Unable to debug the application in VS 2010 , error thrown: cannot open the pdb file

Question

Following is the error string :

Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\Automation.exe', Symbols loaded. 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ntdll.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\kernel32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\libxml2.dll', Binary was not built with debug information. 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\wsock32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ws2_32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\advapi32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\rpcrt4.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\secur32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\msvcrt.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ws2help.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\iconv.dll', Binary was not built with debug information. 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\zlib1.dll', Cannot find or open the PDB file 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\hasp_windows_37517.dll', Binary was not built with debug information. 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'D:\\Automation\\debug\\sntl_licgen_windows.dll', Binary was not built with debug information. 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\user32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\gdi32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\msvcr100.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). 'Automation.exe': Loaded 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\imm32.dll', Symbols loaded (source information stripped). First-chance exception at 0x007ff9ba in Automation.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000. First-chance exception at 0x007ff82f in Automation.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000. The program '[400] Automation.exe: Native' has exited with code 1 (0x1).

Earlier with the same configuration i was successfully able to debug the app.

Answer 1

The last lines of your log suggest your application is crashing on startup.

First-chance exception at 0x007ff9ba in Automation.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000. First-chance exception at 0x007ff82f in Automation.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000. The program '[400] Automation.exe: Native' has exited with code 1 (0x1).

Set a breakpoint on main and then step through your code to see where it crashes. Under VS you should actually see a dialog when the exception is thrown. There you can click Debug to stop execution and see the stack trace.