I have a DLL that I'm testing, which links to a DLL that has what I think is an invalid value for AssemblyCulture. The value is "Neutral" (notice the upper-case "N"), whereas the DLL I'm testing, and every other DLL in my project, has a value of "neutral" (because they specify AssemblyCulture("")).

When I try to deploy the DLL that links to the problem DLL, I get this error in VSTS:

Failed to queue test run '...': Culture is not supported.
Parameter name: name
Neutral is an invalid culture identifier.

<Exception>System.Globalization.CultureNotFoundException: Culture is not supported. Parameter name: name
Neutral is an invalid culture identifier.
   at System.Globalization.CultureInfo..ctor(String name, Boolean useUserOverride)
   at System.Globalization.CultureInfo..ctor(String name)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.GetReferencedAssemblies(RuntimeAssembly assembly)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.GetReferencedAssemblies()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.Utility.AssemblyLoadWorker.ProcessChildren(Assembly assembly)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.Utility.AssemblyLoadWorker.GetDependentAssemblies(String path)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.Utility.AssemblyLoadWorker.GetDependentAssemblies(String path)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.Utility.AssemblyLoadStrategy.GetDependentAssemblies(String path)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.Utility.AssemblyHelper.GetDependentAssemblies(String path, DependentAssemblyOptions options, String configFile)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.DeploymentManager.GetDependencies(String master, String configFile, TestRunConfiguration runConfig, DeploymentItemOrigin dependencyOrigin, List`1 dependencyDeploymentItems, Dictionary`2 missingDependentAssemblies)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.DeploymentManager.DoDeployment(TestRun run, FileCopyService fileCopyService)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.ControllerProxy.SetupTestRun(TestRun run, Boolean isNewTestRun, FileCopyService fileCopyService, DeploymentManager deploymentManager)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.ControllerProxy.SetupRunAndListener(TestRun run, FileCopyService fileCopyService, DeploymentManager deploymentManager)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.ControllerProxy.QueueTestRunWorker(Object state)</Exception>

Even if I don't link to the DLL (in my VSTS wrapper test, or in the NUnit test), as soon as I add it in my GenericTest file (I'm wrapping NUnit tests), I get that exception.

We don't have the source for the problem DLL, and it is also code signed, so I can't solve this by recompiling.

Is there a way to skip deploying the dependencies of a DLL DeploymentItem, to fix or disable the culture check, or to work around this by convoluted means (maybe somehow embed the assembly)? Is there a way to override the value for the culture, short of hacking the DLL (and removing code signing so the hack works)? Maybe with an external manifest?

Any correct solution must work without weird changes to production code. We can't deploy a hacked DLL, for example. It also must allow the DLL to be instrumented for code coverage.

Additional note: I do get a linker warning when compiling the DLL under test that links to the problem DLL, but this hasn't broken anything but VSTS, and multiple versions have shipped.