FIX: MFC Application Hangs on Multiprocessor Machine

• The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), included with:
  • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

When you run some multithreaded MFC applications, the computer may hang if threads are created and terminated very quickly. This is most likely to happen when the application is run on high-performance multiprocessor computers (4+ processors at 200+ MHz). However, this problem could occur on any machine. This problem only occurs when you use the DLL version of MFC.

CAUSE

MFC maintains a global list of thread local storage (TLS). As threads are created and terminated, MFC adds or removes a node of TLS tracking information to this list. This list is not protected from simultaneous thread access and under the conditions described above, corruption of this list can occur.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been corrected in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 1.

For additional information about the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 1, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q170365 INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

Additional query words: Multithread hang multiprocessor

Keywords : kbprg kbMFC kbThread kbVC kbVC500bug kbVS97sp1fix
Version : Winnit: 5.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug