Why debug occasionally brings up disassembly rather than Windows files?

On fairly rare occasions, when attempting to debug one of my MFC applications on VS 2010, a compilation error is encountered, and instead of bringing up the customary Windows or MFC file with a arrow pointing to the problem, a disassembly appears with an arrow pointing to one of the assembler instructions. Since Windows assembly language is hardly my forte, I do not know how to interpret the error. Furthermore, the Output usually indicates one or more 'first chance exceptions' but little more, and the Stack output usually quite sparse and often refers cryptically to some ntdll.dll!7c92a82c().

How can I better define the compile error?

Would someone kindly explain to me what's going on here? Thanks.

It sounds like you don't have the debugging symbols for 'ntdll.dll' installed: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=VS.71%29.aspx

Viggy

Thanks MrViggy. I tried to follow the instructions as posted. A MicrosoftPublicSymbols directory now appears where I set it with numerous *.pdb files. Now the Call Stack is clearly different but the same disassembly comes up.
Call Stack repeats

Code:

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        ntdll.dll!_RtlDispatchException@8()  + 0x8 bytes       
        ntdll.dll!_KiUserExceptionDispatcher@8()  + 0xe bytes       
//..

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Still puzzled and wondering why I never heard of these debugging symbols in 10 + years of programming VS. This was supposed to be Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate but apparently it's only penultimate. : )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Pliam

On fairly rare occasions, when attempting to debug one of my MFC applications on VS 2010, a compilation error is encountered, and instead of bringing up the customary Windows or MFC file with a arrow pointing to the problem, a disassembly appears with an arrow pointing to one of the assembler instructions.

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When you get to attempting to debug, the error just cannot be a compilation error. Your code compiles fine as long as it is able to run.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Pliam

Still puzzled and wondering why I never heard of these debugging symbols in 10 + years of programming VS.

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Years of programming has nothing to do with stack of technologies you typically have in use during development lifecycle. Typical development relies on frameworks and runtimes of quality good enough to let you never have problems elsewhere but your own code. So you just confirm this rule.

And the fact that you experience this kind of problem indicates a) framework quality not good enough, or b) framework improper use, or c) basic platform/language programming rules being violated so bad (like buffer overruns, stack/heap corruption, wild pointers, uncaught exceptions, etc.) , that problem extends far beyond your own code bounds.

I used to get this problem quite often with VC++6 but I haven't seen it for many years now. Anything that's designed to shorten your build time is a possible candidate for suspicion. Try turning off precompiled headers / incremental linking and stuff like that. I don't know if it'll help but that's where I'd be inclined to start.