Visual Studio 2005 locks up when attaching to process

Question

I have a simple C++ DLL that implements a few custom actions for a WiX installer.

Debugging the custom actions is usually simple: put up a temporary dialog box at the beginning of the action, and attach to the process when the dialog box appears.

But today, whenever I attach to the process, I get the "Microsoft Visual Studio is Busy" bubble appearing at the bottom of the screen. I cannot figure out where this is coming from. Any ideas?

Answer 1

After hours of trying to figure this out, I realized that the problem was that I had debugging symbols enabled in Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbols. The latency in looking up symbols was leading to the apparent lockup.

Clearing the "Search the above locations only when symbols are loaded manually" seems to have alleviated the problem.

Answer 2

Are you referring debug symbols from a network location that is not available (e.g. a ClearCase dynamic view or something similar). This can cause Visual Studio to hang when you attach to a process.

Check Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbols and try temporarily disabling the symbol file (.pdb) locations until you figure out which is slowing it down (or causing it to hang). Through elimination you should be able to figure this out.