Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

PDF-XChange Viewer SDK for Developer's
(ActiveX and Simple DLL Versions)

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Rene
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Posts: 39
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Rene »

Hi Support Team

At the moment we have big Crashes in our primary application.

Background information:
We currently use the Active X component (COM object) called PDF X change Viewer SDK. We use this component to read and annotate documents in our Digital environment. The Digital environment is a Sharepoint 2013 environment in which the Active X component is built into a separate webpage. This webpage is hosted within the SharePoint platform. SharePoint opens this webpage when you click on a document link in SharePoint. Based on the "SharePoint document Id", the full http location of the file is given to the Active X object, then it opens the file so that the user can work with it.

This is done with the code below

Code: Select all

 public void InitPdfViewer(string datfile)
        {
            axCoPDFXCview.SetDevInfo("XXXSECRETXXX", "XXXSECRETXXX");

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(datfile))
            {
                axCoPDFXCview.LoadSettings(datfile);
            }
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("View.Bars[\"Menu\"].Visible", "false");
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("View.Bars[\"Properties\"].Visible", "false");
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("View.Bars[\"Zoom\"].Visible", "false");
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("View.Bars[\"CommentAndMarkup\"].Visible", "false");

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Commands[\"Save\"].State", "Offline", 0);

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("PageDisplay.DefaultZoom", "FitWidth", 0);

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("General.AllowAllAccelerators", 1, 0);

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Tools.Active", "Select", 0);

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("General.DenyAllContextMenus", 1, 0);

            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("View.LockAllBars", 1, 0);
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Commands[\"LockAllCmdBars\"].State", "Offline", 0);

            // Summarize in Comments menu
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Commands[\"SummarizeAnnots\"].State", "Offline", 0);
            // AddReply main menu
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Commands[\"AddReply\"].State", "Offline", 0);
            // AddReply in Comments menu
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Commands[#33245].State", "Offline", 0);
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Search.AllowOpenExternalDoc", "false");
            axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Search.AllowSearchInFolders", "false");

        }
 
Followed by the code below

Code: Select all

   public void OpenDocumentOnPage(string pdfPath, int Pagenumber)
        {
            try
            {
                int docId;
                int nFlags = 0;
                nFlags = (int)PDFXCviewAxLib.PXCVA_Flags.PXCVA_NoUI;
                axCoPDFXCview.OpenDocument(FileHelper.GetWebdavUrlFromHttpUrl(pdfPath), string.Empty, out docId, nFlags);
                axCoPDFXCview.GetActiveDocument(out docId);
                axCoPDFXCview.SetDocumentProperty(docId, "Pages.Current", Pagenumber- 1);

                axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Search.AllowOpenExternalDoc", "false");
                axCoPDFXCview.SetProperty("Search.AllowSearchInFolders", "false");

            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("PDF Viewer: " + e.Message);
            }
        }
 
The Active X object is set up in the same way as here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3I0oteI13s is demonstrated with the successor of the PDF x Change Viewer. At the moment we cannot easily proceed to the new version (PDF x Change editor) Because we have added the necessary customization on top of the existing Active X object and the new version has a different structure in terms of objects.

The Active X object is installed on the client pc’s according to supplier's description of procedure:

Code: Select all

remove old installation

PDFXCview.exe / UnregServer
C: \ Windows \ SysWOW64 \ regsvr32.exe PDFXCviewAx.dll / u
C: \ Windows \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \ v4.0.30319 \ RegAsm.exe / u PdfAnnotator.dll
 
Installation new viewer

PDFXCview.exe / RegServer
C: \ Windows \ SysWOW64 \ regsvr32.exe PDFXCviewAx.dll
C: \ Windows \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \ v4.0.30319 \ RegAsm.exe / codebase PdfAnnotator.dll
In addition, PdfAnnotator.dll contains our own piece of customization. The customization, however, concerns standard functionalities of the viewer, for example that it is determined which buttons and functionalities are available to the user and how annotations are imported and exported, etc.

Issue:

Under Windows 7 the above solution works correctly (of course the Regasm and regsrv32 path's are pointed to the right location in the install script) and does not have the problems that we now experience under Windows 10. Since Active-X objects do not work on Windows 10 in the Edge browser, our Digital environment is forced to open in Internet Explorer version 11, due a policy. Users generally experience no problems in daily use, but without known reasons it goes wrong several times a day for different users. Internet Explorer then crashes and the PDF X Change process continues to run in the background and cannot be closed.

