Q: Windows Vista problem reports after latest Itunes 11.2 update

I am just another Vista 64 bit user having this problem.  I have the latest iTunes - 11.4.0.18.

I've had this problem for many months and just put up with it since it only happens when the app is closing.  Today I figured I'd google it and I ended up at this thread.  It's pretty amazing this has been happening since May and Apple has done nothing at all about it.  A write to a memory location outside of one own's data space is an easy bug to fix, if one can reproduce the symptoms.  My guess is they've not been able to reproduce it or they don't test iTunes on Vista, or maybe they just turn off DEP during their testing.

I read through this whole thread and after not seeing any definitive solution, I tried to disable all three of the "active shields" in Avast.  I started iTunes and closed it and still had the DEP warning a few seconds after the window closed.  There are some posts here that mentioned anti-virus programs were potentially involved.

Welcome Illuminated23, I think we all agree that the best solution would be for Apple to rewrite the portion(s) of the program(s) that trigger Data Execution Prevention on PCs running Vista. The system requirements of recent iTunes versions still list Vista as a supported OS, but obviously they have not been thoroughly tested on Vista. Mac developers are already Beta testing iTunes 12, but still no word on when a Windows version might be released. Of course now that Microsoft has ended support for XP, there can be no doubt that much-maligned Vista will be next on the chopping block, so it might be unreasonable to expect Apple to devote much attention to Vista issues. On some forums I follow, Windows 7 is called "old school" and people are experimenting with Windows 10 Preview. (What happened to Windows 9?) Sooner or later we will have to replace Vista, and perhaps even buy new PCs, and for some iTunes devotees "sooner" might be the best answer to this DEP issue. As for myself, I have resolved not to buy a new OS at this time just to better support the latest versions of one free application that isn't really central to my lifestyle.

If you were running 32-bit Vista, then I would recommend downgrading to iTunes 11.1.5. However NonnoAl posted at the top of page 4, "I had the same problem on my 64 bit Vista system when I was on iTunes 11.1." Does that agree with your recollections, Illuminated23? Some users who despise iTunes 11 for whatever reason have downgraded to 10.7, however that version is two years old and thus lacks a number of more recent security patches. Anyway, if you or anyone else reading this wants to downgrade, certain older versions can be found at Apple - Support - Downloads but oldapps.com has a wider selection. The only complication is restoring your iTunes library to its present state, so perhaps this link should be posted once more (this thread is getting rather lengthy after all): Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash .

I downgraded nearly two months ago, but this pesky issue continues to occupy my thoughts. I think I'm about to update to 11.4 because I have a few more ideas that I'd like to experiment with, however they might not interest users who think restoring their iTunes library sounds terribly complicated.

I successfully updated directly from 11.1.5 to 11.4 via Help > Check for Updates, which put me right back in DEP ****. I wanted to try disabling AutoRun for my CD/DVD drive after reading another thread, Re: Itunes with Vista, Data Execution Protection settings closes Itunes. Unfortunately it appears to have been a wild goose chase, at least in my case. I need to try a clean reinstall with AutoRun disabled beforehand, but at the moment I'm tired and discouraged. As I suggested a few pages back, it might be possible to exempt iTunes from DEP by installing Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, but that might not be such a good idea if buffer overruns are occurring. We really need Apple to fix this!

Thanks for mentioning that you use Avast, Illuminated23. That's the fifth brand of antivirus that various posters in this thread are using. A few weeks ago I removed every trace of AVG 2014 and did a clean install of 2015, but now that I've updated to 11.4 it obviously made no difference at all. This is not an antivirus issue, it's an iTunes issue.

I've been following this thread for a while since I have the same problem. It's been hinted at but I don't remember anyone actually spelling it out: The problem is when iTunes closes and after the program is no longer visible on the screen or in the task bar, which is when iTunes updates it's library. I'm guessing that it is the library being updated that is causing this error.

Yes you have spelled out the problem correctly. My library hasn't changed recently, so it's pathetic if iTunes crashes when updating it.

