Debugger Hangs for now reason   

Greetings,

I've noticed a problem that I only experience with:

Visual Studio 2008 Developer Edition SP1
Windows XP SP2

Various machines in various locations with no relation or similarity between 
them other than OS and VS version.



On occasion, when I begin a debug session (of any project type) in VS, the 
IDE freezes for an indefinite persiod of time.  My patience wears thin after 
5 minutes so I don't know if it would unfreeze.  My fix to that was to 
disable microsoft symbol server (even though network bandwidth was not being 
consumed so I assume it wasn't actually downloading anything).

Now I get a different problem: on occasion when running a MS Unit Test 
project in debug mode, nothing happens but I cannot start another unit test 
without a message "Test cannot start more than one local run" and I cannot 
debug any other project because the debugger is in use.  The solution is to 
kill the VS IDE instance and start over again.  40% of the time I'll repeat 
the process.  When Symnbol server is active, I get the problem 100% of the 
time.

I use VS daily and have never encountered this problem until upgrading to 
SP1 (VS 2008) and then all of the sudden, all machines with the upgrade 
experience this probem.  Those workstations I use at work, various laptops, 
and my own home personal machines (and VM's) all with the SP1 applied.

I cannot easily find google answers.  I was wondering if anyone here 
encountered that and knows what I can do about it.

I thought it could be a VS Add-In, but it happens on machines that have only 
stock VS 2008 + SP1 applied.  Office 2003 or 2007 depending on the machine.

Thanks,
Shawn

date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:10:09 -0700   author:   Shawn B.