During a Crash in Internet Explorer:

- The webpage where the file should be loaded keeps busy with the turning circle.
- We tried to close the pdfxchange process via Taskmanager.
- the IE Tab shows a puzzle piece with pdf exchange logo to indicate that the plugin has crashed.
- According to Taskmanager the process is still present, trying again to close, no Access Denied error.
- Task manager icon disappears from taskbar, is now an empty block and can no longer be opened.
- Looked through resource explorer, process "disappeared" directly from list when selecting
- Resource explorer shows 4 Internet Explorer processes. User had a single IE window open, with two tabs.
- IE processes closed by Resource Explorer, after the first resource explorer crashed and the icon disappeared from taskbar, empty block.
- Entire user session is stuck.
- No response to ctrl + alt + del, ctrl + escape, ctrl + alt + end etc.
- Machine off and on again. After that the user can work again for some time.

Some observations form our side:
- When opening a PDF, multiple .tmp files are created in the <user> \ AppData \ Local \ Temp folder. This seems a lot for opening 1 PDF
- Extra tests with the same 2 PDFs each, one in black and white (130 KB) and one in color (6 MB) also result in large temp files totalling around 80 MB.
- If things get stuck, you won't see any temp files coming.
-There are no strange events in the Windows logs
- After a reboot exactly the same PDF opened in IE without any problem.
- Acrobat has no trouble with PDF file as first downloaded from sharepoint.
- Acrobat reports that PDF meets the PDF / A standard.

It is not only the user session that crashed:
- On a workstation we tested it with two active sessions, an admin idle, and a user session active / foreground. When IE crashes, user logged out (that still worked), logged in again as same user, desktop is displayed empty, start bar still visible, nothing can be clicked, with mouse-over start bar we get the 'wait wheel'
- The admin session was made active again, but it also got stuck. Exactly the same symptoms, it seems to work for a while, but within a few minutes the entire machine hangs with the only option of switching on and off.
- When the machine that crashed was taken over by RDP, the RDP session does NOT seem to be broken,
Existing processes seem to hold out for a long time when a crash occurs, it goes especially wrong when processes have to be stopped, or that new processes (especially explorer (file -> open, file -> save) are started.


The only solution that works in our Digital Environment is to restart the computer. The following assumptions apply in the event of a crash:
- The jam does not occur with the same document every time.
- User x can open the document without problems while user y is bothered by it.
-User y can open the "problem" document without problems after the restart.
- User z has never had problems opening documents.
- The jam occurs with both large and small documents.
- The crash can sometimes not occur for a few days and then 3 times in a row with user y.
- All users have the same PC
- In the taskmanager we do not see a spike on memory or CPU before the PC is freezing

Solutions implemented that did not have the desired result:
-We have been upgraded to the latest version of the viewer that was available (release 2018)
-Everything is now registered as 32-bit so that no 64-bit Active X object runs in a 32-bit internet explorer (hence the script above also refers to the 32-bit RegAsm and regsvr32).
- additional exclusion rules have been added in the Symantec EndPoint Protection Manager 2:
C: \ Program Files \ PdfAnnotator \ PDF-Xchange
C: \ Program Files (X86) \ PdfAnnotator \ PDF-Xchange

Possible solutions to be implemented:
- Converting the solution to a javascript solution (however, a Com object will still be used there) This only removes our customization piece from the solution, but still uses a PDF-Xchange viewer.

hopefully you can help us to solve this problem, or have you had this problem before and can offer us a possible solution for it.

I hope to hear from you soon. if needed a full solution and .dat file can be provided in private.

Regards,

René
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Posts: 17820
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Location: London
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Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Rene,

Thanks for your post and enquiry!
I have asked colleagues in the Dev team who used to work on the Viewer AX SDK to take a look and advise if there is any solution they can offer (other than upgrading to Editor SDK as soon as you can), and am awaiting their feedback. As soon as we have any further news - we will post them here in this topic.

Regards,
Stefan
Rene
User
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Rene »

Thanks Stefan.

in the meantime we will try other ways to load the document, maybe that will give us a solution.

Regards,

René
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Posts: 2352
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:11 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi, René.

