Debugging MS Word crashes

[NeilL]

I'm not sure this is the right place for this question but seemed close so
I'll give it a go.

I have a Word application Dll and a set of VBA macros that are shipped in as
part of a Word template. On some user systems invoking application functions
is causing a Word exception. This generates a WER report to MS for Word but
nothing is available (like a stack trace or other diagnostic) that would help
me issolate the problem on these systems. I've tried setting up drwtson32 as
the default debugger but that does not help since Word catches all exceptions
so Dr Watson never sees anything.

What I'm trying to figure out is if there are any (simple) tools or
techniques that I can use to capture fault information related to these
failures.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Neil,

I'm not sure this is the right place for this question but seemed close so
I'll give it a go.

I have a Word application Dll and a set of VBA macros that are shipped in as
part of a Word template. On some user systems invoking application functions
is causing a Word exception. This generates a WER report to MS for Word but
nothing is available (like a stack trace or other diagnostic) that would help
me issolate the problem on these systems. I've tried setting up drwtson32 as
the default debugger but that does not help since Word catches all exceptions
so Dr Watson never sees anything.

What I'm trying to figure out is if there are any (simple) tools or
techniques that I can use to capture fault information related to these
failures.

Nothing you can "plug and play", no. You'd have to build some kind of logging
system into the code to trace when the error is occurring. Knowing what's
causing it, plus the error message information and Word version, could possibly
help track it down.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Kinshuman]

If you look in the details sections of the report (what does this report
contain) you will see the dump files. The dump file is locked, so if you
terminate the dw20.exe process then you should be able to access the dump
file to look at the issue.

Also you can setup a JIT debugger (like windbg.exe) to attach on process
termination and set Auto to 1. The next time the process crashes you should
either break into the debugger or the WER dialog should present you wiht a
debug button and you should be able to debug the application. More
information about AeDebug is on MSDN please search for AeDebug