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Topic: «aimemb.dll keeps crashing Firefox , AWM's aimemb.dll is causing Firefox to crash » on forum: Technical Support   Views: 62288
 
Jim Fraley
Registered user
 
 Posts: 32
Joined: 08/14/2007
Posted: 05/23/2017 21:40:44
 
 
 I have had a problem with Firefox crashing frequently for several months. I finally found out how to track down the cause via the "about:crashes" page and the Firefox crash reports. Reviewing the reports indicates that "aimemb.dll@0x1c55" is causing "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION_WRITE" which results in the Firefox crash. I just upgraded to the latest release of AWM.

Name: aimemb.dll
Type: Application extension

Size: 861,136
Attributes:  
Modified: 3/28/2017 3:02:04 AM

Created: 8/3/2016 4:28:00 PM
Version: 8.10.2.0
Company: Actual Tools

Signed by: Actual Tools [Symantec Time Stamping Services Signer - G4]
Contents:  Shortcut to:  Dimensions:  Length:  Pages:  
Authors:  
Comment:  

The Firefox dump information can be found here: https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/40730738-93f5-478c-985b-f53381170523#tab-rawdump

This crash occurs whether Firefox is the active application or not.
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 05/25/2017 19:40:03
 
 
 Hello, Jim

How often does the problem happen (for example - two times a day or five times a week)?

Have you noticed that the problem is associated with some actions/events in the system, or it happens randomly?

What version of Firefox are you running now? Can you tell what version did you use when the problem started?

Do you have any visual theme enabled in Firefox?

What OS are you running (version, 32- or 64-bit)?
 
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Jim Fraley
Registered user
 
 Posts: 32
Joined: 08/14/2007
Posted: 05/25/2017 21:49:22
 
 
 Hi Bogdan, thank you for the quick reply.

I just had another crash. This problem has been rather elusive to pin down. I am using Firefox 53.0.3 (32-bit) on Windows 10 Pro, Version 1607, OS Build 14393.1198, 64-bit. FF, AWM, and Windows are fully upd ated to the latest version.

1. "How often does the problem happen (for example - two times a day or five times a week)?"
The problem occurs many times each day. For example, just before I started this post. Unfortunately, many of these crashes are not caught by the Firefox crash reporter. When the FF crash reporter catches the crash, the user is presented with a dialog box allowing them to submit additional comments with the crash data and has an option to close or restart Firefox. When this happens, a FF crash ID is created and the data is saved and can be viewed via the "about:crashes" page in FF. However, when the FF crash reporter does not catch the crash, the user is presented with the standard Windows dialog box indicating the application has crashed and Windows searches for a known solution. Then the user is given the option to close the application or debug it. Using the Debug option with Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition, the debugger breaks at the program exception that caused the crash, which is within aimemb.dll. What this means is that the Firefox crash reporter data (when captured), and the Windows crash data via Visual Studio, both indicate the same cause: aimemb.dll. If you can tell me what to do, I am more than happy to capture any information provided by Visual Studio.

2. "Have you noticed that the problem is associated with some actions/events in the system, or it happens randomly?"
Frustratingly, I have still not determined a reliable sequence of actions to produce this crash. It can occur while I am using Firefox, and while Firefox is idle while I use a different application. This makes me think there might be some sort of resource issue, since Firefox will crash even while it is minimized and not the active application. (Of course, I could be wrong.) I have noticed this crash occur more frequently, but not ever time, I do one of the following.
A. Attempt to access the filesystem to open or save a file. It can happen when I attempt to upload a file (e.g. photo), or save a downloaded file.
B. Restore a full-screen video back to normal size. That is, if I click on the icon (lower right corner of the video) to maximize a video to fullscreen view (e.g. YouTube) which maximizes the browser window, watch the video, then click the same icon to restore the normal view, Firefox will often crash. When Firefox is restarted, it restores the state of FF when the crash occurred, which is maximized to fullscreen. Is it possible that the process of Firefox changing fr om normal view to maximized is interfering with AWM?
C. Click on a link to login to a site which causes a popup window to appear.

Unfortunately, none of the above examples will cause the crash 100% of the time. They do, increase the likelihood, however.

3. "What version of Firefox are you running now? Can you tell what version did you use when the problem started?"
Currently, I have Firefox 53.0.3 (32-bit). The problem appeared several months ago, but I did not know how to located the cause. I just knew that Firefox crashed A LOT. I am sure the version of Firefox back then was in the 40s back then. Good or bad, the problem did not change in frequency relative to the specific version of Firefox. However, the problem might have begun when I had updated my version of AWM. My license for AWM had run out and I did not update it for many months. Once I determined that aimemb.dll was being identified as the cause for the crashes, I renewed my AWM license and updated to the current release version.

