Windows Application doesn't crash when debugging, but crashes otherwise

Question

I have a windows application that calls an external .dll. After a while, there were fatal errors being brought to my attention that had to do with user marshaling. There was a source online that with that particular error I was to change my target to x86 rather than AnyCPU. I did so, and now whenever I let the app run, it will exit debug mode and crash the application. But if I set a break point immediately after the .dll call, and step over each line until I receive control of the application again, it doesn't crash. Is there anything specific that could be causing this? Has does one debug this issue?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Stepping code solving an issue is often a symptom of timing problems in the original code. If an external resource loads asynchronously, it will not show up on the stack of the current thread in the debugger, but will be able to be called. Stepping over code induces a delay in the flow.