

Good to know. The fact that devices are disconnected, and perhaps even that they're disconnected for relatively long periods of time, seems like it may play a role in this.