'Unable to start debugging' when running WindowsApp out of Visual Studio IDE

[Reinhard Lehner]

Hi there!

I spent the last week trying to fix this problem - I am always getting an
error when trying to run an application (WinForms or PPC) out of Visual
Studio IDE:

'Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging.'
'The debugger is not properly installed. Run setup to install or repair the
debugger.'

Building my solution or starting the exe works fine. But running it out of
IDE in Debug or Release mode causes this error.

I am using Visual Studio 2003 on Windows XP SP2 and .Net Framework 1.1 SP2
I think this has something to do with installing Office2003 or WinXP SP2 -
maybe this error occurs since then.

I tried to repair Visual Studio installation, I tried to uninstall and
reinstall it. No effect.

One hint I got from the community was that the problem has to do with
'mdm.exe'. So I tried to interchange it with the corresponding file on the
setup-disk. (coloader.dll csm.dll, msdbg2.dl, ... too). After registering
each of these I got no improvement. Same problem as before.

Any ideas?! Hope someone can help!

Greetings
Reinhard

 

[Guest]

Hi

I suspect after XP SP2 it might have corrupted some assemblies. Try taking
latest packs for framework from microsoft for 1.1.

Last option would be put VS disk again and choose "repair" option.

With Best Regards
Naveen K S

 

[Reinhard Lehner]

Hi Naveen!

I already tried this. I reinstalled the framework 1.1 Sp2 - no effect.
I tried VStudio repair option - no effect.
At last I removed VStudio completely und reinstalled it and .. guess what:
no effect.

Thank's
Reinhard

 

[Guest]

Hi Reinhard,

I was trying to find some more info for your problem and hit this excellent
blog...
http://blogs.msdn.com/mkpark/articles/86872.aspx

Withing this page find your problem for which solution is defined as
"You can’t start debugging because “mscordbi.dll†is not registered
properly. Please register it manually. "

Another info I found is here....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303067

Just try it and let me know...

HTH

With Best Regards
Naveen K S

 

[Reinhard Lehner]

Hi Naveen!

Thank's again! I tried this as described, but the problem stays the same.
I think I will have to setup my system completely new.

Thank You very much
Reinhard

 

[Guest]

Hi Richard,

That's fine..

I wouuld suggest once u r system is ready with all complet software
installation then only u proceed to install XP SP2....

May be issue is there only somewhere..

With Best Regards
Naveen K S

 

[Rui Guerra]

Reinhard

well, i saw your post i was exactly in the same situation,
after 2 days trying to solve it i can´t tell you everything i've tried
but try this :


change the dcom permissions (only added the «Interactive» account)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290398/EN-US/

reboot

go to directory: program files\common files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug

edit «mdm.exe.config» in the notepad
paste the contents of another similar file that you may have on another
machine


register mdm.exe in the console

mdm /regserver


reboot

if it works stop from here.

For me what happened was that



if it doesn't work, like me ( my «mdm.exe.config» just went blank) just
delete the config file

register mdm.exe in the console

mdm /regserver

reboot

Now it works fine for me.

Rui Guerra
Portugal