Solved <program> has stopped working

rowanbradley

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When I run a particular program on my Windows 8.1 X64 PC, I get a pup-up saying "<program name> has stopped working ... Windows will close the program..." (not the world's most helpful error message).

Can someone tell me exactly what this message means? Does it mean that the application has run out of memory, or that it is stuck in an infinite loop, or that it has called an unhandled exception , or what? How does Windows detect this error?

Knowing this will help me find out what is causing the problem.

I'm afraid I don't know what language the application was written in. It is a command line application.

Thanks - Rowan
 

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There's many notifications in windows that give cryptic or general descriptions. Try running it "As administrator", in compatibility mode or reinstall.
 

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I don't think it's to do with any of those things. I think it's probably to do with the data I'm giving it, which is causing some problem in the code, like running out of memory, or causing an infinite loop. The program processes other input files fine.

Surely someone must know what this message means, which bit of Windows is creating it, under exactly what conditions it occurs etc.? Knowing this would help me diagnose what the root problem really is, and potentially fix the application (which is open source) or add more error checking to help future users.

Thanks - Rowan
 

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Check "Event Viewer" (eventvwr.msc), it may give you more data.
 

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it would be WAY MORE HELPFUL if we knew what the program is, was or should be..

What program? is causing the issue..

Since it is a command line program - then most likely it is your syntax usage..
 

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The program is GEMA, written by David Gray.

When you say "it's your syntax", my syntax where? The input files are just text. Surely whatever text I give to the program, it should not crash. It should do whatever it is designed to do, hopefully give me a helpful error message, but if not that, it should not crash. I recognize that the program may have bugs in it. If so, I would like to try to find them, but I need to know what sort of thing I am looking for, i.e. what can cause this message (which was what I asked at the beginning). Whatever the bug is, it is clearly not a syntax error, otherwise it could never have been built.

Thanks for your help.

Rowan
 

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Seems that GEMA is some obscure program not many know about. As I said before, the error message you get is very vague and may mean many things and causes in windows. There's a lot of them like that, like "not enough free memory" even when you have a lots of it but may also show when wrong place in the memory is addressed and few other things.
 

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>GEMA is some obscure program not many know about

That's why I didn't bother to say what the program was at the beginning.

Someone must know what this specific message means. After all, there must be a piece of source code saying "print ("<program> has stopped working")" somewhere within Windows. Is there a way to find out when this message is produced?

Thanks - Rowan
 

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    IE11
>GEMA is some obscure program not many know about

That's why I didn't bother to say what the program was at the beginning.

Someone must know what this specific message means. After all, there must be a piece of source code saying "print ("<program> has stopped working")" somewhere within Windows. Is there a way to find out when this message is produced?

Thanks - Rowan
Well the problem is that it's not specific error message pointing to specific problem, more like pretty general thingie. Did you try "Event Viewer" and see if there's some more about it.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
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    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
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Is GEMA a German-based program? I googled and most of the links on 1st page points to something from Germany.
 

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    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
Gema

