"System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot perform this operation while dispatcher processing is suspended." crashes after Windows Update

Question

"System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot perform this operation while dispatcher processing is suspended." crashes after Windows Update

David Schmiech 10

Hello,

Our company developed a WPF application based on .NET 4.0 for a customer and it was released back in 2015. The application has been running without any problems. However, we are now receiving more and more crash reports where the application crashes with the above exception on startup.

Here is the stack trace:

System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: The invocation of the constructor on type 'App.ViewModel.Shell.ShellViewModelLocator' that matches the specified binding constraints threw an exception.

PresentationFramework
System.Object Load(System.Xaml.XamlReader, System.Xaml.IXamlObjectWriterFactory, Boolean, System.Object, System.Xaml.XamlObjectWriterSettings, System.Uri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.Load(XamlReader xamlReader, IXamlObjectWriterFactory writerFactory, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlObjectWriterSettings settings, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.LoadBaml(XamlReader xamlReader, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlAccessLevel accessLevel, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream)
   at System.Windows.Application.LoadBamlStreamWithSyncInfo(Stream stream, ParserContext pc)
   at System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Uri resourceLocator, Boolean bSkipJournaledProperties)
   at System.Windows.Application.DoStartup()
   at System.Windows.Application.&lt;.ctor&gt;b__1_0(Object unused)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
Inner Exception:
System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot perform this operation while dispatcher processing is suspended.

WindowsBase
Void PushFrame(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherFrame)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(DispatcherFrame frame)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Wait(TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherOperation operation, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at App.ViewModel.Device.DeviceViewModel.ForceCommandInvalidation() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\Device\DeviceViewModel.vb:line 550
   at App.ViewModel.Device.DeviceViewModel.set_CanConnectInternal(Boolean value) in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\Device\DeviceViewModel.vb:line 88
   at App.ViewModel.Device.DeviceViewModel.RefreshCanConnectAndConnectCommand() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\Device\DeviceViewModel.vb:line 337
   at App.ViewModel.Device.DeviceViewModel..ctor(MultimeterDeviceBase device) in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\Device\DeviceViewModel.vb:line 199
   at App.ViewModel.InstanceInitializer.AddRunTimeDevice() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\InstanceInitializer.vb:line 71
   at App.ViewModel.InstanceInitializer.InitInstances() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\InstanceInitializer.vb:line 35
   at App.ViewModel.GenericViewModelLocator`1.CreateMissingInstance() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\GenericViewModelLocator.vb:line 27
   at App.ViewModel.GenericViewModelLocator`1..ctor() in C:\Users\...\App\ViewModel\GenericViewModelLocator.vb:line 16
   at App.ViewModel.Shell.ShellViewModelLocator..ctor()

Over the years, we have continued to develop the software and release newer versions. Also, in one of the last versions we raised the .NET Framework. These new versions do not have this problem and run without any problems.

After some trial and error, I was able to pinpoint the cause to a specific Windows 10/11 update:

When I uninstall this update, the old version of our application works fine again.

The dilemma we have now, however, is this:

The customers who have this old version cannot upgrade to a newer version because each version is hard-coupled to a specific gauge. Theoretically, each customer would have to send the gauge back to our hardware manufacturer to have new firmware flashed onto it to make it work with our new version, but this is not so easy given the number of gauges already in the field.

Here are my questions:

Has anyone else seen this behavior?
Is there a workaround to get the software working again without tweaking it or permanently suppressing Windows Update itself?

I am very grateful for any answers.

Many greetings

Dave Sch.

Viorel 126.8K Reputation points

2023-02-16T14:32:36.9566667+00:00

Show some details about DeviceViewModel.ForceCommandInvalidation. Maybe you should try BeginInvoke instead of Invoke.
David Schmiech 10 Reputation points

2023-02-17T15:58:22.5866667+00:00

Thanks for your comment @Viorel

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, it is not our problem not to fix our software. The latest version runs fine on Windows 10/11, but the problem is that the old versions that our customers have been using for years suddenly stopped working after a Windows update. I would like to emphasize again that we cannot update these old versions. So I am trying to understand why our software suddenly stopped working....
Hui Liu-MSFT 48,711 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-02-22T09:08:03.6+00:00

Hi,@David Schmiech . As Viorel said, I think the updated version may have some influence on the use of code. Could you try BeginInvoke instead of Invoke after the updated version to see if it can work normally?
Tom Pascouche 10 Reputation points

2023-07-26T14:23:00.54+00:00

@David Schmiech see my answer below.

