Hi, I am using Vista 64 bit with 8 GB RAM on a quad core system.

I'm using the 5.9.4 version of VSD, and I normally use "Run as Administrator" with DEP set to "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only". I always use Vista with the UAC turned on.

This has been working okay for me for several months now.

Until today. Today, VSD appears to launch okay, but at the file selection dialog, when I choose my website to open; I got this crash:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: vsd.exe
Application Version: 5.9.4.0
Application Timestamp: 481201f8
Fault Module Name: vsd.exe
Fault Module Version: 5.9.4.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 481201f8
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00076df3
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Here are the things I tried:

1. Confirm that VSD opens in Administrator Mode: It does; was already set that way.

2. Confirm DEP settings: It was already set to "essential windows programs and services only"

3. Turn off UAC to test: I did this and rebooted; program still crashed with the above error when I attemptd to open my VNU website file.

4. Set DEP to specifically exclude VSD.EXE: I did this and rebooted. Once again, the VSD appeared to initialize okay, but it once again crashed with the above error when I attempted to open said VNU website file.

5. Leave system as is (with UAC off and DEP set as described in "4" above) and try to get around the problem:

5a. I opened VSD and chose "new website." I got the workspace opened to the default "My Website" template. This didn't seem abnormal; maybe there's a physical or internal problem with my "INDEX.VNU" file.

5b. Next, I closed "My Website" (without saving it; there were no changes anyhow) and tried to open the failing INDEX.VNU file.

5b. This time it opened! I began working with it, but after a couple minutes, VSD crashed again. This crash was slightly different from the one pasted above, so here's the info dialog for the new one:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: vsd.exe
Application Version: 5.9.4.0
Application Timestamp: 481201f8
Fault Module Name: vsd.exe
Fault Module Version: 5.9.4.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 481201f8
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000c5d70
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

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So what's next? This is an especially bad time for VSD (or for my VNU file) to just "break" like that. I suspect an internal issue with my website VNU file, but there's no explanation for whatever might be broken, and I have zero ideas on how to fix or recover it.

Regardless of the root cause (although it will be a great learning opportunity), I need to fix it soon so that I can keep my site updated for the holidays.

By the way, it seems that my site on the public server is accessible and functioning correctly, so whatever the problem may be, it's probably not resulting in HTML problems.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Hello.

I was able to find a circumvention, and decided to share. Consider this my Christmas present to all of you.

I used the technique shown above to open my VNU file. Specifically, I did this:

1. Open VSD.

2. Choose "new website" on the open file dialog.

3. File/Close. Don't save.

4. Now I have a blank (more specifically, a "null" workspace). Once again, I open my failing VNU file. It opens. Right away, I did a "SAVE AS" and gave it a new file name: INDEX_2.VNU.

This action also causes VSD to create a new folder structure. No problem; that's normal behavior.

5. Close VSD.

6. Open VSD.

7. Select "open website", and open INDEX_2.VNU (the "copy" that I had just saved in 4 above.

8. This one opens. My website is there, in all of it's .. er, questionable glory.

9. Because the file name "INDEX_2", I know that this would cause problems on my server. So this time, I do a "SAVE AS" to a new folder, with the standard name, INDEX.VNU .

10. Close, restart, open the "new" INDEX.VNU. No problems. I'm off to the races.

Can't guarantee the success of this technique in the future, but essentially what I (hopefully) have done is used VSD to open the VSU via the "back door", then save it to a new file name. Saving a new version of the VSU seems to have (maybe) omitted whatever internal corruption the original INDEX.VSU may have had.

By the way, in all of this, I have not had any OS malfunctions or crashes, so there's no apparent reason for any type of physical disk or file corruption. That's just a hunch on my part.

I understand that VSD Version 6 is due out soon, so I would not expect the developer(s) to want to spend much time on this issue, unless it were to appear under Version 6. However, I have retained that file anyhow; just in case...

So there; I have shared. Merry Christmas!

Hey BIF,
Thanks for the step by step breakdown, hopefully I won't ever have this problem, but....
If I do, I now know where to look. It's funny, we started using VSD because it's easier than writing code and as a result we're becoming website engineers, lol. It's all good, Merry Christmas and thanks again for taking the time to give us a heads up.

Kevan

Brian,
Thanks for sharing the experience. One point though:

You wrote:
"9. Because the file name "INDEX_2", I know that this would cause problems on my server. So this time, I do a "SAVE AS" to a new folder, with the standard name, INDEX.VNU ."

This is incorrect. No one cares about the .vnu FILE name. The files that reside inside the vnu FOLDER should be the concern. Since you were able to save the project correctly, the files written into the .vnu folder are already correct by default.

The name of the vnu file has nothing to do with the project, only the files inside the vnu FOLDER count.

Happy holidays to all.

Sometimes this easier method works as well.

Open VSD.exe

When the dialogue box opens with the options
New Website
Open Existing Website
Open template etc

then choose neither and tick the box to not show that dialogue box in future.

When the application opens navigate to your vnu file and it usually opens. Once open - save the website right away.

Hello, all.

Interestingly enough, this problem has not recurred; a happy thing for me indeed!

Many thanks for the suggestions and continuing dialogue.