Code:
[Process]
Echo,"Processing %ScriptTitle% for %ProjectName%..."
If,ExistFile,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\regedit.exe,Set,%RegeditexeFolder%,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\
If,Not,ExistFile,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\regedit.exe,If,Not,%SysType%,Equal,x86,Echo,"regedit.exe MAY write wrong values",WARN
If,ExistFile,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\reg.exe,Set,%RegexeFolder%,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\
If,Not,ExistFile,%ProjectTemp%\HostOSTools\reg.exe,If,Not,%SysType%,Equal,x86,Echo,"reg.exe MAY write wrong values",WARN
IniRead,%ProjectDir%\script.project,IniVariables,NoWarnRegOverWrite,%NoWarnROW%
//--
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,DirDelete,%ProjectTemp%\Config
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Shellexecute,Hide,cmd.exe,"/C rd /s /q #$q%ProjectTemp%\Config#$q"
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Echo,"ProjectTemp\Config Folder can not be deleted",Warn
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Message,"ProjectTemp\Config Folder can not be deleted",Error
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Halt,"ProjectTemp\Config Folder can not be deleted"
DirMake,%ProjectTemp%\Config
Unpack,,Archive,Tools,EnablePE81%OSArch%.7z,%ProjectTemp%\Config
//--
ShellExecute,Hide,"%Tools%\%OSArch%\SetAcl.exe"," -ot #$qfile#$q -on #$q%TargetDir%#$q -actn ace -actn setprot -op #$qdacl:p_nc#$q  -ace #$qn:S-1-1-0;p:full;s:y#$q -silent"
//--
Unpack,,Archive,Tools,Tools_%SourceArch%.7z,%target_sys%
// AU331*
If,ExistFile,%Tools%\%SourceArch%\AU331*.exe,If,Not,ExistFile,%target_sys%\AU331*.exe,FileCopy,%Tools%\%SourceArch%\AU331*.exe,%target_sys%
// devcon
If,ExistFile,%Tools%\%SourceArch%\devcon.exe,If,Not,ExistFile,%target_sys%\devcon.exe,FileCopy,%Tools%\%SourceArch%\devcon.exe,%target_sys%\devcon.exe
//--
// With Win8.1SE Ram and administrator account, NTUSER.DAT is used as default hive.
// To continue working with Default %RegDefault% in project, Apps, reverse (change) hive files for %RegUser% and %RegDefault% (Already done)
//Set,%RegUser%,%TargetDir%\Windows\System32\config\Default,Permanent
//Set,%RegDefault%,%TargetDir%\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT,Permanent
//--
Run,%ScriptFile%,Software_Registry
Run,%ScriptFile%,System_Registry
If,%BuildType%,Equal,OS,Run,%ScriptFile%,Sam_RegistryOS
Run,%ScriptFile%,User_Registry
Run,%ScriptFile%,Default_Registry
Run,%ScriptFile%,Drivers_Registry
//--
// au3 a3x association
Run,%ScriptFile%,au3association
Run,%ScriptFile%,a3xassociation
//--
// RunOnceEx
Run,%ScriptFile%,RunOnceEx
//--
//Run,%scriptfile%,Keep_in_Mind_postconfig
//--
Run,%scriptfile%,Shortcut
Run,%scriptfile%,Numlock
Run,%scriptfile%,OemLogo
// TEST maybe not required
Run,%scriptfile%,Environment
// Remove Interactive User Allready done
//Run,%scriptfile%,Process_RemoveInteractiveUser
//--
DirDelete,%ProjectTemp%\Config
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Shellexecute,Hide,cmd.exe,"/C rd /s /q #$q%ProjectTemp%\Config#$q"
If,ExistDir,%ProjectTemp%\Config,Echo,"ProjectTemp\Config Folder can not be deleted",Warn

Yeah it could be any general syntax error..

A Better Title would be > GEMA Program has stopped working
 

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No, I think David Gray is American. You can see a bit more about Gema at General-purpose macro processor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, or see the main page on Sourceforge. Gema is extremely powerful for text processing, and can do some amazing things in a very small amount of code. I havre used it to create what is almost a new language for my specific domain, and to convert it into assembler code.
 

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>Yeah it could be any general syntax error..

I repeat my previous question; a syntax error where? It can't be a syntax error in the Gema source, or it would not have compiled. A syntax error in my input files is irrelevant. Gema should be able to process any input file. If it crashes with my input, that is down to a bug in Gema, it's not the fault of my input file.. What would be the use of a C compiler that crashed on every syntax error?

>A Better Title would be > GEMA Program has stopped working

You might think so, but I chose to call it what I called it, because I'm not looking for help from this forum on Gema (I would do that in a Gema forum, not a Windows one), but on Windows. I just want to know when Windows creates that error message, to help me find out why Gema is crashing with a stack overflow message. I just don't believe those of you who are saying this message is "unspecific", because error messages are only produced when someone writes in their code "if (condition) then print ("<program> has stopped working"). I'm just asking what this condition or these conditions are. Someone in the world must know the answer to this, even if it is only the guy in Redmond who wrote the code.

Rowan
 

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I just want to know when Windows creates that error message, to help me find out why Gema is crashing with a stack overflow message.

It is a PROGRAM Stack overflow that is causing WINDOWS to popup an Generic ERROR Message..

Windows does not know the cause of the program's error.. Windows is just telling you there was an error..
Reason being, it is not a windows program..

Does the PROGRAM create a .log file? If so check the program's log file for the cause of the stack overflow..

Another thing you may want to consider is that the PROGRAM was written using Code and Syntax Structure from 1995, the Lines of code used then may have changed since then..
 

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  • OS
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    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
>It is a PROGRAM Stack overflow that is causing WINDOWS to popup an Generic ERROR Message..

Yes, I understand that. When I started this thread, all that I knew was that I had an error message saying "<program> has stopped working". That is a totally unhelpful message, since I already know that (it has hung, or exited prematurely). I now know that it was due to a stack overflow, which is much more useful. I understand that tracing what is causing the stack overflow is something that I, or the guy who wrote the program, will have to do, using the source code (which I have) and a debugger.

I guess therefore that I can mark this issue as solved. I have learned what type of problem cause the program to stop working, and I have learned how to discover this from the Windows logs. Thanks to all for that.

Rowan
 

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