How to avoid a System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException?

Question

In my Microsoft Surface project, I always get a lot of the following exceptions:

'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\mscorlib\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\mscorlib.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.Utilities\10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.Utilities.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Windows.Forms\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Windows.Forms.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Drawing\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Drawing.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.Utilities.Sync\10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.Utilities.Sync.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Debugger.Runtime\10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Debugger.Runtime.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Users\Roflcoptr\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\MuReSe\MuReSe\bin\Debug\MuReSe.vshost.exe'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Core\3.5.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Core.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml.Linq\3.5.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.Linq.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Data.DataSetExtensions\3.5.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\System.Data\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\WindowsBase\3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\WindowsBase.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\PresentationCore\3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\PresentationCore.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\PresentationFramework\3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\PresentationFramework.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface.Presentation\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Generic\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Generic.dll'
The thread 'vshost.NotifyLoad' (0x1504) has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 'vshost.LoadReference' (0x131c) has exited with code 0 (0x0).
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Users\Roflcoptr\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\MuReSe\MuReSe\bin\Debug\MuReSe.exe', Symbols loaded.
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Configuration\2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Configuration.dll'
Step into: Stepping over method without symbols 'MuReSe.App.App'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface.Shell.ShellApi\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.Shell.ShellApi.dll'
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface.Common\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.Common.dll'
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Shell.ShellApi.dll
A first chance exception of type 'Microsoft.Surface.Common.ProcessCommunicationException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Shell.ShellApi.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Threading.WaitHandleCannotBeOpenedException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
'MuReSe.vshost.exe' (Managed (v2.0.50727)): Loaded 'C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Surface.Core\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll'
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll
A first chance exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException' occurred in Microsoft.Surface.Core.dll

The last Exception is thrown all the time until I stop the program. I already commented out all of my code, and I ran the application with nothing other than the already built in code, but the same happens.

How can I correct that? I only found this reference:

http://www.mobydisk.com/softdev/techinfo/dotnetexceptions.html

There it says:

The exception that is thrown when an unrecognized HRESULT is returned from a COM method call.

But I don't know what this means....

====EDIT====

I followed the suggestion in the answer below to debug the exception. This is the detailed report:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException occurred
  Message=Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))
  Source=Microsoft.Surface.Shell.ShellApi
  ErrorCode=-2147221164
  StackTrace:
       at Microsoft.Surface.Shell.NativeMethods.CoCreateInstance(Guid rclsid, Object pUnkOuter, CLSCTX dwClsContext, Guid riid)
  InnerException: 

And the debuger stopped at the constructor call:

 public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Add handlers for Application activation events
            AddActivationHandlers();

           // AssemblyParser parser = new AssemblyParser();
            //parser.parse();

           // DirSearch(@"C:\Users\Roflcoptr\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\TestClass.dll\");
        }

I stopped right at the start of the constructor:

public MainWindow()

Solution 1

Your code (or some code called by you) is making a call to a COM method which is returning an unknown value. If you can find that then you're half way there.

You could try breaking when the exception is thrown. Go to Debug > Exceptions... and use the Find... option to locate System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException. Tick the option to break when it's thrown and then debug your application.

Hopefully it will break somewhere meaningful and you'll be able to trace back and find the source of the error.

Solution 2

I came across System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException while opening a project solution. Sometimes user doesn't have enough priveleges to run some COM Methods. I ran Visual Studio as Administrator and the exception was gone.

Solution 3

I got this exception while coping a object(variable) Matrix Array into Excel sheet. The solution to this is, Matrix array Index(i,j) must start from (0,0) whereas Excel sheet should start with Matrix Array index (i,j) from (1,1) .

I hope you this concept.