Disassembler Crashes After A Few Seconds

[SpikedCola]

Hi there,

I was directed to MHS by a friend, and it is much nicer than CE. Well done L Spiro!

Anyways, Im working on the game 'Plants vs. Zombies'. I can find the addresses for values like the number of sun on screen, the number of sun you have, etc.

I want to find the static pointer for the number of sun you have, but I have been unable to. If I right-click and go to 'find what accesses this address', I see the disassembler window, it fills up, then the program hangs for a few seconds, and then crashes. If I use CE to disassemble (which works), I can find the 'guessed' address, but when I search it (to find the first level pointer) I get hundreds of results - none of which are green.

Im running Win7 x86. I find the program runs best in XP mode (it renders slowly in normal Win7), but Ive tried in both modes with no luck. I read L Spiro say that 'kernel functions do not work in Win7' - Im not sure what that means, so would this be it?

Thanks!

[L. Spiro]

There are no known issues that can cause the Disassembler to crash under any circumstances.
Open the Disassembler before starting Auto-Hack.
If the Disassembler opens, start the Debugger before starting the Auto-Hack. Find out where the crash occurs.


L. Spiro

[SpikedCola]

Under pure Win7, it crashes just as I click Debug (no disassembly is shown in the Disassembly window unless I specifically dock the helper inside the main app), with the following crash info:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: mhs.exe
Application Version: 6.1.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4b19dc58
Fault Module Name: mhs.exe
Fault Module Version: 6.1.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4b19dc58
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00222995
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Under XP Mode, it crashes a couple seconds after clicking Debug (I see the green line marker show up), with the following crash info:

AppName: mhs.exe AppVer: 6.1.0.0 ModName: mhs.exe
ModVer: 6.1.0.0 Offset: 00222995

EDIT: If I open the main application EXE using "Open for Debug" (as opposed to attaching to the process) the disassembler stays running. However, any address I search always stays at a constant value (my sub-searches for any kind of difference return in 0). I have a feeling its because Im opening the main application exe, when the game is actually controlled by a second exe, which is created by the first exe after it is run. Example:

PlantsVsZombies.exe <-- initially the only game exe that exists, and is the one I have to "Open for Debug"
popcapgame1.exe <-- contains game, created and run by PlantsVsZombies.exe

EDIT 2: It seems that after playing around with "Open for Debug" I can now open the disassembler. Ive paused the game, loaded the right process, opened the debugger, and hit debug. The line selected goes green, the bottom window text says "Return to calling procedure (N/A)". However, when I right-click my address and try to find out what accesses it, it gets added to the helper, but I never get any hit addresses. I have tried with using custom functions enabled or disabled, it makes no difference.

[L. Spiro]

The Debugger has not changed in a long time and has no known bugs at all, but you can try an earlier version. You can link to them directly by modifying the link to the current version.
This is most likely caused by the second application, probably modifying the DebugPort or something.


L. Spiro

[SpikedCola]

Ive finally got the debugger to load but it just seems like its not doing anything. It worked correctly with CE though.

If you think I should try an older version, which would you recommend? And where do I download old versions from? Thanks

[L. Spiro]

The game probably has an anti-cheat and there is little you can do.
The Debugger is definitely stable, but the game is messing with it in some way.
I do not keep track of old versions and I recommend them all. As mentioned before, find them by manually modifying the download link to the current version.


L. Spiro

[SpikedCola]

As far as Im aware there is no anti-cheat built in. It is a very simple game. I will try the game on a computer running XP natively and see if it makes a difference.