.NET application hanging operating system

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We have developed a .NET application that runs fine on most of our
Windows XP systems. There are two systems in particular that lock up
quite frequently, but only when running our application.

The computer is in an unusable state when the OS freezes. Some
symptoms include an unresponsive mouse cursor and unresponsive
keyboard lock LEDs. The only way out is the reset button.

I'd like to know why this is happening, but I don't know how to find
out why. How can I figure this one out? What tools should I be using
to diagnose the problem?
 
Hey, thanks for responding!

No, we are not using third party components. We are using entirely our
own code and the .NET framework 1.1.
 
If you are not using unsafe code (non-managed) I would suspect that the
problem is computer related - IOW not in your hands.
Maybe some hardware problem, OS problem or some other problem.

I would suggest you the following.
Try to recreate the problem.
If you find how to trigger the freeze you'll know better what to look for.
Anyway, no managed app should freeze the OS.
The only such possibility could be that you have some code in class
finalizers? Do you?
 
Try to recreate the problem.

This is difficult, but easy. There seems to be no specific thing we
can do in our app to make it happen. It's pretty much random, but only
when our app is loaded. Our app can just be sitting there and the
system will lock up. The machine will run for weeks otherwise.

Personally, I think it's a .NET thing and an Abit 8363-686A(KT7, KT7A,
KT7-RAID, KT7A-RAID) motherboard thing. The two machines that have
this problem have the same model motherboard. It's the component that
is different from the other working machines, but common to the ones
having problems. We have another machine with the same board that we
can try it on. I'd also like to try a much simpler .NET app and see if
it'll lock up the system too. Could also be a 4-in-1 driver thing as
well. We still have to do these tests.

Anyway, no managed app should freeze the OS.

I totally agree. Our app has no unsafe code. Completely managed.

The only such possibility could be that you have some code in class
finalizers? Do you?

We do have code in some finalizers, but if it's there all it does is
call:
this.Dispose();

But it's managed, and it works on all the other machines. Could
something like this really be the culprit?

Hey, thanks again for your assistance.
 
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