Question

I’m using VS2010 Express with SP1 on XP Pro SP3. I have a web development site on a local drive that was running fine under IIS Express a few days ago. Now when I launch under IIS Express, IIS Express goes up to 50% CPU usage and doesn’t come down, eventually freezing the machine for at least several minutes (at which point I do a hard PC restart). The site works fine under the VS Development Server (Cassini). Under IIS Express the page call is

http://localhost:4306/mypage

The TraceError for one such event is here:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/UW13UGhTSWVwaFRvS3NUQw

I made two changes recently that might have affected things. 1) I made a copy of the site for operations testing and got it to run under IIS 5.1. Then I pointed IIS 5.1 at the development site, and got it to run; works fine. 2) I renamed the folder that the development site was in, and then could not figure out how to get VS2010 Express to recognize it on the start page; but I got past that.

I tried uninstalling IIS Express and reinstalling, no joy.

I tried looking at the IISExpress folder config files xml however I can’t find documentation to tell me what I might do with them.

I built a fresh new bare-bones site using V2010 Express in a different folder and got the result.

I need IIS Express because I’ve got extensive javascript and REALLY don’t want to go back to Cassini for JS debug.

Any suggestions on how to get IIS Express back up and running properly on my development site would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Update

It was pointed out that the above log file had a “attempt to attach an auto-named database” error, so I modified the web.config and I may have I eliminated that, but I can’t be sure because I can’t get another TraceLog with the “hang”; the system apparently hangs before generating the TraceLog.

Then I ran some more tests, below, in which I changed site start page. This initially generated a “cannot display page” error instead of the hang, so I thought the error might be more page specific. But then it generated the hang error on both of the target pages, so that the “cannot display page” versus the hang is not consistent.

Changed a connection string in web.config => it had two for the CTLS.mdb, a) one with a folder path, b) another with [DataDirectory]; removed b)
Ran under VS Development Server => Worked
Closed VS2010 Express
Restarted VS2010 Express
Ran Debug for site under IIS Express => instead of hang, gave “IE cannot display page”
Repeated Debug for site under IIS Express => again, “cannot display page”
In VS2010 Express, changed the start page to “SiteEntrance.aspx”, repeated Debug under IIS Express => IIS Express hangs
Rebooted PC
Restarted VS2010, changed start page to “zTestLaunch.aspx”, run Debug under IIS Express => “IE cannot display page”
In VS2010 Express, changed the start page to “SiteEntrance.aspx”, repeated Debug under IIS Express => “IE cannot display page”
Stopped debug, restarted debug => cannot display page
Stopped debug, restarted debug => cannot display page
Closed VS2010 Express, noted it’s pointing to IIS Express, restarted debug => cannot display page (page = SiteEntrance.aspx)
Restarted VS2010, changed start page to “zTestLaunch.aspx”, run Debug under IIS Express => IIS Express hangs

here’s the TraceLog from one of the “cannot display page” events

https://www.yousendit.com/download/UW16aXRJNHY4Q1RvS3NUQw

Update:

Well, this problem is apparently so peculiar that nobody has heard of it in four forums and one paid service. Next stop $259 at Microsoft support. EXCEPT – dumb me, I discovered don’t NEED IIS Express to debug javascript in VS Studio Express( (which I thought I did – some misperception probably confused IIS Express with IE, which you do need) so, that being my driver, I don’t need to work on this any further.

Finito! Thanks to anyone who read this far.

Answer 1

This problem is apparently so peculiar that nobody has heard of it in four forums and one paid service. Next stop $259 at Microsoft support. EXCEPT – dumb me, I discovered don’t NEED IIS Express to debug javascript in VS Studio Express( (which I thought I did – some misperception probably confused IIS Express with IE, which you do need) so, that being my driver, I don’t need to work on this any further.