Data Execution Protection and CHM?

[vinceg5]

Has anyone else had trouble with CHMs being shut down by XP's Data Execution Protection program? We have XP Service Pack 2 on several machines, and it's never happened before. I just got a new machine with XP SP2 and it won't run a CHM. I had to go into the DEP window (under Control Panel - System - etc.,) to specifically tell DEP to run CHMs.

That's fine for me, but what about clients and partners who try to run the CHM?

Any ideas?

[johnmccallum]

Is it just a particular CHM that won't run? I would be suspicious of the scripts in this CHM. Do you do anything like look for installed programs, create annotations, etc? As I understand it, DEP only kicks in when a program uses system memory inappropriately. I have never had it shut down anything.

John

[vinceg5]

Thanks for the reply. It has happened to two CHMs -- one compiled on my new XP machine, and one that was compiled on my old Windows 2000 machine. The files only fail to run on my Windows XP machine -- the two CHMs run fine on other Windows XP machines.

For one CHM, it isn't actually the DEP that stops the CHM from running -- it's just the browser saying that it can't find (or execute) hh.exe. Here's the error message:

---------------------------
hh.exe - Application Error
---------------------------
The instruction at "0x4080ded1" referenced memory at "0x4080ded1". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


For the other CHM, it's definitely the DEP that doesn't want to run hhlauncher.exe -- but it takes at least a few minutes of browsing in the CHM before DEP shuts it down. And as I say, DEP doesn't shut it down at all on other machines -- just mine.

This is the first time I've had these problems. We're not using a new version of RoboHelp, and no one here has this problem.

Any other suggestions?

[vinceg5]

I found the problem for one of the CHMs -- the one that produces the error message I quoted in post 3. One topic in the CHM didn't call the ehlpdhtm.js script. Once I added the call to the file's HTML code, all was well. As for the CHM that triggers the DEP, I haven't found the problem yet, but I'm sure it's in the same area. As johnmccallum noted, and as the DEP message states, files are shut down when there's something fishy going on with scripts/system memory.

[Amebr-ke0mH4]

Some further information that might be relevent...

I've come across issues with the CHM file closing, and the Preview function in RH crashing the program , with PCs with the following setup:

1. Windows XP (sp2 and fully patched, I think)
2. IE7
3. PC supports hardware DEP. (Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Data Execution Prevention. PCs that don't support hardware DEP have a message under the Add/Remove buttons. Those that support it have a blank space.)

I solved the problem of the viewer crashing by going into the Data Execution Prevention tab, selecting Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select, and adding hhlauncher.exe and robohtml.exe. Both had to be added and ticked; either one by itself and the crashing still occurred.

I'm still working on the CHM file shutting itself, however. I'll post back if I manage to fix that.