I just verified that this has nothing to do with VAX, but since the users of this forum have great knowledge of VS problems, I'll give it a shot.
Windows XP SP2, VS 2003 + VS 2005 SP1 + VS 2008 (installed in that order). The problem is present in all VS versions.
If I get an ASSERT when debugging, the IDE hangs for exactly 25 seconds, with 0% CPU usage! The same happens when I enter a function which takes CStrings (or any other complex type) as arguments:
CString str;
foo(str); // F11 causes the IDE to hang! (char* operator inside MFC DLL...?)
It seems I get these lockups when I debug into "other's code", such as MFC. Clicking in the "Call Stack" also yields these tiresome lockups. Crazy!
Any ideas? I'm getting desperate here! We have found this weird behavior on two machines, and there is no pattern of running processes and/or Windows services (no Antivirus). The only thing in common is that VS 2008 Pro was installed and uninstalled, and then VS 2008 Developer was installed. Of course this did not cause any problems on a third machine...
Any help is greatly appreciated!