What is this error (process 16500) exited with code -1073740940. ?

Question

Hi,

When I build my small Visual Basic Console program I get this message on the console;

"
H:\My Program Projects MS VS 2019 Community\Swe_Version Function Testing\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\Swe_Version Function Testing.exe (process 16500) exited with code -1073740940."

What does this mean?

Please let me know how to rectify it.

Thanks
VKSBK

Answer 1

I suspect that even when you tried to use StringBuilder that you declared the function as returning a String. This is a problem. The char* pointer that the unmanaged function _swe_version@4 returns will not be properly marshaled to a managed string and this is a source of the heap corruption error.

This will fail -

    Public Declare Function swe_version Lib "swedll32.dll" Alias "_swe_version@4" (ByVal strVersion As StringBuilder) As String  

This will succeed -

    Public Declare Function swe_version Lib "swedll32.dll" Alias "_swe_version@4" (ByVal strVersion As StringBuilder) As IntPtr  

This will succeed -

    Public Declare Sub swe_version Lib "swedll32.dll" Alias "_swe_version@4" (ByVal strVersion As StringBuilder)  
  

Answer 2

The -1073740940 value corresponds to the status code C0000374. This code is STATUS_HEAP_CORRUPTION (A heap has been corrupted).

Answer 3

Run your VB app in the Visual Studio debugger. When your app crashes it should throw you into the code that is crashing. At that point you'll have the exception type, message and stack trace on how it got there. Post that information along with the relevant lines of code.

Answer 4

Dear cooldadtx & RLWA32-6355,

Thanks for the reply.

I am using "swedll32.dll" file from "Swiss Ephmeris" (From https://www.astro.com/ftp/swisseph/ -- Download "sweph.zip - 2020-09-01 10:39 -18M) for this.

The Functions I am using are given in the code.

Module Module1

    Sub Main()
        'To Call Ephemeris Path
        swe_set_ephe_path("C:\sweph\ephe")

        Dim Sweph_Version As String = Space(256)

        swe_version(Sweph_Version) ' This Function is NOT Working when .Net Framework is anything higher the 4.0.

        Console.WriteLine("Sweph Version : " & Sweph_Version)

        Console.ReadLine()

    End Sub


    Public Declare Sub swe_set_ephe_path Lib "swedll32.dll" _
        Alias "_swe_set_ephe_path@4" (
          ByVal path As String
        )


    Private Declare Function swe_version Lib "swedll32.dll" _
        Alias "_swe_version@4" (
          ByVal svers As String
        ) As String
    ' svers must be able to hold 256 bytes


End Module

Please note that when the ".Net Framework" is 4.0 this works fine & the console shows "Sweph Version : 2.09.01"; when ".Net Framework" is anything higher than 4.0 for eg 4.8, it does NOT work. When I click "Start without Debugging" the Console shows "Press any key to continue.."; when I click /"Start Debugging", empty console pops up & closes very quickly.

So, I don't get any "Information" from debugging to post here.... I hope I am doing it properly... please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks
Kind regards

VKSBK.

Answer 5

I did a quick test with .NET 4.7.2 and this works for me =>

<DllImport("Swedll32.dll", SetLastError:=True, EntryPoint:="_swe_version@4", CharSet:=CharSet.Ansi)>
Public Shared Sub swe_version(sbVersion As StringBuilder)
End Sub

Dim sbVersion As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder(128)
swe_version(sbVersion)