Caffe build failed on windows with "protoc.exe" 0xC000007b

[Ming Xu]

Hi guys,

I need help from this caffe group, this issue blocked me over 1 week.  I googled many methods, all failed, below are my steps to build caffe on windows:

environment: win7 x64, python2.7/3.6(x64) both installed

1. follow the instructions from : https://github.com/BVLC/caffe/tree/windows

    git clone https://github.com/BVLC/caffe.git

    cd caffe

    git checkout windows

2. Modify scripts\build_win.cmd file

    set MSVC_VERSION=14

    set WITH_NINJA=0

    set PYTHON_VERSION=2

3. run command "scripts\build_win.cmd", then show "configure done", 

I noticed "libraries_v140_x64_py27_1.1.0.tar.bz2" was downloaded successfully in folder "C:\Users\xuming\.caffe\dependencies\download", and extract okay.

but the following message show "protoc.exe" application error, below is the screenshot:

4. Found "protoc.exe" file in folder "C:\Users\xuming\.caffe\dependencies\libraries_v140_x64_py27_1.1.0\libraries\bin"

double click this file, same issue happened:

5. I guess this may x64, x86 compatible issue or windows dll file lost/damaged.

try execute windows command  "SFC /SCANNOW" not found any damaged dll files.

Microsoft  .NET framework and VC++ Redistributable are installed.

I really don't know how to fix that, please help me.

Thanks ahead.

[RenYu Zhang]

I had exactly the same issue, I replaced protoc.exe with my own built version, then it works just fine