Launching aspx SOAP services project in Visual Studio 2013 Causes StackOverflowException

Question

This is a C# web services project in Visual Studio that has existed for a number of years. Today it started throwing an exception upon startup within Visual Studio, but only when the debugger is attached.

The exception is:

System.StackOverflowException was unhandled
Message: An unhandled exception of type 'System.StackOverflowException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

This is Visual Studio 2013 Update 3.

Relevant section of stack trace:

System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonDataContract.WriteJsonValue(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator jsonWriter, object obj, System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContextComplexJson context, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)   Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.InternalSerialize(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, bool isDeclaredType, bool writeXsiType, int declaredTypeID, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle) Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.InternalSerializeReference(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, bool isDeclaredType, bool writeXsiType, int declaredTypeID, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)    Unknown
[Lightweight Function]  
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonDataContract.WriteJsonValue(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator jsonWriter, object obj, System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContextComplexJson context, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)   Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.SerializeAndVerifyType(System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContract dataContract, System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, bool verifyKnownType, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle, System.Type declaredType)    Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContextComplexJson.SerializeWithXsiType(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, System.RuntimeTypeHandle objectTypeHandle, System.Type objectType, int declaredTypeID, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle, System.Type declaredType) Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.InternalSerialize(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, bool isDeclaredType, bool writeXsiType, int declaredTypeID, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle) Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.InternalSerializeReference(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, bool isDeclaredType, bool writeXsiType, int declaredTypeID, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)    Unknown
[Lightweight Function]  
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonClassDataContract.WriteJsonValueCore(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator jsonWriter, object obj, System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContextComplexJson context, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)  Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonDataContract.WriteJsonValue(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator jsonWriter, object obj, System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContextComplexJson context, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)   Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerWriteContext.SerializeWithoutXsiType(System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContract dataContract, System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator xmlWriter, object obj, System.RuntimeTypeHandle declaredTypeHandle)   Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.InternalWriteObjectContent(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator writer, object graph)  Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.InternalWriteObject(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator writer, object graph) Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializer.WriteObjectHandleExceptions(System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlWriterDelegator writer, object graph, System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractResolver dataContractResolver) Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.WriteObject(System.Xml.XmlDictionaryWriter writer, object graph)  Unknown
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll!System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.WriteObject(System.IO.Stream stream, object graph)    Unknown
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Runtime.dll!Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Runtime.Tracing.JsonUtility.Serialize(object data, System.IO.Stream outputStream) Unknown
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Runtime.dll!Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.PageInspector.Runtime.Tracing.RequestDataHttpHandler.System.Web.IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest(System.Web.HttpContext context) Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()  Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep step, ref bool completedSynchronously)  Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication.PipelineStepManager.ResumeSteps(System.Exception error)   Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpApplication.BeginProcessRequestNotification(System.Web.HttpContext context, System.AsyncCallback cb)  Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(System.Web.Hosting.IIS7WorkerRequest wr, System.Web.HttpContext context)    Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.Hosting.PipelineRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationHelper(System.IntPtr rootedObjectsPointer, System.IntPtr nativeRequestContext, System.IntPtr moduleData, int flags) Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.Hosting.PipelineRuntime.ProcessRequestNotification(System.IntPtr rootedObjectsPointer, System.IntPtr nativeRequestContext, System.IntPtr moduleData, int flags)   Unknown
[Native to Managed Transition]  
[Managed to Native Transition]  
System.Web.dll!System.Web.Hosting.PipelineRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationHelper(System.IntPtr rootedObjectsPointer, System.IntPtr nativeRequestContext, System.IntPtr moduleData, int flags) Unknown
System.Web.dll!System.Web.Hosting.PipelineRuntime.ProcessRequestNotification(System.IntPtr rootedObjectsPointer, System.IntPtr nativeRequestContext, System.IntPtr moduleData, int flags)   Unknown
[AppDomain Transition]  

Answer 1

The following entry added to the web.config prevents this problem:

<appSettings>
    <!--  Turn-off VS2013 BrowserLink feature which causes issues when Debugging -->
    <add key="vs:EnableBrowserLink" value="false" />