An unexpected exception occurs and VM crashes during serialization/deserialization of JFileChooser.

This occurs on Win98 SE, Win2000 Prof. and WinXP.

On Win2000 Prof. i noticed that this problem started with Merlin B75.

This test was done using one of Swing test tool "BugBear". This tool is located at:
/net/sqesvr/export/jfc/jfc_ws/BAT_Suite/BugBear

To Run this tool:
1) Copy the tool to say c:\BugBear
2) Set JAVA_HOME=location of latest jdk (b77).
   eg set JAVA_HOME=c:\jdk1.4
3) Goto BugBear folder ie c:\BugBear and give the command
   sh runnit.sh

The test will start executing and a progressbar will come. When the test is at 87% completion and trying to serialize/deserialize javax.swing.JFileChooser, an Unexpected exception occurs and the VM crashes.
No log file is generated.
On Win98 this failure is consistet whereas on Win2000, sometimes the test passes.

For Win2000 Prof. the following exception occured on the console:

****************
Another exception has been detected while we were handling last error.
Dumping information about last error:
ERROR REPORT FILE = (N/A)
PC = 0x6D08D20D
SIGNAL = -1073741819
FUNCTION NAME = (N/A)
OFFSET = 0xFFFFFFFF
LIBRARY NAME = (N/A)
Please check ERROR REPORT FILE for further information, if there is any.
Good bye.


Whereas in the case of Win98 SE, the exception which came on console was:


An unexpected exception has been detected in native code outside the VM.
Unexpected Signal : EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION occurred at PC=0x5105D2
Function=[Unknown.]
Library=(N/A)

NOTE: We are unable to locate the function name symbol for the error
      just occurred. Please refer to release documentation for possible
      reason and solutions.


Current Java thread:
        at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder.releaseIShellFolder(Native Method)
        at sun.awt.shell.Win32ShellFolder.finalize(Win32ShellFolder.java:222)
        at java.lang.ref.Finalizer.invokeFinalizeMethod(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ref.Finalizer.runFinalizer(Finalizer.java:86)
        at java.lang.ref.Finalizer.access$100(Finalizer.java:17)
        at java.lang.ref.Finalizer$FinalizerThread.run(Finalizer.java:163)

Dynamic libraries:
0x7CC00000 - 0x7CC1D000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IMAGEHLP.DLL

Local Time = Fri Aug 24 16:39:58 2001
Elapsed Time = 46
#
# The exception above was detected in native code outside the VM
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.4.0-beta2-b77 mixed mode)
#
# An error report file has been saved as hs_err_pid4294819989.log.
# Please refer to the file for further information.
#


%java -version
java version "1.4.0-beta2"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-beta2-b77)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.0-beta2-b77, mixed mode)


###@###.### 2001-08-24

=============================================================================
Additional Info:

On Win2K Prof. with b76, sometimes the following exception occurs on the console before the VM crash:

test target: e:\jdkbuild\beta2\b76\binaries\win/jre/lib/rt.jar
Loading classes, please wait...
test begin...
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalFileChooserUI.setFileSelected(MetalFileC
ooserUI.java:1249)
        at javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalFileChooserUI$DelayedSelectionUpdater.ru
(MetalFileChooserUI.java:897)
        at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:176)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:446)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(EventDispatchT
read.java:193)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThr
ad.java:147)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:141

        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:133

        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:101)

****************
Another exception has been detected while we were handling last error.
Dumping information about last error:
ERROR REPORT FILE = (N/A)
PC = 0x77FCA111
SIGNAL = -1073741819
FUNCTION NAME = (N/A)
OFFSET = 0xFFFFFFFF
LIBRARY NAME = (N/A)
Please check ERROR REPORT FILE for further information, if there is any.
Good bye.
C:\BugBear\utils\GNUMake\win\gnumake: *** [run] Error 1

###@###.### 2001-08-27