3 answers

Your answer

Viorel 126.8K Reputation points

2023-02-16T14:32:36.9566667+00:00

Show some details about DeviceViewModel.ForceCommandInvalidation. Maybe you should try BeginInvoke instead of Invoke.
David Schmiech 10 Reputation points

2023-02-17T15:58:22.5866667+00:00

Thanks for your comment @Viorel

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, it is not our problem not to fix our software. The latest version runs fine on Windows 10/11, but the problem is that the old versions that our customers have been using for years suddenly stopped working after a Windows update. I would like to emphasize again that we cannot update these old versions. So I am trying to understand why our software suddenly stopped working....
Hui Liu-MSFT 48,711 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-02-22T09:08:03.6+00:00

Hi,@David Schmiech . As Viorel said, I think the updated version may have some influence on the use of code. Could you try BeginInvoke instead of Invoke after the updated version to see if it can work normally?
Tom Pascouche 10 Reputation points

2023-07-26T14:23:00.54+00:00

@David Schmiech see my answer below.

Answer 1

Tom Pascouche 10

We have this exact issue. We traced into the .NET runtime and eventually guessed that it had to do with Printing based on the call stack. We noticed the user had a bad printer driver. When we changed the default printer to Microsoft PDF (for example) the crash went away. Sounds like a Microsoft bug me to me. At least there may be a workaround. We haven't tried this on any other systems since we just discovered this 10 minutes ago :).

Simon Weaver 0 Reputation points

2023-07-24T19:55:15.6066667+00:00

@Tom Thanks for the report.

Fortunately I haven't seen any issues since switching to 'Prefer 32 bit'.

Our application does print (picking tickets for orders in a warehouse) but not at startup. I'd try this and let you know but I'm 100 miles away.

You literally had to trace INTO the runtime? I'm not even sure how you do that.
Tom Pascouche 10 Reputation points

2023-07-25T12:31:20.8866667+00:00

Our application doesn't print at startup either, but we do configure some printer settings via the PrintQueue.GetPrintCapabilites() method, which is the main entry point for the exception in our case.
Simon Weaver 0 Reputation points

2023-07-25T19:37:39.6366667+00:00
@Tom Pascouche Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. Looks like I do this at startup which probably triggered the bug. It's an obvious dependency that might change with updates, but I never even thought to comment this out.

LocalPrintServer printServer = new LocalPrintServer(); PrintQueue defaultPrintQueue = printServer.DefaultPrintQueue; PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters

Answer 2

@David Schmiech Did you ever make any headway on understanding the issue?

I've had the same issue this week (multiple machines started to give this error but I could not duplicate it myself). Fortunately there were no guages involved with what we do.

Today I managed to connect to an old 4GB machine in our warehouse, install Visual Studio and keep trying things until I could make the error stop.

Eventually I came across the 'Prefer 32 bit' option under Release configuration. This was already enabled for Debug configuration. (This is old software so I have no clue what would be the default if creating a new application.)

Amazingly this fixed it and in turn made the software a lot faster.

I still have no idea what is actually happening, but it possibly might be a clue of some sort. I use some third party WPF controls and Microsoft Mshtml but it's been running for many years without issues and only minor updates.

Of course your situation is unique and hopefully resolved by now!

My Stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76494211/wpf-dispatcher-processing-suspended-error-without-useful-stack-trace/76494212#76494212

Answer 3

Limitless Technology 45,226

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query

When this error occurs after a Windows Update, it is likely due to the fact that the update has changed or removed some of the Windows files necessary for the application to run properly. To resolve this issue, you can try restoring the affected files from the Windows backup folder. You can also try running a System File Checker scan and repairing the affected files. Additionally, you may need to reinstall the application or the Windows Update to get things back to normal.

If the reply was helpful, please don’t forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you.

David Schmiech 10 Reputation points

2023-02-17T15:53:58.93+00:00
Thanks for the answer.

I have tried the following steps:

I installed all currently pending Windows Updates

I checked the system files via System File Checker (like described in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e)
However, he could not detect any problems (see image)

After that I uninstalled and reinstalled the application again

Unfortunately, this did not change the problem. I also tried different compatibility settings...

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"System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot perform this operation while dispatcher processing is suspended." crashes after Windows Update

3 answers

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