SAP GUI 7.6 for Windows is crashing when attempting to view PDFs with acrobat DC installed

[Brandon5FB9]

So this issue is similar to the issue: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/sap-gui-for-windows-crashing-in-adobe-acrobat-dc-2015-15-006-...

Except this crashing happens on SAP GUI 7.5 and 7.6 with the latest patches.  After multiple hours of testing, we have determined that with acrobat DC pro installed the crashes start happening, even if Reader is set as the default application.  Once acrobat DC pro is uninstalled, and we re-install reader the crashing stops.

This error started up approximately 2 weeks ago.  Our IT dept did not make any updates to the user laptops, however, the Adobe auto-update does run.  They are set up with Reader as default with DC as a pdf editor.  This has worked great for months, and now we are at a loss as to what do.

We have tested with multiple windows patch levels, SAP GUI versions, and patches, and the results are pretty consistent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks, everyone.

Brandon

[Test Screen Name]

What do SAP support say?

[Brandon5FB9]

That it isn't their problem.  They aren't finding anything in the SAP GUI trace logs so far.

[Test Screen Name]

You should probably try Adobe support then. If they both say it's not their problem, this may be awkward.

[Test Screen Name]

Meanwhile... we might have ideas, but you haven't told us yet what your symptoms are. What crashes? A SAP app, Reader or Pro? What messages?

[Brandon5FB9]

Ah good point.  The only error we are getting is in the event log, showing that saplogon.exe crashed by the ntdll.dll file in windows.  This happens specifically when using the SAP VIM 7.5 patch lvl 6 module when the buyers go in to view Invoices.  In most cases they can view one pdf invoice without a problem, but when they go to the second one it crashes with pretty regular consistency.  The configuration is with the latest version of Reader installed and set as default,  with DC setup only to be used when a pdf needs to be edited.  If DC is the only adobe software installed the crashes still happen, but if it is just reader then they stop.  My thought is that SAP GUI must be reaching out to DC somehow using that dll and it's not liking something there.

[Brandon5FB9]

We have attempted multiple options to make sure that the ntdll.dll file is not corrupted, and even replaced it outright from another laptop that had just been imaged with no luck.

[Brandon5FB9]

also it is just a straight up crash, all of the SAP windows close down, with no error appearing.

[Test Screen Name]

From what you describe, I'd say you have to get progress from this with SAP. Adobe aren't even going to own the SAP software even if they wanted to test it. Basically, the owner of the app that crashes needs to diagnose the issue, even if the diagnosis eventually finds another app is at fault. SAP might be generating previews of PDFs, or trying to open or print them - I wouldn't expect any more integration than that. And preview generation by outside apps is certainly not supported. 

SAP's answer does not seem helpful. The fact that there is nothing in their trace logs doesn't stop their app from crashing. I think you need to escalate this. They may need to collect crash dumps from you; trace logs don't much help with crashes.

[Amal.]

Hi Brandon,

Hope you are doing well  and sorry for the trouble. As described, you are experiencing crash on SAP GUI 7.5 and 7.6 with the latest patches.

Would you mind sharing the version of the Adobe Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version of the application please go to Help > About Acrobat

Also, for testing purpose, please try to turn off the protected mode (Windows Only). Go to Edit > Preferences > Enhanced Security > Uncheck 'Enable protected mode at start up', Turn off the Protected mode and uncheck enhanced security > Click OK and reboot the computer.

Note: Turning off the protected mode may possess security risks. Please turn on the security after testing.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards

Amal

[Brandon5FB9]

Hi Amal,

Version is 2020.013.20064

We have attempted it with Protected mode and enhanced security turned off with the same results.

Also Test Screen Name we have an open ticket with SAP to have them work this from their side also.  I am waiting for a response from them now, they are looking into options other than the trace logs.  I'll try to keep everyone here updated as well on what they have me do/what I find out.

Thanks,

Brandon

[clairec75416908]

Hi,

We're having the same problem. Adobe Pro Version 2020.013.20064 installed and it causes SAP to crash every few times you go to open a PDF preview within the application.

I found that if I put Adobe pro back to a previous version then SAP stops crashing.

I've also attempted turning off protected mode and enhanced security and found that it still crashes.

If anyone does find the magic answer I'd really love to know!

Thanks,

Claire

[ls_rbls]

You need to check the Preferences settings that were configured in the prior version that you rolled back to, and see if you you get the same error when you set these preferences exactly the same way in the newer version.

My guess is that, wherever these PDFs that you're trying to view in Acrobat or Reader reside, or better said, whereare  they served from to the clients (like for example,  a mapped network drive or from a server), maybe enabling or disabling "Allow Fast Web View" and "Allow Speculative Downloading In The Background" has something to do with this behavior.

I say this because when you linearize a PDF (with fast web view) and the file is also byte-served from a server (streamed byte by byte from a server to a PC) the Acrobat Reader or Acrobat will display one page at atime while the rest of the file is downloading in the background.

This feature is supposed to allow the user to view the file and navigate through the pages of that document as it downloads in the background and even display other pages before it is fully downloaded.