One side effect hasn't been mentioned: iTunes users running Vista who haven't downgraded may have accumulated an astonishing number of Windows Error Reports. They can be accessed via Control Panel > Problem Reports and Solutions (under System and Maintenance if not using Classic View).

Here are the details of a typical report:

Problem Event Name: BEX

Application Name: iTunes.exe

Application Version: 11.4.0.18

Application Timestamp: 54045c47

Fault Module Name: StackHash_b65e

Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0

Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000

Exception Offset: 91400000

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Data: 00000008

OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: b65e

Additional Information 2: 67c72170bf388a007c5ca97c6c327cc3

Additional Information 3: d462

Additional Information 4: 6a1cd259e5537da56baa3a22a3110648

Extra information about the problem

Bucket ID: 113027290

Microsoft must be getting tired of all these reports. I think we should start sending them to Apple via Help > Feedback.

Forgot to mention that each user account has its own Windows Error Reports, so if there's more than one iTunes user on a Vista PC... Both CCleaner and SlimCleaner have boxes that can be checked under the "System" heading to clean Windows Error Reporting. (As an AVG user, I would warn you never to install their PC TuneUp program!)

BAD NEWS: Just did a clean install of iTunes 12.0.1 and still getting Data Execution Prevention notifications after closing iTunes.

I also started a new thread: iTunes 12 incompatible with Windows Vista Data Execution Prevention.

Biggestted wrote:

 

I just received notification of an iTunes 12.0.1.26 update, installed it and to my utter disappointment the pesky DEP issue is still there to torment us.

Hi Biggestted:

Just wanted to confirm that upgrading my iTunes to v. 12.0.1.26 on my 32-bit Vista machine did not solve the DEP problem.  I've only tested a few times since upgrading but I always see the DEP error pop-up in my system tray and iTunes always generates the associated BEX error in my Windows Event Viewer each time I close my iTunes GUI.

Version 12.0.1.26 includes several critical security updates - see APPLE-SA-2014-10-16-6 at https://support.apple.com/kb/HT6537 (not to mention a REALLY ugly new orange icon ), so I would still suggest that users upgrade even if it doesn't solve the DEP bug discussed in this thread.

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MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 33.0 * IE 9.0 * 32-bit  iTunes v. 12.0.1.26

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Reviewing the Incoming Links shown below, I see that turingtest2 asked toonz for any thoughts on this issue. Rather than taking that thread even further off topic, I thought I would respond to toonz's questions here:

toonz:

 

Is the DEP error happening on machines that don't have Quicktime installed? Does uninstalling Quicktime make the problem go away?

 

It's been a while since I looked at this, but I have a vague memory that these users also got the same error with the Quicktime Player application. The iTunes diagnostics will tell you if Core Media is supported on the machine for video playback.

 

Has there been an uptick in these in the iTunes 12 release?

 

 

Yes the DEP error is happening on machines that don't have Quicktime installed.

The iTunes diagnostics tell me that Core Media is supported, of course I can't speak for everyone who has this issue.

There probably won't be an uptick of Vista users at this time, but the DEP issue is still present in the iTunes 12 release.

QuickTime Player is not installed - last installed version was v. 7.7.1, uninstalled 29-Oct-2011 after release of iTunes 10.5.

iTunes diagnostic (Help | Run Diagnostics..) reports "Core Media is supported."

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MS Windows 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 33.0 * IE 9.0 * 32-bit  iTunes v. 12.0.1.26

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Is there anyone with this problem who does not have an Intel processor (like Imacri, mine is Intel), or who has a processor that does not support hardware-based DEP (which can be found out by visiting the DEP tab in advanced system settings). Intel and AMD have somewhat different implementations, and maybe recent versions of iTunes are optimized for AMD...

When I try safe mode then exit, there is no DEP message. When I then open in normal mode and exit, the DEP message returns. It doesn't seem to affect how I-Tunes runs, and it still syncs with my ipod, and updates my nike+ data. The only irritation is that Windows is claiming to have shut down I-Tunes, when I know I was the one that sent I-Tunes back to sleep.

I wonder what process runs at shutdown, but not in safe mode. (Or not if you've visited the store? Or was that another issue?). iT phoning home to see if your authorization is still valid?

tt2