A first chance exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll

Question

I'm trying to make a fullscreen screencapture and load it into an pictureBox, but it's giving me this error: A first chance exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll Additional information: Ongeldige parameter.

Code:

    using (Bitmap bmpScreenCapture = new Bitmap(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width,
                                                Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height))
    {
        using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmpScreenCapture))
        {
            g.CopyFromScreen(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.X,
                             Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Y,
                             0, 0,
                             bmpScreenCapture.Size,
                             CopyPixelOperation.SourceCopy);
        }

        pictureBox1.Image = bmpScreenCapture;
    }

Joery.

A first chance exception is not necessarily bad, take a look a [this blog post](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidklinems/archive/2005/07/12/438061.aspx). Does this code of yours actually throw an exception or crash? — Dirk, Mar 08 '14 at 18:23
You may want to rethink the `using` that Disposes the bitmap when it's set as a PictureBox Image. — Joachim Isaksson, Mar 08 '14 at 18:25

Michael Liu · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-08T18:32:41.767

The exception occurs because the using statement disposes of the Bitmap after it's assigned to pictureBox1.Image, so the PictureBox is unable to display the bitmap when it's time to repaint itself:

using (Bitmap bmpScreenCapture = new Bitmap(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width,
                                            Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height))
{
    // ...

    pictureBox1.Image = bmpScreenCapture;
} // <== bmpScreenCapture.Dispose() gets called here.

// Now pictureBox1.Image references an invalid Bitmap.

To fix the problem, keep the Bitmap variable declaration and initializer, but remove the using:

Bitmap bmpScreenCapture = new Bitmap(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width,
                                     Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height);

// ...

pictureBox1.Image = bmpScreenCapture;

You should still make sure the Bitmap gets disposed eventually, but only when you truly don't need it anymore (for example, if you replace pictureBox1.Image by another bitmap later).

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '14 at 18:35

You are disposing the wrong bitmap. You should dispose the old image, the one you replaced, not the one you just created. Failure to do this correctly, other than crashing your program when the image is painted, will eventually bomb your program with this exception when it runs out of memory. As you found out. Fix:

var bmpScreenCapture = new Bitmap(...);
using (var g = Graphics.FromImage(bmpScreenCapture)) {
    g.CopyFromScreen(...);
}
if (pictureBox1.Image != null) pictureBox1.Image.Dispose();      // <=== here!!
pictureBox1.Image = bmpScreenCapture;

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 30 '16 at 12:23

1

You can try it, it will work

  pictureBox1.Image = new Bitmap(sourceBitmap);

answered Jun 30 '16 at 12:23

mesutpiskin

1,771
2
26
30

A first chance exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll

3 Answers3

Linked