0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x005EF9E4

I am having issues with Handles. I have Bytebeat (music in bytes) playing inside of a DWORD WINAPI function. When I try to terminate and close the thread, it straight up gives me the error in the title. This is my code:

#include <windows.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "Winmm.lib")

DWORD WINAPI bytebeat1(LPVOID) {
    while (1) {
        HWAVEOUT hwo = 0;
        WAVEFORMATEX wfx = { WAVE_FORMAT_PCM, 1, 11000, 11000, 1, 8, 0 };
        waveOutOpen(&hwo, WAVE_MAPPER, &wfx, 0, 0, CALLBACK_NULL);

        char buffer[11000 * 6];

        for (DWORD t = 0; t < sizeof(buffer); t++)
            buffer[t] = static_cast<char>(t & t + t / 256) - t * (t >> 15) & 64;

        WAVEHDR hdr = { buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
        waveOutPrepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutWrite(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutUnprepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutClose(hwo);
        Sleep(6000);
    }
}

DWORD WINAPI bytebeat2(LPVOID) {
    while (1) {
        HWAVEOUT hwo = 0;
        WAVEFORMATEX wfx = { WAVE_FORMAT_PCM, 1, 8000, 8000, 1, 8, 0 };
        waveOutOpen(&hwo, WAVE_MAPPER, &wfx, 0, 0, CALLBACK_NULL);

        char buffer[8000 * 6];

        for (DWORD t = 0; t < sizeof(buffer); t++)
            buffer[t] = static_cast<char>(t, t / 5) >> t / 25 & t / 55 ^ t & 255 ^ (t / 150) ^ 2508025 * 24240835810 & (t / 100) * t / 6000 ^ 5000 * t / 2500 ^ 25 * t / 24;

        WAVEHDR hdr = { buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
        waveOutPrepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutWrite(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutUnprepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutClose(hwo);
        Sleep(6000);
    }
}

int main() {
    HANDLE beat1 = CreateThread(0, 0, bytebeat1, 0, 0, 0);
    Sleep(6000);
    TerminateThread(beat1, 0); CloseHandle(beat1);
    Sleep(1000);
    HANDLE beat2 = CreateThread(0, 0, bytebeat2, 0, 0, 0);
    Sleep(6000);
    TerminateThread(beat2, 0); CloseHandle(beat2);
}

I do not know why this is happening. The only fix is compiling it with G++ but I want it so I could just build it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

>Solution :

When you call TerminateThread, you are basically force-crashing your threads. They still have their own stack allocated and handles to Windows resources. They aren’t cleaned up properly, causing your crash.

Here’s a simple example of how to close your threads without any error. In a real-world scenario this is an unprofessional solution, but it shows the bare minimum that you need to do.

#include <windows.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "Winmm.lib")

volatile bool quit1 = false;
volatile bool quit2 = false;

DWORD WINAPI bytebeat1(LPVOID) {
    while (!quit1) {
        HWAVEOUT hwo = 0;
        WAVEFORMATEX wfx = { WAVE_FORMAT_PCM, 1, 11000, 11000, 1, 8, 0 };
        waveOutOpen(&hwo, WAVE_MAPPER, &wfx, 0, 0, CALLBACK_NULL);

        char buffer[11000 * 6];

        for (DWORD t = 0; t < sizeof(buffer); t++)
            buffer[t] = static_cast<char>(t & t + t / 256) - t * (t >> 15) & 64;

        WAVEHDR hdr = { buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
        waveOutPrepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutWrite(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutUnprepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutClose(hwo);
        Sleep(6000);
    }

    return 0;
}

DWORD WINAPI bytebeat2(LPVOID) {
    while (!quit2) {
        HWAVEOUT hwo = 0;
        WAVEFORMATEX wfx = { WAVE_FORMAT_PCM, 1, 8000, 8000, 1, 8, 0 };
        waveOutOpen(&hwo, WAVE_MAPPER, &wfx, 0, 0, CALLBACK_NULL);

        char buffer[8000 * 6];

        for (DWORD t = 0; t < sizeof(buffer); t++)
            buffer[t] = static_cast<char>(t, t / 5) >> t / 25 & t / 55 ^ t & 255 ^ (t / 150) ^ 2508025 * 24240835810 & (t / 100) * t / 6000 ^ 5000 * t / 2500 ^ 25 * t / 24;

        WAVEHDR hdr = { buffer, sizeof(buffer), 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
        waveOutPrepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutWrite(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutUnprepareHeader(hwo, &hdr, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
        waveOutClose(hwo);
        Sleep(6000);
    }

    return 0;
}

int main() {
    HANDLE beat1 = CreateThread(0, 0, bytebeat1, 0, 0, 0);
    Sleep(6000);
    quit1 = true;
    WaitForSingleObject(beat1, INFINITE);
    CloseHandle(beat1);
    Sleep(1000);
    HANDLE beat2 = CreateThread(0, 0, bytebeat2, 0, 0, 0);
    Sleep(6000);
    quit2 = true;
    WaitForSingleObject(beat2, INFINITE);
    CloseHandle(beat2);
}