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From: jls@hsv3.UUCP (James Seidman)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: This app has violated system integrity...
Message-ID: <6665@hsv3.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 91 22:56:14 GMT
References: <1991Jan16.143721.7586@netnews.whoi.edu>
Reply-To: jls@hsv3.UUCP (James Seidman)
Organization: Video Seven / Headland Technology
Lines: 40

In article <1991Jan16.143721.7586@netnews.whoi.edu> weiman@jargon.whoi.edu (Bob Weiman) writes:
>About once a day I get one of those Windows
>messages "This application has violated system
>integrity..." from one of my DOS windows.  This
>forces me to close all of my DOS windows, exit
>Windows, and reboot my machine.  
>
>1) Does anyone know what this message really means?
>2) What causes this problem?

It usually means that a VM (VM = "virtual machine", the state your
computer is in when running a DOS app inside Windows) has suffered
stack overflow, executed an illegal instruction, or the like.  It
generally happens at the same time that your computer would hang if
you were not in Windows.

>I have found that this sometimes happens when I have
>several DOS windows open on my machine and it has
>been sitting inactive for some time.  I then click
>on one of the DOS window and as soon as I begin 
>to type, I get the system error message.

It sounds like you are using a TSR which is getting screwed up.
Command-line editing TSRs are especially notorious.  Windows tries to
save space by having the DOS sessions share the areas used by TSRs.
Then when one session's TSR updates its memory, the other sessions'
TSRs get screwed up.

If this is your problem, one solution is to switch to something
designed to work correctly in multitasking environments like 4DOS.
Another is to get a memory manager like 386Max from Qualitas which
will automatically do "instancing," which means making a separate copy
of the TSR for each DOS session.  A third is to run the TSR after you
start each DOS session, rather than before you load windows.

-- 
Jim Seidman (Drax), the accidental engineer.
"It doesn't have to work... they'll be paralyzed just from laughing at me."
							- Dr. Who, _Shada_
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