Simple FEZ Cerberus project stuck on "The debugging target runtime is loading the application assemblies and starting execution"

Question

I'm having trouble with a .Net MF 4.2 project running on the FEZ Cerberus. In order to debug the problem I have swapped to a very simple .Net Gadgeteer project. In Visual Studio 2012 I make a new .Net Gadgeteer project targeting the .Net MF 4.2, add the FEZ Cerberus mainboard, and run the project. What I expect to see in the output window is a bunch of diagnostic messages followed by "Program Started" since the boiler-plate Program.cs file's ProgramStarted method contains just one line of code: Debug.Print("Program Started");

But that is not what I see.

Instead I get this output:

Found debugger!
Create TS.
   Assembly: System (4.2.0.0)  Loading Deployment Assemblies.
   Assembly: Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware.PWM (4.2.0.1)  Attaching deployed file.
   Assembly: System.IO (4.2.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.
   Assembly: Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware (4.2.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.
   Assembly: mscorlib (4.2.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.
   Assembly: VanillaCerbGadgeteerApp (1.0.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.
The debugging target runtime is loading the application assemblies and starting execution.

And that's where it sticks forever. Here are the things I have tried to fix it.

1. Restart the FEZ Cerberus
2. Restart the PC
3. Pausing debugging and then resuming. The pause fails with the error "Unable to break execution. The debugger is still attaching to the process or the process is not currently executing the type of code selected for debugging."
4. Swapping between the PC's USB and a powered USB hub
5. Uninstalling the WinUSB drivers and instead installing the legacy drivers
6. Setting a breakpoint (it never gets there)
7. Switching to a different FEZ Cerberus mainboard
8. Running the SDTFUTester to erase the memory on the FEZ Cerberus, reinstall the DFU Tinybooter_4_2_6_1.dfu, and then using the FEZConfig tool to update the firmware to 4.2.6.1 on the mainboard.

None of these steps work. I am still stuck forever on the line The debugging target runtime is loading the application assemblies and starting execution. What should I do to debug this and to fix it?

(N.B. One thing that did fix this was to rebuild my laptop, i.e. to wipe the disk and install the OS etc. from scratch. However this fix was not permanent, I was soon back, stuck at the same point.)

I am running Visual Studio 2012 and have the NETMF SDK 4.3 (RTM) and the NETMF and Gadgeteer Package 2013 R3 installed. I'm currently on Windows 8.1 though I experienced the same (or at least similar) problem when the laptop was on Windows 8.

Answer 1

It looks like this was a hardware fault on the PC. I have swapped the hard-drive in the Dell E6320 laptop I was using into another Dell E6320 and now the projects run fine.