However, if you try to commit any editing changes (like filling the form, sharing, printing)  while this background download is in progress it will get interrupted, thus having the side effects of what appears to be a crash (I may be wrong though, but it makes a lot of sense in my humble opinion).

In addition, if you can confirm if disabling or enabling other settings, like opening a PDF outisde the web browser or in a web browser,  would do any difference:

 https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/opening-pdfs.html

[Brandon5FB9]

Amal, we have attempted every possible fix that has been proposed in this thread so far with no luck.  The same issue continues to rear it's head.  Based on the responses in here so far it appears that a patch a few weeks ago maybe brought back the old issue that adobe and SAP had back in 2018 I think it was, or caused something very similar.

Either way, this needs to get resolved asap or we are going to be switching away from adobe over to Foxit.  we have tested their pro version and it works flawlessly so far, with even fewer button clicks in some of our user processes.

Thanks,

Brandon

[ninad_apsingekar]

Hi Experts ,

We are also facing the same issue with SAPGUI 7.4 PL 8. We also tried upgrading to SAPGUI version 7.5 PL 15 and 7.6 PL08 as well but we got the same result. We are on Adobe Pro Version 2020.013.20064. It all started around beginning of November. I uninstall Adobe pro and just keep Reader crashing stops or if we leave Adobe pro installed and also install Reader with the same patch level as Pro, crashing stops . I put Adobe pro back to a previous version (August) then SAP stops crashing. Any solution/suggestion would be great!

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

When you say : "We have tested with multiple windows patch levels, SAP GUI versions, and patches, and the results are pretty consistent."

Where these machines all cloned from a disk image?

If yes, please review : SAP Frontend Installation Guide - Hardware and Software Installation Requirements 

Are these computers using SAP Business Client? Also check where it says : Configuring Local Security Handlig if you're using local security handling.

Does that mean that you installed different (older? newer?) versions of SAP GUI?  In which versions of MS Windows is this hapening?

If yes, are these other versions than 7.50 and 7.60 older than 7.40 ?

If you've migrated to 7.60, were the old configuration files created from scratch or migrated with the old configuration format ? Also were the migration of the configuration files deployed with the SAP GUI using SAP UI Landscape configuration format?

It is possible that the PDF files that are misbehaving and crashing in Acrobat could be in the old file format. 

See here: SAP Frontend Installation Guide - Page 10 , Section 2.2- Configuration Scenarios 

Specifically this part: 

 Note
After file migration, you can only work on the files in the new format

See this other Note:

De-support for saplogon.ini and related configuration files
As of SAP GUI for Windows 7.60, the old configuration format for SAP Logon entries (saplogon.ini,
sapmsg.ini, saproute.ini) is no longer supported by SAP GUI for Windows. SAP GUI for Windows can still
handle this old format for compatibility reasons, because there may be external applications needing this
old format, but using SAP GUI for Windows 7.60 with the old format is not supported. SAP will neither test
this format nor correct issues affecting it. Therefore, all installations of SAP GUI for Windows 7.60 and
newer must use SAP UI Landscape (available since SAP GUI for Windows 7.40). 

Also, you mentioned about  "ntdll.dll", when you inspect the crash log or trace logs what is the "Faulting Application Name" , is it Acrobat? Reader? something else?  And what is the "Faulting application path"

Please provide if it happened in this path:

C:\Program Files\Faulting Application\MyFaultingApplication.exe

I don't think the issue is due to a corrupt .dll of the WINNT OS kernel but rather an incorrect module registration after an update took place in those machies or something similar. To re-register a module(.dll) check this additional reading : 

• https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-fix-ntdll-dll-errors-2624474

To be on the safe side, are all the Visual Studio and C++ redistributables also updated to reflect their current version(s)?   

See here:

•  https://blogs.sap.com/2013/04/17/fixing-the-windows-side-by-side-configuration-is-incorrect-error-sa...

And also check this blog:

•  https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/en/2035293

Specially this NOTE:

SAP GUI 7.50:

On 31st of March 2020 support for SAP GUI for Windows 7.50 will end (see also SAP Note 147519). Existing patches will remain to be available in SAP Support Portal for a while,
but as of April 2020, no further corrections (not even security related ones) will be provided for release 7.50. Furthermore, we will not process incidents which relate to issues that only
occur in SAP GUI for Windows 7.50 or an older release.

Going back to the .dll issue, just remember, to re-register a .dll  to use these steps:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/844592/how-to-register-a-dll-file

If you perform this action from the command prompt (you may need to open the command prompt as Admin) make sure that you run REGSVR32.EXE in the directory path where the .dll is located (not from anywhere else).

Sorry about my long reply... I just wanted to throw in the mix some other avenues of approach. 

[dalea72953627]

We are seeing the same issue as well with 2020.013.20064. SAP GUI version 7.60PL2. When we backrev adobe to 2020.012.20048 is works just fine again.  Below is the event log when it crashes. Looks like it is the AcroPDFImpl.dll that is dumping.

