Article ID: 326219 - Last Review: May 20, 2003 - Revision: 3.0

PRB: System.Arithmetic Exception Error When You Change the Floating-Point Control Register in a Managed Application

Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
View products that this article applies to.
System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.
This article was previously published under Q326219

On This Page

Expand all | Collapse all

SYMPTOMS

When you change the floating-point control register in managed applications, you may receive exception error messages such as the following in the Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.ArithmeticException' occurred in system.windows.forms.dll
Additional information: Overflow or underflow in the arithmetic operation.
Back to the top

CAUSE

The common language runtime and the .NET Framework assume that the floating-point control register is set to the default state.
Back to the top

RESOLUTION

If a managed application calls into unmanaged code that must modify the floating-point control register, the unmanaged code must return the floating-point register to its default state before it returns program control to the managed application.

For example, if you use an Intel system, you can use the following statement before you return program control to the managed application to reset the floating-point control register: 
	_controlfp(_CW_DEFAULT, 0xfffff);
      //See the "Steps to Reproduce the Behavior" section of this article.
Back to the top

STATUS

This behavior is by design.
Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

  1. Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
  2. On the File menu, click New, and then click Project.
  3. In the New Project dialog box, click either Visual Basic Projects or Visual C# Projects under Project Types, and then click Windows Application under Templates. By default, Form1 is created.
  4. Open the .cs or .vb file to see the code for the Form1.Main function.
  5. Change the Form1.Main function from
    
   [STAThread]
   static void Main() 
   {
        Application.Run(new Form1());
   }
    to 
    
  [DllImport("msvcr70.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
      public static extern int _controlfp(int n, int mask);

					
    
   [STAThread]
   static void Main() 
   {
        const int _EM_OVERFLOW = 0x00000004;
        const int _MCW_EM = 0x0008001F;
        _controlfp(_EM_OVERFLOW, _MCW_EM);
        Application.Run(new Form1());
   }
  6. Build and run the project.
Back to the top
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Common Language Runtime (included with the .NET Framework) 1.0
Back to the top
Keywords: 
kbprb kbnofix KB326219
Back to the top
Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
Back to the top