1. Jostein Ullestad
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Wednesday, 23 March 2022 13:58 PM UTC

Introduction

We are facing a PowerBuilder termination in some rare situations and only on a limited set of Windows installations. We do not have full details of the case, so we hope someone has a similar experience that might resolve our issue.

PowerBuilder version

Running PowerBuilder 2019R3 and Runtime 19.2.0.2703 as well as PowerBuilder 2021 and runtime 21.0.0.1506. Both 64bit compiled p-code executable and even from PowerBuilder its selves.

Code and steps

We have developed a large system and narrowed it down to the "item changed" event on a DW with a column using DDDW. The DDDW is shared.

  1. When a user is clicking the down arrow to open the DDDW and selecting an item the system terminates without warning, sometimes.
  2. Other times, when the DDDW is about to open
  3. But also after clicking and selecting different items multiple times, maybe up to 10 times.

There is no pattern of which item is being selected or the number of attempts needed to get the termination.

  1. When the user does not open the DDDW and only selects items using the up and down arrow, we have not been able to reproduce the case.

We have code in the "item changed" event, and we have attempted to POST this code, to avoid any issues with the "item changed" event, but it did not help.

Windows operating system

  • We have attempted this issue on several Windows 11 installations, but we are only able to reproduce it on one PC for one user. (We are aware some of our customers experience this as well).
  • We are not using Citrix or any remote access tools.
  • Windows 11 which terminates application for one user is: Windows 11 Enterprise, Version 21H2 (OS Build 22000.588)
  • If we create another user on the same Win 11 where the termination occurs, for that new user – it does not terminate.
  • We are aware of the AppeOn community report https://community.appeon.com/index.php/qna/q-a/pb-apps-crash-when-windows-magnifier-is-active
  • Accessibility > Magnifier is off
  • Accessibility > Text cursor indicator is off
  • System > Display > Scale = 100%

 Windows Event Log

Using Windows event log we have identified the following:

  1. It is always oleacc.dll which is the cause for it as per Windows even Log:
    1. Application error, one of the cases
      1. Faulting module name: OLEACC.dll, version: 7.2.22000.1, time stamp: 0xd4726d59
      2. Exception code: 0x000041d
      3. Fault offset: 0x0000000000007126
    2. Application error, another case – same PC
      1. Faulting module name: OLEACC.dll, version: 7.2.22000.1, time stamp: 0xd4726d59
      2. Exception code: 0xc0000005
      3. Fault offset: 0x0000000000007126

The ProcessMonitor by SysInternals

Using a tool called ProcessMonitor it tells us that a RegQueryValue (among others) is being accessed:

  1. HKU\S-1-5-21-1605727367-4172450283-2957057502-1159\Control Panel\Desktop\PreferredUILanguages
  2. Which is reported as BUFFER OVERFLOW, Length: 12
  3. The key its selves is only present on the Win11 which terminates with the value “en-US” followed by double 0 terminations. Notice the string is Unicode so the total number of bytes is 14
  4. We did delete that key from the registry, but it terminates still.

 

I am not convinced this is related to PowerBuilder but wished to tap into any suggestion, experience or knowledge anyone here might have that could help us resolve this issue.

Thank you.

Accepted Answer
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 23 March 2022 14:44 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # Permalink

Hi Jostein ;

   Since the aborted module always seems to be "OLEACC" DLL - that would indicate the problem could be with the MS-Windows O/S "Accessibility" module. Please try the following ...

  • Open Notepad utility
  • Create a custom PB.INI as follows ...

[Data Window]
Accessibility=0

  • Copy the custom PB.ini to the root of where your PB App's EXE is deployed.

HTH

Regards ... Chris

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Neil N Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Monday, 10 June 2024 18:13 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Thanks to all those who contributed to this thread. While the pb.ini fix didn't work (I suspect that's because this app in on PB 12.5.2), removing Grammarly did.  Does anyone know if this issue persists in PB 2022R3?  If not, maybe the client will finally upgrade...