Faulting application name: saplogon.exe, version: 7600.1.2.1156, time stamp: 0x5d3e2ccb

Faulting module name: AcroPDFImpl.dll_unloaded, version: 20.13.20064.12623, time stamp: 0x5f91f8a9

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000447ab

Faulting process id: 0x1c2c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d6b8fd018817a2

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe

Faulting module path: AcroPDFImpl.dll

Report Id: 3315dad4-6e9f-4d83-ba5a-3c1f852af351

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

[dalea72953627]

We are seeing the same issue as well with 2020.013.20064. SAP GUI version 7.60PL2. When we backrev Adobe to 2020.012.20048 is works just fine again.  Below is the event log when it crashes. Looks like it is the AcroPDFImpl.dll that is dumping.

Faulting application name: saplogon.exe, version: 7600.1.2.1156, time stamp: 0x5d3e2ccb

Faulting module name: AcroPDFImpl.dll_unloaded, version: 20.13.20064.12623, time stamp: 0x5f91f8a9

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000447ab

Faulting process id: 0x1c2c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d6b8fd018817a2

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe

Faulting module path: AcroPDFImpl.dll

Report Id: 3315dad4-6e9f-4d83-ba5a-3c1f852af351

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

[ninad_apsingekar]

We are using UI Landscape configuration format (New) in our 7.40 and when we tried 7.5 and 7.6 as well. We tried these on windows 10 Enterprise edition.

[ls_rbls]

Did you tried re-registering the AcroPDFImpl.dll  module?

[dalea72953627]

Yes, I've tried re-registering the dll, but I get the same dump ...

Faulting application name: saplogon.exe, version: 7600.1.2.1156, time stamp: 0x5d3e2ccb
Faulting module name: AcroPDFImpl.dll_unloaded, version: 20.13.20064.12623, time stamp: 0x5f91f8a9
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000447ab
Faulting process id: 0x4138
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6bc5fbbaa9c63
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe
Faulting module path: AcroPDFImpl.dll
Report Id: 1252ab3f-1efa-46ea-95df-8dff1afe845f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[ls_rbls]

Note the directory paths: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe

"Program Files (x86) is a 32-bit program installation folder. All 32 bit applications, like SPA GIU in this case, will install in this folder.  64 bit programs will install to C:\Program Files\

But the modules are registered differently in a 64-bit operating system..

In a MS Windows 64-bit operating system environment, the systemwide module (.dll) libraries that belong to 32-bit programs and 64-bit program are handled quite differently between the program(s) that calls for it and the operating system that expedites the request.

These .dll libraries are separated into two different folders as well.

These are: 

• C:\Windows\SysWOW64 ( or %systemroot%\SysWoW64) <<<--- 32-bit DLLs go here

• C:\Windows\System32 (or %systemroot%\System32 ) <<<---64-bit DLLs go here

That said, AcroPDFImpl.dll  is a 32-bit module. You should check where exactly are you registering it from.  You can run SFC /scannow  in this path and also spot for pending repairs or other things.

To verify , if  AcroPDFImpl.dll is in the  C:\Windows\System32  directory (or folder), make sure that you move it to C:\Windows\SysWOW64  and run the Regsvr32  command as Administrator with the full path like this:

• %systemroot%\SysWoW64\regsvr32 AcroPDFImpl.dll

See more Microsoft support guidance here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/249873/how-to-use-the-regsvr32-tool-and-troubleshoot-regsvr...

If you've already done this, and the problem persists, I am  out of  ideas. Maybe using DISM to resotre the Windows image health would be my last resort.

[dalea72953627]

The AcroPDFImpl.dll file is located in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX , and yes the 32bit version is the one I re-registered.

We've also saw on one machine, that after backreving DC reader,and then uninstalling standard, the dll was still 2020.013.20064, and by just replacing with the version 2020.012.20048, it problem went away.

[ls_rbls]

If that is the case, that is a very interesting observation. How these dynamic link libraries remain so persistent in those folders even when the source software is removed never seize to amaze me.

It's kind of scary when you think about those malicious users out there that are constantly honing their skills in the art of exploitation.

That means, that from now on, as a good rule of thumb  you're gonna need a better file system checker than the built-in file system checker of MS Windows. I don't know... maybe there are good freeware tools out there that can check for orphan DLLs or duplicates,  and  also compare their creation dates and file size... may be even traceback the software that installed them to begin with.

That said, I am not sure if the Acrobat Cleaner and Repair tool takes care of this to the full extent of removing old traces of the source software, specially if the computer where it is run had two different versions of Acrobat or Reader, or worst case, two different licensing tracks of the software in the same computer I hiope this makes any sense..

[AnandSri]

Hi!

We're sorry for the trouble you had. For further investigation purposes, we need some information/logs from the affected machines so that we identify the root cause.

I have shared the steps/information of collecting specific logs and dumps in a private message, please check the private message inbox of your community profile, and share the information in the same private message only.

Thank you all for your patience and for your cooperation on this.

Regards,

Anand Sri.