When VS2005 won’t Break on Breakpoints

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On a fully updated Vista workstation running Visual Studio 2005 SP1 a breakpoint would be set anywhere in a simple asp.net web application, debugging would begin, and the breakpoint would be missed. It would not break on the breakpoint. During troubleshooting it became clear that Visual Studio was installed onto an external USB drive and the web application project was also saved to the external USB drive. The problem disappeared when we saved the web application to the local system partition--debugging on the same project saw the expected breakpoint breaking. The only difference was the location of the project. When we saved the project to a thumb drive (from a different vendor than the first usb drive) as a second test of a location on a USB driven drive the problem returned—the breakpoint began to be missed again.

Recommendations:

1. In the context of Vista the first caveat is to watch out for UAC related issues. Reference: https://blogs.msdn.com/mubashirk/archive/2009/02/12/not-able-to-debug-an-asp-net-application-in-visual-studio-2005-on-windows-vista-operating-system-having-ie7.aspx

2. Try debugging the project on an internal IDE or SCSI drive rather than an external USB-driven HDD

3. Try installing Visual Studio 2005 and SP1 to an internal drive rather than an external USB-drive HDD

4. Also consider moving the project locally if the project is saved on a remote share and accessed using SMB

So far this problem isn't something I can reproduce in my test environment so I'm not able to speculate much about root cause on this one. It does seem like this problem is extremely rare. Hopefully more details will emerge on this one.

 

Additional Search Words:

"WebDev.WebServer.EXE" Managed Loaded "Skipped loading symbols" "Module is optimized and the debugger option" enabled

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\mscorlib\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\mscorlib.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\WebDev.WebServer.EXE', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\WebDev.WebHost\8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\WebDev.WebHost.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Windows.Forms\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Windows.Forms.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Drawing\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Drawing.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.Web\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Configuration\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Configuration.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.Data\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.Transactions\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Transactions.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.EnterpriseServices\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.EnterpriseServices.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.RegularExpressions\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.RegularExpressions.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Design\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Design.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.JScript\8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.JScript.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\VJSharpCodeProvider\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\VJSharpCodeProvider.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\CppCodeProvider\8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\CppCodeProvider.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Users\tatchison\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\website1\605567ab\d84dc142\App_Code._u4goukp.dll', Symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Users\tatchison\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\website1\605567ab\d84dc142\App_global.asax.fmh52wto.dll', Symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.EnterpriseServices\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.EnterpriseServices.Wrapper.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Mobile\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.Mobile.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel\3.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.ServiceModel.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\SMDiagnostics\3.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\SMDiagnostics.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Services\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.Services.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Runtime.Serialization\3.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Runtime.Serialization.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.IdentityModel\3.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.IdentityModel.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel.Web\3.5.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.ServiceModel.Web.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.WorkflowServices\3.5.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.WorkflowServices.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Users\tatchison\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\website1\605567ab\d84dc142\App_Web_3e6yucwc.dll', Symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'A_70bac5d9_755a_4557_802d_853bcd696012', No symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'M_70bac5d9_755a_4557_802d_853bcd696012', No symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Users\tatchison\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\website1\605567ab\d84dc142\App_Web_lnzudcag.dll', Symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Users\tatchison\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\website1\605567ab\d84dc142\App_Theme_White.sbtkniwu.dll', Symbols loaded.

'WebDev.WebServer.EXE' (Managed): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualBasic\8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll', Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.

The program '[4984] WebDev.WebServer.EXE: Managed' has exited with code 0 (0x0).