Weird issue to be clear, and seems very irregular... :(
We tried to reproduce it on our side in many different ways, but couldn't. All works well on win10 for us.

So:
1. can you provide the simple working example (standalone app or webpage?) to try it on our side?
2. do you have any(hypothetical at least) scenario that causes the problem?
3. if user often closes/opens/reloads many tabs with documents - please try to use directly the CloseDocument(docId, PXCVA_NoUI | PXCVA_Sync) when webpage unloads.

Also, a bit later, my colleague will provide you a special powershell-script that will create automatically the process-dump for iexplorer.exe and PDFXCview.exe processes. It will be necessary to run it immediately after this:

"The webpage where the file should be loaded keeps busy with the turning circle."

Hope such process-dumps will help us to recognize the reason of the problem...

Cheers.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

Please archive any files posted to a ZIP, 7z or RAR file or they will be removed and not posted.
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Roman - Tracker Supp
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Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Roman - Tracker Supp »

Hi René,

Please unpack the attached ZIP into an empty directory.
When you see this freeze next time please run dump.cmd as Administrator. As a result of its execution you should get Dumps subdirectory. Please send us the content of this directory (zipped).
Attachments
dump.zip
(150.09 KiB) Downloaded 180 times
Rene
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Posts: 39
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Rene »

Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:27 am 1. can you provide the simple working example (standalone app or webpage?) to try it on our side?
yes i can provide you our solution (com implementation and webpage). Can I send it to an email address instead of posting it on the forum, there is some company related information inside our solution.
Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:27 am 2. do you have any(hypothetical at least) scenario that causes the problem?
that's the problem that we are now facing. Some users never have problems while others have the problem more often. At the moment we have a powershell script running on a test machine that starts the webpage with the active x object in sharepoint every 30 seconds and closes again some time later. One day there are no issues with it, but an other day it gets stuck. We are currently also looking into whether we can enable Microsoft to send dumps from the system to them. If we have more information on that part we will share it also with you if possible.
Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:27 am 3. if user often closes/opens/reloads many tabs with documents - please try to use directly the CloseDocument(docId, PXCVA_NoUI | PXCVA_Sync) when webpage unloads.
I will look into this if this part is implemented in our solution.
Roman - Tracker Supp wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:57 am Please unpack the attached ZIP into an empty directory.
When you see this freeze next time please run dump.cmd as Administrator. As a result of its execution you should get Dumps subdirectory. Please send us the content of this directory (zipped).
I will forward this to a colleague. When we have a dump I will come back to you. Can I send the dump to an email address instead of posting on the forum because of possible company related information?

Regards,

Rene
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Location: London
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Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Rene,

Yes - you can e-mail the dump to support@pdf-xchange.com (please also mention the forum topic so we can link the two), and we will forward it to Vasyl and Roman to look at. If the file is too large to go through e-mail - we have an FTP you can use as well:
How do I upload a file to the Tracker Software File service?

Regards,
Stefan
Rene
User
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Rene »

Tracker Supp-Stefan wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 12:12 pm Hello Rene,

Yes - you can e-mail the dump to support@pdf-xchange.com (please also mention the forum topic so we can link the two), and we will forward it to Vasyl and Roman to look at. If the file is too large to go through e-mail - we have an FTP you can use as well:
How do I upload a file to the Tracker Software File service?

Regards,
Stefan
Hi Stefan, i send you our solution file by mail, let me know if the file has arrived correctly. Up to now it has not been possible to make a dump file due to a jam on the test machines. When we have, i will send it
Rene
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Posts: 39
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Rene »

Hi Stefan,

an hour ago we had a jam on the test machine. However, the powershellscript we received did not work completely. We have now manually created a dump via the task manager, right-clicked on Iexplorer and PDFXCview and clicked on Create Dump File. We have adjusted a number of registery settings on the advice of microsoft so that we could simulate a blue screen of death, so that a memory dump was performed.

To the above e-mail address I have sent an e-mail with a link to our portal where I have shared our files with you. This seemed easier to me than uploading a few GB to your FTP. Please handle our data confidentially. If there are any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

René
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Posts: 17820
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
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Re: Freeze pdf X change viewer Windows 10

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Rene,

Thanks! We got both of your e-mails and I have forwarded them to Roman for further investigation, and certainly - all data will be handled with strict confidentiality and only used for testing the issue at hand, then all copies of your files destroyed.

Regards,
Stefan
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