VoiceAttack crashing on start-up

[bholcomb007]

I have had this issue for some time and did the full system scan and cannot pinpoint the issue.  The fault file only had the program main entry point and the Null exception error.  In the event log I do have one additional line of error information though:
Application: VoiceAttack.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException
   at DynamicClass.(System.Object)
   at VoiceAttack.Program.
(System.String[])

It shows the error in reference to DynamicClass.(System.Object)
Does this help indicate what may be going on here>  I am a programmer and it is rather frustrating to not see the full stack trace so I may have a bit more to go on.  I would rather not have to reinstall my win 10 OS due to all I have setup on it.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give,
    Ben

[Gary]

This looks like you’ve got a problematic plugin.  What you’ll want to do is hold down CTRL +Shift when launching VA, which brings up the “load options” screen.  From there you will want to disable plugin support and then start up VA.

The VoiceAttackFault.txt file should have the full stack trace.  If you don't mind posting it here, I can look at that as well.  This can be found in VA's installation directory.

Hope that helps some!

[bholcomb007]

Here is the fault text file:

6/23/2020 6:47:23 PM***************************************************************************************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at (Object )
   at VoiceAttack.Program.
(String[] )
***VoiceAttack v1.8.5 - Windows 10.0.18362.0

Similar to the event log but the event log gave the class name DynamicClass and it is missing here...other than that it is an issue on the program entry that happens before the form is even loaded.

[Gary]

Thanks - strange that it doesn't have all the info - normally there's a lot more to it than that (usually way more).

For my own sanity check, I ran through the code and the only places in VA that use Dynamic are calls to plugins and interaction with the taskbar icon.  Hopefully disabling plugins might offer some type of clue to what is going on.  If disabling plugins does not do the trick, there's something a little deeper in your setup that's going to need to be addressed.  I would start with a system file scan to see if there's anything easy that can be picked off:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker     This is good to do from time to time, even if no problems are perceived.

[bholcomb007]

Well, I totally removed the old version and actually went ahead and installed the steam version (yes I bought it again, I just LOVE supporting your cause...lol), so there are no plug-ins to load.  In addition, since it does not come up no way to tell it not to load plug-ins (unless there is a command-line switch?).  I am currently running the sfc job now so I will see what happens after that.

Thanks again,
    Ben

[Gary]

Hi, Ben

You'll want to hold down CTRL + Shift when VoiceAttack loads - that brings up the "Load Options" screen.  However, if you are running VA from a different directory (Steam), there will be no plugins present that would load.

The "Load Options" screen will also let you prevent commands from executing on startup if you have a profile that does so.  I remembered that Dynamic is used in VA proxy which is used for both plugins AND inline functions.  Can you recall if you have a startup command that uses an inline function?