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Markus Kreuzer Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 18 April 2024 15:22 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Thanks for that helpful article. We had the same problem and your solution solved it.

I would like to add that we also see these crashes when the software DeepL is installed. I assume this is caused by the same problem.

The difference to Grammarly is that the crashes don't happen reliably. Deinstalling and re-installing DeepL eliminates the crashes. But in some cases they come back again after a while. This is not yet understood.

We will patch our PB-applications with your solution and see if this can eleminate the crashes permanently even with DeepL.

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Karen Gray Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 28 March 2023 01:43 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

HI there,

 

I am also having this issue but I am on Windows 10. My PB is crashing whenever I am trying to run from my IDE now or from an installed exe.

 

I have added the suggested Accessibility=0 to my PB.ini - but that does not fix the issue.

 

Windows logs below and image of dll attached

 

 

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David Stadel Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 15 September 2022 01:39 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 4

Hello,

 

I know that with this post I am resurrecting an old, mostly-resolved thread, but I wanted to make sure that I provided this update, in case other folks run across this same issue...

It seems, at least with Tessitura, that this error would manifest only on desktops where the user installed Grammarly software...

If the end-user removed Grammarly, then the application would run just fine without any modifications to the underlying PowerBuilder or the PB.INI file..

Somehow, these two software items conflict in a way that causes one to crash if the other one is running.

 

So there are 2 ways to resolve this issue:

 1) Update the PB.INI file and set Accessibility=0 as mentioned above

2) Remove Grammarly (if installed)

 

Does anyone have any idea why Grammarly (of all the resident software) would create an issue like this??

Comment
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 15 September 2022 03:40 AM UTC
I think because grammarly is using accessibility interface to read text in PB app catch grammar mistakes?
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David Stadel Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 8 July 2022 15:53 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 5

It turns out that we ran into this exact same issue on some desktop machines that are running Windows 11 and a product (Tessitura) which is based on Powerbuilder.

Luckily, (after a lot of searching) we ran across this article, and the fix (I modified the existing pb.ini file in the application directory) worked like a charm..  The application works perfectly now on those desktop machines for those users (hopefully others that are using Tessitura and running into the same issue can search and more easily find this article now)...

Now the funny thing is (as mentioned here) that this only affected a limited number of users on the desktop...  If I had some other user go to that same desktop where the application was crashing, and log into it (for the first time) and attempt to reproduce the issue, the app crash would not happen for them...  Only (it seemed) for the primary user on that desktop would suffer the application crash like that...

Anyhow, before I go ahead and roll this software mod out to all of the remaining desktops I have a couple of questions:

1) What are the consequences of using this accessibility setting?   Does that mean that if folks are using accessibility stuff (like magnification, scaling, etc..) that these will not work or will work differently for this application than it normally would?   I never use those settings and I don't have windows 11 installed so it is difficult for me to test for that right now...

2) Has anyone been able to isolate the settings within Windows 11 that are causing this issue??  I am going to make the assumption this has to be related to some setting within that user profile that is causing this (otherwise I suppose it would crash for all users on that desktop, and not just for some)...   I would much rather fix this issue via a windows setting (if possible), rather than a modification to the client software like this...

... Anyhow, thanks for this article and the solution ... 

 

Comment
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Friday, 8 July 2022 16:03 PM UTC
Hi David;

1) Only the PB App's accessibility settings & behaviour will be ignored.

2) I have no idea but, only PB2022 will be W11 certified. Earlier PB versions are not certified (or supported) under W11 currently.

Regards ... Chris
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Jostein Ullestad Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 23 March 2022 17:50 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 6

Thank you Chris for your fast replay, it seems this pb.ini file setting did resolve the issue. We are no longer able to reproduce the unwanted exit of the application.

Comment
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 23 March 2022 20:04 PM UTC
Hi Jostein ;

Thank you for that feedback .. that is "Awesome" news! :-)

Regards ... Chris

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