Maya crashes on exit with update KB4040973 in Windows 7

[Anonymous]

A recent update (KB4040973) to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 causes Maya to crash on exit when a plugin using managed code is loaded.

KB4041083, which includes KB4040973 is an update for the .NET framework to fix some security issues.

The strange thing is that Maya only crashes when launched from:
• Batch file
• Command line
• Taskbar shortcut
• Any other launcher tool

To repro,
1. Copy "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\maya2014\devkit\dotnet\examples" to a local workspace
2. Build "examples\examples.sln" to create "examples\assemblies\examples.nll.dll"
3. Launch Maya from command line
4. Load examples.nll.dll
5. Close Maya, and it crashes

A dump file shows the main thread hanging in Autodesk’s C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2014\bin\ExtensionLayer.dll. Even after attempting to load Autodesk’s symbol-server (via https://area.autodesk.com/blogs/the-3ds-max-blog/debug_symbol_server_for_3ds_max_2012/), I’m not able to debug with symbols.

Crash confirmed with Maya 2014 SP2 and Maya 2016 SP6.

[cheng_xi_li]

Hi,

It's a known issue. Our engineers are investigating it. It appears this issue affects all Maya version prior to Maya 2018. 

Yours,

Li

[deadperson]

For us, it's occurring on Windows 10 Enterprise as well, in Maya 2016 x64 SP6, although it's a hang on close, rather than crash.

Other details

Hangs when:

- Launching from cmd

- Launching from PowerShell using managed code

- Launching from .bat file without -prompt flag

- Note: Using Mel 'quit' command doesn't force close in any of the above conditions (still hangs)

Doesn't hang when:

- Launching from Taskbar/Start Menu shortcut

- Launching from PowerShell command prompt (attached maya.bat and maya.ps1 that I used - extension modified to allow for attaching to post)

- Launching from desktop shortcut

- Launching from desktop shortcut with -prompt flag and using 'quit' Mel command

- Launching from .bat file with -prompt flag using 'quit' Mel command

[deadperson]

I forgot to include another test case.

Maya hangs on close when:

- using Python subprocess to invoke Maya.exe

import subprocess
subprocess.Popen(r'c:\program files\autodesk\maya2016\bin\maya.exe')

[cheng_xi_li]

Hi,

Thanks for the info, I'll pass it to engineers. We haven't found this issue on Maya 2018 yet.

It looks like Maya output windows causing this issue. Disable it with MAYA_NO_CONSOLE_WINDOW=1 could solve this issue.

Yours,

Li

[Anonymous]

MAYA_NO_CONSOLE_WINDOW=1 solved the issue for Maya 2016, but Maya 2014 still hangs on exit. hideConsole option has no effect, too. Do you have any other workaround?

[deadperson]

Unfortunately, we can't use MAYA_NO_CONSOLE_WINDOW=1 because we use the console for logging.

[cheng_xi_li]

Hi,

Maya 2014 doesn't support this flag, so I am afraid there is no other workarounds. 

Yours,

Li