Simple string processing causes crash in alxUpdate-alxUpdateScores()

So, now I see the manifestation of this problem with a simpler reproducible case. Here's the quick 30 seconds from another thread which no one responded to. Earlier this week I made a string system that would print out a sentence one character at time in a speech bubble. I did this by just brute force using subString to return at each update a string that was one character bigger from the master string. yay, I was happy. However, after the system was complete I noticed that randomly the audio system would crash during a speech bubble printing out. I scoured my code for "one off" index errors etc.. but found nothing. Due to time constraints I let the problem go and ditched the cool speech bubble print out.

NOW, it's back..this time with a very simple string display. This time I have a much simple string case that causes alxUpdate to crash on a null iterator. I'm not playing any audio so this just screams pointer overrun to me. I'm hoping if I include a few snippets someone can point me to how torque handles string allocation. Or heck, maybe I'm doing something dumb. I can repro it every time now just by increasing the size of one of my strings. Here goes:

Outside of any function I declare these 10 strings in an array -


$NUM_QUICKTIPS = 10;
$quickTips[0] = "To make your paint strokes more smooth,\nswipe your finger slowly. If you swipe\ntoo fast, you'll get a series of dots\nwhich may not be what you want.\nIn general, slower finger swipes create\nthe best looking lines.";
$quickTips[1] = "Retrace your paint strokes to brighten\nthem. The more paint in an area, the\nmore brightly the paint glows.";
$quickTips[2] = "Don't be afraid to experiement with the\nFX properties under the FX menu. You\ncan get some really strange and cool\nvisuals this way.";
$quickTips[3] = "Slower graphics hardware (e.g. iPhone 3G)\nwill slow down with large paintings.\nWhen this happens, it's better to paint\nslower with your finger.";
$quickTips[4] = "Did you know there are multiple FX paint\nmodes? Try chaser, it's our favorite.\nWhen you paint, the lines will \"chase\"\nyour finger!";
$quickTips[5] = "Jitter paint mode creates random sizes of\npaint FX as you drag your finger.";
$quickTips[6] = "Tintup paint mode cycles the paint FX\nthrough all colors creating a rainbow\ncolor effect.";
$quickTips[7] = "Grow and Shrink paint modes change the\nsize of the FX while you drag\nyour finger.";
$quickTips[8] = "Cooloff mode fades the paint as you drag\nyour finger. Restarting paint strokes by\nlifting your finger and painting again\nrestarts the Cooloff effect.";
$quickTips[9] = "You can change the size of the FX brush.\nIf you make it very small, you can get\na sort of \"connect the dots\" look.";


Cool. Then when the user taps the screen I simple change the text on an t2dTextObject after incrementing my array position. Simply let's the user cycle through the strings. Easy code here -

if (bTipNextHA.getIsPointInObject(%worldPosTouch))
{
playLevelButtonEffect(tipNext);
$currentTip++;
if ($currentTip == $NUM_QUICKTIPS)
$currentTip = 0;
if ($currentTip < 0)
$currentTip = $NUM_QUICKTIPS-1;
$quickTipText.text = $quickTips[$currentTip];
}


Here's the crazy part. This works using the strings above. Now, if I simply make the first string in the array longer by say 40 characters by adding another sentence or something then BOOM I crash. Interestingly though, it crashes AFTER I cycle through and display all the strings. It's on the SECOND go around of displaying the string in index 0 (the one I make bigger) that I get a crash here in alxUpdate->alxUpdateScrores(). The variable "itr" in the code below (from audio.cc" is 0x0 and it dies.

// update the loopers
for(LoopingList::iterator itr = mLoopingList.begin(); itr != mLoopingList.end(); itr++)
{
if(!((*itr)->mHandle & AUDIOHANDLE_INACTIVE_BIT))
continue;


Note, I'm not even playing audio at this time. So, I need to figure out what this is now that it's haunting me a second time. Anyone have any advice on where to start poking in the engine?

-Lynn