Vpc32 Error Message

[daspoon]

Win98
What does this mean?

VPC32 caused an exception c06d007eH in module MFC42.DLL at 017f:5f45388b.
Registers:
EAX=0066ee90 CS=017f EIP=5f45388b EFLGS=00000246
EBX=00000000 SS=0187 ESP=0066ee54 EBP=0066ee84
ECX=c1622bf0 DS=0187 ESI=5f49d000 FS=0fc7
EDX=8195747c ES=0187 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8b 45 f8 e9 ca 22 fb ff 6a 08 6a 40 ff 15 e0 b1
Stack dump:
0000000b 008a1488 00000000 00000024 5f49d000 5f4d1cec 5f4aefa8 00000000 000000fd 00000000 00000000 00000485 0066ef5c 5f452ca1 00000010 0066ee60

[GaryRouth]

Well, it could mean a few things:

1) a new program you've installed put a different version of mfc42.dll in the System folder, and your Norton doesn't like it.
2) the "new program" might be either a virus or a trojan that has attempted to disable your Norton Antivirus.
3) some file corruption has occured for some other reason, whether hardware or software, time will tell.

That file is usually associated with Norton AntiVirus, so if you are getting this error and don't run Norton, then you have an interesting situation indeed. That might be a virus/trojan posing as Norton.

What to do?

1) Just to be safe, I recommend a visit to http://housecall.trendmicro.com and running their free online scanner. It can sometimes help to double check things in case your primary antivirus program has been compromised. Let it clean what it finds. Also run an antispyware program, such as AdAware or Search&Destroy (both have free-for-personal-use versions, and are widely available for download - or go directly to http://www.lavasoft.de and/or http://spybot.safer-networking.de)

2) Use System File Checker to restore the original mfc42.dll file from your installation disk (or Win98 .cab files if they are on the hard drive in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs\) Then visit Windows Update & download any Critical Updates that it asks for. [to extract the mfc42.dll using SFC, check the box "extract one file from disk"]

3) If still no luck, uninstall Norton with an uninstall tool from it's website for your version, and then reinstall it.

If none of this helps, let us know & we'll try something else. Best of luck.
. . . Gary