4. "Do you have any visual theme enabled in Firefox?"
No, I have attempted to make Firefox as normal as possible in order to eliminate potential causes for the issue. I have created a new FF profile and uninstalled and reinstalled FF, which did not reduce the crashes. I currently only have the following FF add-ons active.
DownThemAll!
Image Zoom
LastPass: Free Password Manager
New Tab Tools
Session Manager
Tab Counter
Tab Mix Plus
uBlock Origin
Xmarks

During testing, I had reduced the add-ons to LastPass, Session Manager, uBlock Origin, and Xmarks, but the crashes occurred just as often. This leads me to believe that add-ons are not the problem.

I do keep 5 tabs pinned in Firefox: 3 for Gmail, 1 for Facebook, 1 for Twitter
I am not sure what updates these sites might perform on a regular basis, which could require browser or system resources. Could this be part of the cause for the FF crashes while it is not the active application?

Also, the Session Manager add-on is se t to perform a session save ever 5 minutes. Could this regular save process cause a resource issue which leads to the FF crash while the app is idle?

Finally, I routinely have many tabs open at the same time, which is something I have done with Firefox for many, many years. Could this cause a resource issue when helps lead to the crashes?

5. "What OS are you running (version, 32- or 64-bit)?"
Windows 10 Pro, Version 1607, OS Build 14393.1198, 64-bit.


As a software developer, I know how frustrating it can be to find a problem like this, especially if it only seems to affect a small number of users. I am happy to provide any additional information if you can tell me how or where to obtain it. I do not have access to to aimemb.pdb, so I cannot provide debug symbol information, but hopefully I can provide useful information via Visual Studio with your guidance.

If you provide an e-mail address, I can send the data from the Event Viewer for the crash and the Windows Error Reporter (WER) data.


Thank you for your great products and great support.

Jim Fraley
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 06/02/2017 11:36:51
 
 
 Hello, Jim

Sorry for the delay.

Could you please do the following:
1. Download and run the EnableLocalMinidumps.reg file;
2. Reproduce the problem with the Firefox crash;
3. Send the CrashDumps folder from the %LOCALAPPDATA% directory to uninstall@actualtools.com.

Also, here is the link to the page where you can find the description of the User-Mode Dumps settings.

Could you also open the Task Manager > Details tab and see the value of the Memory parameter for the Firefox process approximately before the moment when Firefox crashes and let us know the value?

Best regards.
 
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Jim Fraley
Registered user
 
 Posts: 32
Joined: 08/14/2007
Posted: 06/07/2017 00:02:22
 
 
 Hi Bogdan,

Thanks for the reply. The Download link for the EnableLocalMinidumps.reg file seems to be invalid. It takes me to my own Dropbox. Have I misunderstood something?

I took a peek in the Registry and Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control­\CrashControl\CrashDumpEnabled is currently set to 2.


Thanks.
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 06/10/2017 06:31:13
 
 
 Jim,

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I've fixed the link. Could you try to download the file again.

Best regards.
 
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Jim Fraley
Registered user
 
 Posts: 32
Joined: 08/14/2007
Posted: 06/15/2017 17:29:46
 
 
 Bogdan,

I have successfully downloaded the file and used it to make the registry changes. As soon as the browser crashes, I will send the crash dump folder to the e-mail address you provided.


Thanks again for the help!

Jim
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 06/22/2017 19:21:14
 
 
 Jim,

We've received the crash dump files, thank you.

Could you also open the Task Manager > Details tab and see the value of the Memory parameter for the Firefox process approximately before the moment when Firefox crashes and let us know the value?

Best regards.
 
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Jim Fraley
Registered user
 
 Posts: 32
Joined: 08/14/2007
Posted: 06/26/2017 23:59:57
 
 
 Bogdan,

I have not used this PC for a few days, so when I booted it up and then opened Firefox, I received two crashes rather quickly. I just watched the Memory parameter reach 2,000,000 K to 2,200,000 K when the last crash occurred. I did notice that a couple of add-ons (LastPass 32-bit and LastPass 64-bit) had just updated according to the pop-up message from Norton security, which had verified the downloaded DLLs in the background. As far as I can tell, this does NOT occur for every crash. It was what I noticed for this one.

I guess the background updates for the add-ons have completed. As I write this, the Memory parameter for Firefox is staying around 1,500,000 K.


Thanks for the help,

Jim
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 07/03/2017 13:04:33
 
 
 Hello, Jim

Quote
As far as I can tell, this does NOT occur for every crash. It was what I noticed for this one.
Do you mean the Memory parameter value also reached 2,000,000 K to 2,200,000 K only that time? Have you noticed, what the parameter's value was other times Firefox crashed?

Quote
I did notice that a couple of add-ons (LastPass 32-bit and LastPass 64-bit) had just updated according to the pop-up message from Norton security
Could you try to temporarily disable the add-ons and see whether the problem still persists?

Do you have other add-ons in Firefox?

Best regards.
 
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