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You are running a Microsoft .NET 2.0 Windows Forms application that contains an ActiveX control on a computer with Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework Service Pack 1 installed.
You receive the following unhandled exception and call stack.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
    at System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.OleInterfaces.AttemptStopEvents(Object trash)
    at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.WaitCallback_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
    at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallbackInternal(_ThreadPoolWaitCallback tpWaitCallBack)
   at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback(Object state)
This is due to a bug in .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1.
During a garbage collection of a Windows Form containing ActiveX controls, the Finalizer for the System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.OleInterfaces type executes. This calls the System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.OleInterfaces.AttemptStopEvents method to release COM connection points for ActiveX controls. The AttemptStopEvents method references an internal member without checking if it is null (Nothing). In some cases, this member may be null, and results in the System.NullReferenceException.
You can work around this problem by adding code to the FormClosing event handler of the Windows Form to suppress finalization of the System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.OleInterfaces type. The following sample code demonstrates how to do this. In the following sample code, MyActiveXControl represents the name of an ActiveX control sited on the Windows Form.
C# Sample Code
=============
private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
  if (MyActiveXControl != null)
     {
        System.Reflection.FieldInfo fi = typeof(System.Windows.Forms.AxHost).GetField("oleSite",
               System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        object o = fi.GetValue(MyActiveXControl);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(o);
      }
}
Visual Basic .NET Sample Code
========================
Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Form1.FormClosing
  If Not IsNothing(MyActiveXControl) Then
     Dim fi As System.Reflection.FieldInfo
      Dim o As Object
      fi = GetType(System.Windows.Forms.AxHost).GetField("oleSite", _
            System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance Or System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic)
      o = fi.GetValue(MyActiveXControl)
      GC.SuppressFinalize(o)
  End If
End Sub
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