Interesting reading, it did help me.

Number: 666 03/04/98  "Crash-prevention programs" falsely report multiple GPF's and destroy files, or prevent multipage printing or check-number updating.

Programs:  All versions of VersaCheck PRO, VersaCheck Personal, WordFill; possibly VersaCheck for Word, SmartCheck 4000 and MergeServer (many other companies' programs as well)

Description:  When VC PRO, VC Personal, WordFill or SmartCheck 4000 (or sometimes their installation programs) are run with Cybermedia First Aid, McAfee Crash Monitor, Norton Crashguard, CrashProof or other so-called "crash prevention" utilities operating, those programs (which claim to detect and prevent operating errors in advance) report many nonexistent GPF's allegedly "caused" by the programs' executable files and claim detection of numerous "fatal errors." The messages "Error #1016 - Database Error!" when saving account data, or the similar Error #1019, also have been traced to these programs.

The most recent report was on a machine running NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 and a VC PRO 2.0.39 update installed 3/3. Mr. Durgens reports that the program would not print more than one page of checks, after 10 were requested, and the check number was never updated (check numbers 100, 101, 102 printed again and again.) No error messages displayed. As usual, disabling the crash program removed all problems.

Since our programs seem to run perfectly for hundreds of thousands of users (with no GPF's) in the absence of First Aid, Crashguard, Crash Monitor etc., we believe a flaw in their "advance-detection" feature is misinterpreting legitimate 16-bit internal program operations as GPF's. (Both VC Personal and VC PRO were initially developed and tested on NT4 machines, so the use of NT4 is unlikely to be significant.)

WARNING:  We have confirmed that if VC PRO, WordFill or VC Personal are started with First Aid running, First Aid will destroy important operating files, effectively destroying the installation! We have not yet documented this behavior with Crashguard or other programs of the type, but it remains a possibility.

Workaround:  Disable or remove First Aid, Crashguard, Crash Monitor etc., then reinstall VersaCheck. (Note that some versions of Norton Utilities install Crashguard by default, so you may not know that you have it resident. The same is true of several other utility packages that include alleged crash protectors, or machines bundled with them.) If the problem disappears (likely, since it has done so in every reported case) you will have to turn off or remove your crash programs before using VersaCheck, or (better) cease using those programs. Since we have no access to their source code, we cannot offer a fix to prevent First Aid, Crashguard, Crash Monitor etc. from producing the errors. Perhaps more recent versions have (or will have) improved detection to eliminate the problem; contact their makers for more data. To their credit, Symantec has called us and other developers for assistance in eliminating these errors in Crashguard; we have heard nothing from the other offenders, though incredibly we have a report that Cybermedia has claimed to a client that our programs (which run perfectly when theirs are turned off) are the source of the problem.

Resolution:  N/A (problem apparently caused by defects in First Aid and Crashguard programs.) We cannot provide technical support for the operation of any of our programs with First Aid, Crashguard etc. active.

Special Note 1:  Similar problems may be encountered if the Microsoft Windows 98 beta has ever been installed, even if it was later removed; the Win98 beta is known to damage critical system files, and to leave behind bugs and damaged or defective files even when its own uninstaller is used. The only cure seems to be deleting and reinstalling Windows 95 itself, and probably all programs installed into it (reformatting the hard drive also may be a good idea.) We do not know yet if all "final" Win98 versions will contain such bugs (some undocumented variations apparently do.)

Special Note 2:  First Aid's noxious effects appear particularly dangerous in conjunction with WordFill or other Word add-on programs. With WordFill, even Microsoft Word files may be damaged by First Aid, requiring Word itself to be reinstalled!

Special Note 3:  The latest offender is another alleged crash-prevention program called "Crash-Proof." Various error messages were received with it running, but they all vanished (and VC operated normally) when Crash-Proof was disabled. McAfee Crash Monitor also has been observed recently to produce false GPF messages that vanished when it was disabled, and some McAfee packages are bundling the deadly First Aid 98! Any utility with the word "Crash" in its title or description should be considered suspect. Apparently the state of the programming art does not yet allow what these programs are trying to accomplish, or Windows does not.

Special Note 4:  Apparently recognizing the fatal flaws in these alleged crash-protection programs, Microsoft has recently cautioned against their use with Windows 95 and 98 (singling out First Aid 98 for particular recognition, since it has been reported to destroy not only program files, but basic system files as well.)

Submitted by:  Dave Eberhardt, Technical Department; Mr. Dennis P. Leong; Mr. Elray Durgens; several others

This document is from the tech-support Web site, [http://www.mipsdla.com/techsupport].