Integer divide by zero exception (0xC0000094) may occur in a Silverlight 5 application that's running in VMware

This article helps you resolve the problem where a Silverlight application that runs in a VMware environment crashes with a divide by zero exception (0xC0000094) when you enable client HTTP handling in it.

Original product version:   Silverlight 5
Original KB number:   2756614

Symptoms

With Silverlight, you can specify whether the browser or the client provides HTTP handling for your applications. HTTP handling is performed by the browser by default, and you must opt in to client HTTP handling. When you enable client HTTP handling in your Silverlight application that is running in a VMware environment, your application may crash with an unhandled divide by zero exception (0xC0000094). You may see an Application Event log like the following one:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Description: Faulting application name: IEXPLORE.EXE, version: 8.0.7600.16930, time stamp: 0x4eeae23b
Faulting module name: npctrl.dll, version: 5.1.10411.0, time stamp: 0x4f851e71
Exception code: 0xc0000094
Fault offset: 0x0001d700
Faulting process id: 0x5f0
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE
Faulting module path: c:\Program Files\Microsoft Silverlight\5.1.10411.0\npctrl.dll

Cause

When downloading a network resource using a client HTTP Stack, Silverlight tries to calculate the download speeds to adjust the buffer size. When running under VMware, the time difference between start time and end time for a network operation is zero, causing a divide by zero exception.

Resolution

This issue has been fixed in later versions of Silverlight.

More information

This problem applies to Silverlight 5 versions less than 5.1.20125.0. The issue is more prevalent in Out Of Browser (OOB) Silverlight Apps, which don't have access to the Browser Network stack.