Java jvm crashes without reason - runs with admin privileges

Question

I've already tried to re-install Java several times, but it keeps crashing once starting my application. Other applications work fine (e.g. Scenebuilder).

The JVM returns no error log file, the only thing that's possible to grab are:

WERF81A.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

WER403.tmp.dmp

WER461.tmp.cab

WER3D3.tmp.appcompat.txt

The hs_error_* file is missing completly (or I can't locate it). This is part of WERF81A.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

    <ProcessInformation>
        <Pid>6740</Pid>
        <ImageName>javaw.exe</ImageName>
        <CmdLineSignature>00000000</CmdLineSignature>
        <Uptime>6105</Uptime>
        <ProcessVmInformation>
            <PeakVirtualSize>4891078656</PeakVirtualSize>
            <VirtualSize>4882821120</VirtualSize>
            <PageFaultCount>82469</PageFaultCount>
            <PeakWorkingSetSize>195358720</PeakWorkingSetSize>
            <WorkingSetSize>183607296</WorkingSetSize>
            <QuotaPeakPagedPoolUsage>277440</QuotaPeakPagedPoolUsage>
            <QuotaPagedPoolUsage>261216</QuotaPagedPoolUsage>
            <QuotaPeakNonPagedPoolUsage>43232</QuotaPeakNonPagedPoolUsage>
            <QuotaNonPagedPoolUsage>43168</QuotaNonPagedPoolUsage>
            <PagefileUsage>564998144</PagefileUsage>
            <PeakPagefileUsage>574984192</PeakPagefileUsage>
            <PrivateUsage>564998144</PrivateUsage>
        </ProcessVmInformation>
    </ProcessInformation>
    <ProblemSignatures>
        <EventType>APPCRASH</EventType>
        <Parameter0>javaw.exe</Parameter0>
        <Parameter1>7.0.250.17</Parameter1>
        <Parameter2>51c4b1ff</Parameter2>
        <Parameter3>USER32.dll</Parameter3>
        <Parameter4>6.2.9200.16420</Parameter4>
        <Parameter5>505a9a92</Parameter5>
        <Parameter6>c0000005</Parameter6>
        <Parameter7>000000000003185a</Parameter7>
    </ProblemSignatures>

The windows error reporting dialog gives me 2 options:

• Debug -> negative exit code
• Close -> exit code 255

The application uses the latest jdk7u25. The application uses JavaFX 2 (so does working Scenebuilder application). There's no error logs or codes other than posted above!

The application will work if run as admin!

Any help appreciated.

• Windows 8 x64
• Runs on other computers without any problems.
• UAC is turned off
• Crash is reproducible. 2-3 Seconds after application gui shows up.

Answer 1

I would post this as a comment but I don't have enough rep. First of all can you tell us the version of windows you are running? 98/2000/XP/Vista/7/8?

Take your application to another computer (with the same OS) and see if it crashes too. If yes try another OS from a different family (linux/mac). If the problem is isolated to a particular family of OS then the problem might be dependent to a particular method call in your program. If its just your computer then it becomes much harder to debug. If this problem happens to all OS families then suspect a JVM bug.

If your using Windows Vista/7, try turning off UAC. Something about your user profile privileges might be blocking java from accessing a critical library (from the error dump User32.dll?). If this does solve you problems, once again experiment on yours and another computer with different UAC levels and check if the problem is isolated to a particular machine/UAC level.

Monitor both your system memory and your heap size during application startup, it may just be that your application actually filled out all the available RAM that the JVM didn't have memory to produce a hs_error_* file (this has happen to me before).

If all else fails, I recommend using a debugger to determine where the application fails. Maybe stick a System.exit(0); at different parts of your program to see if it executes to that part before crashing. Also determine if the crash is predictable (i.e fails at the same point vs randomly failing). A predictable crash suggests something in the code triggering the crash. If you are using JNI, temporarily disable them with dummy methods to see if the crash still happens.

Thats all I can really say... It can be a billion reasons, hope you find the one.